Tourism education and training system in Greece. The transition from 20th to 21st century

Tourism represents one of the most prosperous sources of income in Greece and its contribution to the country’s GDP is acknowledged by all economic factors. To this day, however, a stable and reliable educational-vocational system in the field of tourism has yet to be developed. Τhe country makes constant efforts to improve the education provided in this department, without having a clear orientation. The present study aims to analyze the course of the public education of tourism over time, whilst indicating the weaknesses of the corresponding policy and providing relevant suggestions to the topic.

تداعيات جائحة كورونا (كوفيد-19) على أداء وكالات السياحة والأسفار

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى إبراز الانعكاسات والآثار التي خلفتها جائحة كورونا (كوفيد-19) على أداء وكالات السياحة والأسفار عالمياً ووطنياً وكذا معرفة أهم الإجراءات والتدابير المتخذة للحد من انتشار الجائحة كما سعت الدراسة إلى عرض السياسات التي انتهجتها بعض الدول للتعامل مع الأزمة في المجال السياحي وقد اعتمد الباحثان على المنهج الاستنباطي بأسلوبيه الوصفي التحليلي بغرض جمع المعلومات حول فيروس كورونا المستجد الذي حصد الأرواح البشرية وبأعداد هائلة ولا يزال، وانعكاساته على أداء وكالات السياحة والسفر عالمياً ووطنياً. وأظهرت النتائج أن الازمة تهدد بالإفلاس للعديد من الوكالات السياحية وأن مدة التعافي ستكون طويلة في ظل عدم رفع الاغلاق الحدودي بين الدول وعدم رفع الحجر الصحي على بعض المناطق داخل الدولة، هذا ما يتطلب تدخل حكومي عاجل لدعم وكالات السياحة والأسفار ومختلف الأنشطة السياحية التابعة، كما اقترح الباحثان مجموعة من التوصيات والحلول لتجاوز آثار أزمة فيروس كورونا (كوفيد-19)مع ضرورة التقيد بالتدابير الوقائية والإجراءات الاحترازية المفروضة وضرورة إنشاء مكاتب خاصة لإدارة الأزمات تابعة لكل وكالة سياحية.

Culture promotion through food tourism: A case of Qatar’s local cuisine

Globally food has been considered a unifying factor that cuts across boundaries even of languages. Destinations have been at the forefront of the tourism industry mainly due to their culinary offerings. Trends such as street food markets and local food tours have become popular with many tourism destinations. Qatar is considered a conservative nation with a great potential for its culinary culture to feature prominently through its tourism offerings. The aim of this research is to understand how a destination’s food culture may sway visitors to visit or re-visit that destination. Further, what role Qatar’s cultural cuisine can influence the promotion of the country’s heritage globally. A focus and development of the nation’s culinary policies and packages in the promotion of its cultural heritage was the end intent of this study. Focus groups discussions were employed in attaining results. The results were formulated and interpreted around context; internal consistency; frequency; intensity of comments; specificity of responses; extensiveness and the big picture. The discussions reveal that Qatar offers a vibrant Middle Eastern culinary experience for tourists; however, its conservativeness can be a bit of a letdown for some travelers especially the drinking aspect of the food tourism offerings which is restricted and confined to certain spaces. The research concludes by recommending to authorities to introspect some of their stances with regards to rigidity in this sector of the tourism.

Effect of Islamic marketing mix integration on the decision to stay at Sharia hotels in Indonesia

By establishing Indonesia as a halal tourist destination in 2019. This has an impact on increasing tourists for vacation. In visiting a place, lodging accommodations such as hotels are taken into consideration. With so many hotels that have a sharia concept, there will be competing for customers. A contemporary marketing mix is a tool that marketers can use to shape a characteristic of the services offered. However, there is an integrated Islamic marketing mix which is a marketing concept by combining contemporary and Islamic marketing concepts. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of the integration of the Islamic marketing mix (Pragmatism and Product, Pertinence and Promotion, Palliation and Price, Peer-Support and People, Pedagogy and Physical Environment. The data collection technique used a questionnaire distributed online with a sample of 175 respondents who had stayed at Islamic hotels / inns in Indonesia. In analysing data using SPSS 21. The results of this study are Pragmatism and Product, Pertinence and Promotion, Palliation and Price and Peer-Support and People have no influence. Meanwhile, Pedagogy and Physical Environment, Persistence and Process as well as Patience and Place influence the decision to stay.

دور المشاريع العمرانية في تعزيز السياحة الحضرية بالمدن الجزائرية: فرص، تحولات وتحديات، حالة: مدينة سطيف

لم يعد مفهوم السياحة يقتصر على السفر بهدف رؤية أماكن أخرى متميزة بثقافات وعادات مختلفة فقط، بل اتسع لتكون السياحة أكثر ممارسة بالمدن ضمن مفهوم جديد وهو "السياحة الحضرية"، والذي يُمثل التوجه الذي انتهجته أغلب الحكومات في تعزيز مدنها لتكون متميزة في إيجاد مشاريع حضرية سياحية ذات تصاميم عمرانية ومعمارية جديدة والتي تعكس من خلالها صورًا لاستثمارات سياحية بالمدن. وفي هذا الإطار، سنسلط الضوء على مدينة سطيف التي تعتبر من أهم المدن الكبرى الجزائرية بالهضاب العليا الشرقية، لتوضيح مختلف التحولات الحضرية والوظيفية الهامة الناتجة عن توطن العديد من المشاريع العمرانية (سلسلة الفنادق، المراكز التجارية الكبرى، الترامواي...)، وكذا إعادة تنظيم مختلف الوظائف الحضرية بها، والتي سمحت بتوفير العديد من مناطق الترفيه والاستجمام وتهيئتها، لاستقطاب العديد من السياح خاصة مع سهولة التنقل إليها، مما جعل مدينة سطيف تُقدم العديد من الفرص التي من الضروري توظيفها لتطوير السياحة الحضرية بها. وسنحاول إبراز مختلف التحولات الحضرية التي مست مدينة سطيف في مختلف الميادين الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والعمرانية، للوقوف على كل المشاكل المعيقة لتنمية السياحة الحضرية بها بالاعتماد على المنهجين الوصفي والكمي وبعض التقنيات التكتيكية وكذا مجموعة المراجع والمصادر المتوفرة حول موضوع البحث ومجاله المكاني، والتي على أساسها يمكن تصور بعض التوصيات التي بإمكانها أن تشكل تحديات يمكن من خلالها رسم استراتيجية شاملة للارتقاء بالمدينة لتكون وجهة للسياحة الحضرية على المستوى المحلي وكذا الدولي.

Tiding over the pandemic: The prospects of cruise tourism

Cruise tourism, which was achieving an average growth always higher than the global economic growth, had a global presence and saw participation from all the continents during this decade. The COVID-19 pandemic very adversely affected the global travel and tourism sector perhaps more than the other sectors of the economy. Since the time COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, in March 2020, the cruise tourism market went into a swift decline. The prospects of recovery of this market crucially hinges on how the pandemic is overcome and thereafter measures taken to rebuild confidence in the minds of the passengers. We present a sweep of cruise tourism in this paper covering the nature of the cruise market, demographic composition of passengers, challenges, and opportunities, and show the relevance of cruise tourism as an industry contributing to global tourism. We also dwell upon the internal and external risks and uncertainties experienced by the cruise industry. In the light of several measures taken all over the world to address the pandemic, we examine the measures taken by the cruise companies to rebuild the lost confidence as the cruise industry operates in an elastic market.

Pattern of local participation in tourism supply business within Kisumu County and its implication on tourism economic impact on poverty

The purpose of the study was to establish pattern of local participation in tourism supply business and its implication on local poverty reduction. The specific objective of the study included finding out the key local commodities that are important driver of tourism backward linkage with local economy of Kisumu County, establish differences in the average score profile among local suppliers and find out the main dimension along which they are separated. The study adopted across sectional and correlation design in which stratified random sampling of 106 tourism enterprises from a target population of 266 enterprises was obtained. Self – administered questionnaires were distributed to managers and collected by researcher. The first, second and third objectives were analysed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA and descriptive discriminant analysis respectively. It was found out that while poultry products, fish and vegetables were main commodities in the trade between local suppliers and tourist industry, fish, beef, and detergent were the most consumed commodities. Secondly, suppliers were different in their mean score profile by the value and quality of their supply, promptness in their delivery of supplies and in the longevity in commercial relationship with the tourist industry. Lastly, the suppliers were separated significantly along two main dimensions: The first dimension was interpreted to be efficiency and effectiveness, being represented by high value of weekly supply and high rating on promptness in making deliveries. The second dimension was experience, which was indicated by suppliers` education level and their longevity in the commercial relation with the tourist industry. The key contribution of the study is the creation of understanding of the main commodities driving tourism backward linkage with local economy and the factors which confer competitive advantage among local traders of Kisumu County in tourist industry.

Pro-Poor tourism strategies in local communities in Uganda: A case study of lake Bunyonyi in Kabale district

The study examined the effectiveness of pro-poor tourism strategies on local communities in Uganda taking a case study of the Lake Bunyonyi tourist area. Using a descriptive research design, data was collected from a total of 120 community members with the aid of questionnaires. Interviews were also conducted on 10 key informants. The study found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing economic benefits to the poor are generally moderately effective as established by the composite mean. This is because the tourism enterprises have employed locals within their ranks, created opportunities for the informal sector and small businesses, boosted household income through home projects such as poultry rearing, bee keeping and fish farming. However, this has been undermined by failure by the enterprises to increased access to market opportunities indirectly to tourism enterprises and to increase community access to investment funds, loans, and micro credit schemes. The study also found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing non-financial benefits to the poor are generally moderately effective The strategies have really not succeeded as such in enhancing other non-economic livelihood benefits like; increasing access to health care, health care education for example reproductive health, HIV and malaria prevention; increasing local access to infrastructure and services for example roads, running water, internet, and telephones and improving environmental support. The study found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing community participation and partnership are generally moderately effective. The strategies have not fully succeeded in enhancing the participation and involvement of the poor in tourist activities. The study concluded that the pro-poor tourism strategies are only moderately effective in improving the economic benefits to the community, in enhancing non-economic benefits and enhancing of community participation and partnership of the poor in tourist activities.

Studying the intentions of hotel guests to engage in green programs in Egyptian hotels

Many factors are currently pushing the hospitality sector to be more environmentally friendly. Moreover, hotel management is increasingly aware of its environmental impact, and it is gradually taking positive steps and green initiatives such as conserving water, energy-saving and solid waste reduction." Many hotels have already applied for some green plans. Besides, customers began to prefer green rather than regular hotels during their stay. This research aims to determine what influences the intention of hotel guests to participate in green activities. Results have also shown that green hotel policies and practices are well accepted by tourists, such as energy-saving light bulbs in guest rooms, recycling bins in rooms and lobbies, as well as green certifications. Many guests agreed to the green initiatives proposed in the study. They preferred to stay and participate in green-based practices and programs in hotels unless this could increase accommodation costs. The result also provides hoteliers with how these attributes can attract holidaymakers who care about the environment. These programs require to be monitored continuously with the growth in the greening of hotels. Finally, hotel establishments must pay attention and start implementing some of these green initiatives because they are inexpensive and help protect our environment.

Homestay: guest perception towards indigenous food & beverage of Sikkim

The present study focuses on a homestay, where researchers assess the level of awareness about indigenous foods and beverages and the preference of indigenous foods of Sikkim among the homestay visitors/guests. Sikkim has different communities that run homestay which serves several indigenous foods and beverages. The current study is based on the primary data, collected through Google form (online survey due to COVID-19 pandemic) between the months of July-August 2020. Secondary data are not used for this study. This study shows Sikkim has their cooking style, ingredients, and garnishing of cooked food and beverages. However, most of the guests/visitors were unaware of the various foods, so promotional activities are needed here by The Tourism & Civil Aviation Department Government of Sikkim (hospitality/homestay division) and stakeholders. The study offers recommendations, including growing awareness, promotion, and preference of indigenous food and beverages among the homestay visitors/guests. “The present study lies in the stability of finding such literature” which is directly related to the findings. Tata Group-indorsed hospitality main Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) has arrived at the homestay division with the brand Ama Trails and Stays wherein it will enter into a management contract with nine (9) heritage bungalows with Tata Coffee in Coorg and Chikmagalur.