Suchergebnisse

The paper is an exploratory study in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices with focus to travel and tourism players in Malawi. Entrepreneurs such as airlines, travel agencies and tour operators in tourism industry serve millions of people worldwide and generate billions of dollars globally and contribute to country's economies. It is expected that tourism and hospitality growth will continue in the coming years. The Malawi tourism sector is one of least developed in the Southern Africa due to its focus on Agriculture especially tobacco for many years. Recently, the sector has received positive acceptance by both public and private sectors due to its positive contributions to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and anti-global tobacco campaigns. From the year 2009, Malawi Government included tourism on the list of twelve priority areas within the priorities. The sector has experienced the growth in transportation services for example; travel agencies, tour operators, car rental companies and airlines coming into the industry. Moreover, there is a rising awareness for tourism firms' actions to be responsible towards the environment and the community in which they operate. It is very important the these firms must align mission statements in a such a way to achieving competitive advantage in utilizing business strategy by taking into considering three key aspects: people, profit and environment. Through practices and actions involved by tourism and hospitality establishments in the sector, serve as examples in the society in which other firms within and outside the tourism industry stands to emulate, thus increasing sustainability practices, improving understanding of the tourism firms role in the environment and thereby minimizing negative social and environmental impacts, and enhancing effective positive tourism firms' impacts in the business operations contexts.

Research Article published by Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism Vol. 8(2), February 2017 ; This study aimed to assess constraints to the success of ecotourism network in Tanzania. Following an intensive survey and literature review, data were collected from members of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) using a semi structured questionnaire and key informant interviews and then analyzed by Chi-square. The findings indicate that the success of ecotourism networks needs a strong regulatory framework, financial and infrastructural support. Explicitly, findings may urge the government to reduce taxes and license fees. Moreover, extra effort is required to ensure availability of direct international flights, all-weather and feeder roads; to avoid unnecessary long routes, trail cycle paths as well as encourage individuals, groups and society at large to open more cultural heritage centers. The study recommends for TATO, government and stakeholders to establish and maintain high quality infrastructure, widen financial access to support ecotourism and further studies on ecotourism networks.

The article deals with the problems of the activities of tour operators in Ukraine in the conditions of state regulation changes. The features of their functioning are determined taking into account the requirements of the regulatory framework for the regulation of tour operators` activities. The dynamics of the development of a network of subjects (entities) of tourism is analyzed. Attention is drawn to the current trends in the development of tour operators and travel agents' activities in Ukraine. The author proposes directions for the revitalization of tour operators` activities in the market of inbound and domestic tourism.

In this article, we investigate two competitive tour operators (TOs) who choose between traditional tourism strategy (strategy T) and green tourism innovation strategy (strategy G). Our article attempts to address the following important issues using evolutionary game models: when would TOs facing environment-friendly tourists adopt the strategy G? How do TOs set product prices under different strategy combinations? How can the government effectively motivate TOs to pursue green tourism? Our research results show that a green tourism innovation pioneer could monopolize the market under certain conditions. Furthermore, when the environmental preference of tourists is sufficiently low, no TOs would adopt the strategy G; when it is moderate, only the TO with cost advantage (stronger TO) would adopt the strategy G; when it is sufficiently high, both TOs would select the strategy G. Our research also demonstrates that the stronger TO implements the strategy G mostly independent of the rival's decisions, but the opposite is true for the TO with cost disadvantage (weaker TO). We further investigate potential government subsidies that can motivate TOs to carry out green tourism simultaneously. Our results suggest that to be more effective, the government first offer the green subsidy to highly competitive tourism locations and/or more innovative TOs.

In this article, we investigate two competitive tour operators (TOs) who choose between traditional tourism strategy (strategy T) and green tourism innovation strategy (strategy G). Our article attempts to address the following important issues using evolutionary game models: when would TOs facing environment-friendly tourists adopt the strategy G? How do TOs set product prices under different strategy combinations? How can the government effectively motivate TOs to pursue green tourism? Our research results show that a green tourism innovation pioneer could monopolize the market under certain conditions. Furthermore, when the environmental preference of tourists is sufficiently low, no TOs would adopt the strategy G; when it is moderate, only the TO with cost advantage (stronger TO) would adopt the strategy G; when it is sufficiently high, both TOs would select the strategy G. Our research also demonstrates that the stronger TO implements the strategy G mostly independent of the rival's decisions, but the opposite is true for the TO with cost disadvantage (weaker TO). We further investigate potential government subsidies that can motivate TOs to carry out green tourism simultaneously. Our results suggest that to be more effective, the government first offer the green subsidy to highly competitive tourism locations and/or more innovative TOs

The literature on sustainable tourism is scant, particularly in the least developed countries. Very few studies touch upon the concept and no holistic theoretical or conceptual frameworks around the idea of sustainable tourism have been formulated. This study aims at exploring the role of tour operators in developing sustainable tourism in Pakistan and how the tour operators (TOs) conceive their role in this regard. TOs were reached through phone calls, emails, and virtual sources as face-to-face interviews were not possible due to COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel by the government. In-depth interviews were conducted to gather data. Results suggest that the TOs although realize the importance of social, environmental, and economic dimensions of tourism on the communities but have no management systems in place to cater accordingly. There are no incentives in place by the government facilitate TOs to design and implement such systems. The TOs do not select a destination based on Global Sustainable Tourism Council criterion, but rather the selection of destination is mostly demand-based and profit-oriented. The study suggests that corporate profit motive is the sole criterion for decision making and is one of the major causes impeding sustainable tourism in Pakistan. The role of TOs in developing sustainable tourism is vague as the TOs do not have any systems in place to implement sustainable models. The study recommends that efforts need to be put in place to incentivize sustainable tourism in Pakistan and proper laws should be set forth by the authorities to comply by the TOs. The role of TOs is important and understood, however, there is a need to put proper systems in place.

The choice of the means of exchange is one of the critical decisions in mergers and acquisitions. Travel agencies and tour operating-industries compete in a volatile environment, and in addition to generating economies of scale, investments in the industry involve important sunk costs. This paper's focus is on the determinants of the medium of exchange in mergers and acquisitions in the travel and tour-operating industries. Previous research on the 'law and finance' perspectives argues that some country of origin legal systems offer better investment protection to investors. Accordingly, civil law-based systems offer weaker protection to investors when compared to common-law-based systems. For this purpose, we use a logistics regression to model the determinants of cash in a sample of 750 mergers and acquisitions by combining the research streams above. Our results provide evidence of the relationship between investor protection and the use of cash.

In Africa the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) varies considerably from one country to another, for example between Kenya and Tanzania on the one hand and Ethiopia on the other. In Kenya and Tanzania telecommunications systems have been liberalized, while in Ethiopia all ICT infrastructures and services are provided by one single telecommunications operator – one that is owned and run by the government. ICT plays a significant role in poverty reduction and empowerment of the disadvantaged, but this requires that ICT has first to be adopted by them. The main research question is: what are the factors affecting the adoption of ICT in the small hotel and tour operator sector? The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that affect the adoption of ICT in small hotels and tour operators in Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa. The sector was chosen because, driven by demand from customers, it uses ICT more than many other sectors, and because the government requires hoteliers to use a particular software for tax purposes. During the course of several visits between 2009 and 2013 data were collected from hoteliers and tour operator owners/managers. Sixteen hoteliers who had adopted ICT in their businesses were interviewed. One hundred and twenty-eight hoteliers and 57 tour operators responded to a questionnaire. Analysis of the findings indicates that factors affecting the adoption of ICT in these organizations can be arranged according to three levels: individual, organizational and national. The major factors that affect the adoption arise from the national level factors: the political, socio-economic, technological and legal factors that play a critical role in the adoption or rejection of ICT in this sector. This paper provides insights into the impact a monopolized telecommunications service can have on the adoption of ICT.