The Total Tourist Experience Essay Example for Free

The Total Tourist Experience Essay The travel and tourism industry is made up of six different components, they are: * Travel Agents * Tour Operators * Transportation * Accommodation and Catering * Tourist development and Promotion * Tourist Attractions Should a tourist decide to take a holiday, he/she is likely to visit a travel agent to inquire about various holidays on offer and prices available. Travel agents are agents for tour operators; they sell package holidays, products and services on behalf of the tour operator and are paid a commission or fee by the tour operator. Travel agents offer products and services such as; travel insurance, flights, car-hire, ferry crossings, train tickets, advice etc. There are two types of travel agents; they are the Retail Travel Agent and the Business Travel Agent. The larger Business Travel Agents are members of the Guild of Business Travel Agents (GBTA) and make up over 80% of business travel arrangements through travel agencies. Leading GBTA Business Travel Agents are, American Express Europe Ltd, Britannic Travel Ltd, Carlson Wagonlits, Hogg Robinson Travel Ltd, Portman Travel Ltd and Seaforth Travel Ltd. The Business Travel Agents concentrate on the sale of travel related products to business clients and are sometimes located in an office within the organisation, for which they provide travel arrangements (in-house). Business travel involves getting the client to the appropriate destination for business meetings and related duties. The Retail Travel Agents belong to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA). The role of the Retail Travel Agent is to provide a location, where tourists who are seeking information about travel plans will go. The Retail Travel Agents sell arrange of leisure and recreation travel products and services to outgoing, incoming and domestic tourists. They act as a link between customers and tour operators; they are in constant contact with airlines and car hire companies. Contact is maintained over the phone, through the post and the computer systems in place e.g. Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and World Span. Many Retail Travel Agents advise customers, suggest possible holidays, answer questions, make bookings and help customers with travel problems. They also sell ancillary products and services e.g. travel insurance, foreign currency, travellers cheques etc. There are four main leading travel agents, they are; Lunn Poly Ltd, Going Places, The Thomas Cook Group and Carlson Worldchoice. Between them, they sell over 60% of inclusive tours in the UK and account for 1/3 of the total number of high street travel agency branches in the UK. A tourist is most likely to choose a holiday that is an inclusive deal e.g. flights and accommodation. These deals have been designed and compiled by a tour operator. Tour operators provide a wide range of products and services for domestic, outgoing and incoming tourists. They arrange transport, accommodation and leisure activities to make up the holiday package. Holiday packages are usually sold through travel agents. Due to customer demand, tour operators offer flexible options for their customers e.g. flight only and multi-centred holidays. Tour operators usually belong to ABTA or the Association of International Tour Operators (AITO). Tour operators can specialise e.g. selling to the mass market, which means they offer tours to the general public and cater for all their needs and outbound tour operators who organise package holidays abroad. Examples of tour operators are; Thomson Holidays Ltd and Airtours plc. There are specialist long haul operators e.g. Kuoni Travel Ltd. Travel Scene specialise in city breaks while Crystal and Ski Bound specialise in winter sports. Tour operators publicise their products through their own direct marketing e.g. Thomson Holidays Ltd own Portland Direct and Airtours plc own Direct Holidays. Thomson Holidays Ltd also encourages direct bookings from their brochures or packages, which are advertised and sold through travel agents. A tourist who is going on holiday can choose from a variety of different transportation methods, they include cars, trains, planes or boats. Transportation means providing travel to and from a destination, travelling around a destination or it can be the main feature of a tourists trip. Transport can be divided into four different categories, they are: * Air- scheduled flights, charter flights or air taxis * Water- ferries, cruise ships, hover crafts or river boats * Road- cars, motorbikes, coaches or buses * Rail- trains, tubes or trams The transport networks are the air, water and land routes, which various forms of transport travel along. Each network has starting and ending points, which are known as termini. Air travel has scheduled flights, which operate regularly according to published schedules or timetables e.g. Virgin Atlantic Airways fly five times a week to New York and three times a week to South Africa. Charter flights only operate when they are hired for a particular purpose. Tourists tend to take scheduled flights, as they are affordable, faster and convenient. Charter flights are expensive and need to be organised through companies. Tourists often have a choice of transport routes when deciding how to travel to their destinations, these include; sea- (ferries and cruises), which tend to be slow but flexible as tourists can take their cars on the channel crossings. Road- (motorways, auto-bahns, major trunk roads and the channel tunnel) this is a flexible means of transport. Finally, rail- (high speed lines and scenic railways) this is a quick means of transport to a destination. The choice of transport and type of route taken is based on four factors; cost, convenience and availability, journey time and services provided by the transport carrier. There is a variety of accommodation available for a tourist. It can range from five star hotel accommodations through to basic bed and breakfasts. The type of accommodation chosen by a tourist is usually dependent on his/her budget. Whilst on holiday a tourist will have a wide variety of catering facilities to choose from. He/she will choose a restaurant or takeaway that serves the food of his/her choice. Accommodation and catering are organisations, which provide tourists with places to stay and to eat. In the UK there are many single outlets and multinational operators. Catering services operate separately from accommodation in some cases. Restaurants, pubs, fast-food outlets and cafes provide arrange of choices from quick snacks to haute cuisines. Some restaurants offer fixed priced menus or a la carte menus, where customers pay for separate items. Pubs are popular as they provide cooked meals, hot snacks, salads and sandwiches with alcohol. Fast-food outlets are convenient and offer items such as hamburgers, pizzas, pasta and baked potatoes. Examples of fast-food outlets are Mc Donalds and KFC. Tourists who are travelling either by plane or train e.g. Eurostar, are often offered catering, which is prepared and packaged meals. Accommodation can be divided into serviced or self-catering. Full serviced means it includes meals and house keeping. Examples of places that offer serviced accommodation is hotels, motels, guest houses or lodges. Serviced accommodation can be divided in a number of ways including the number of bedrooms, small- (ten rooms or less), medium- (eleven-fifty rooms) and large- (more than fifty rooms). Serviced establishments are awarded a rating, which indicates the range of facilities provided. The National Tourist Boards (NTBs) for England, Scotland and Wales have developed the Crown Classification System for hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts and farmhouses. The number of crowns awarded represents the range of facilities and services provided. Self-catering accommodation means tourists are provided with accommodation but have to provide their own food, this type of accommodation is usually cheaper as fewer services are provided. Examples of self-catering are, apartments, camping sites, timeshare and chalets. The tourist board inspectors check both serviced and self-catering accommodations and each of the establishments are graded for quality e.g. Travel Lodge is for budget accommodation while grand hotels e.g. The Ritz and The Hilton are classed as five star accommodations. Tourist development and promotion are the support services of the industry and will work together to provide a tourist with an informative and interesting holiday experience. Tourist development and promotion comprises of tourism support, promotion services, Tourist Information Centres (TICs) and guiding services. Many local authorities have specific departments to support and develop tourism in different areas. This support includes marketing the area with the aid of brochures, distributing accommodation and entertainment guides and attending travel exhibitions to promote their areas. NTBs and Regional Tourist Boards (RTBs) work with local authorities to promote and develop local areas; this involves providing a wide range of services such as educational material, publicity guides and visitor guides. I will discuss each organisation that aids tourist development: * The British Tourist Authority (BTA) is an official government organisation formed in 1969 in conjunction with tourists boards for Scotland, Wales and England. Their role is to build the value of tourism to Britain by promoting tourism in Britain. The BTA advertises overseas, it also advises the government and businesses about tourism and carries out research. The BTA works with the Scottish, English, Welsh and Regional Tourist Boards to encourage inbound travel to the UK. It also works with the Department of Culture, Media and-Sport (DCMS), and liases with the British council and diplomatic staff to increase awareness as a travel destination. * NTBs are responsible for promoting domestic tourism in their respective areas. There are four main tourist boards, they are, the English Tourism Council (ETC), Scottish Tourist Board (STB), Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) and Welsh Tourist Board (WTB). In Wales people refer to the WTB as Bwrdd Croeso Cymru. There are also separate tourist boards for the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. They have similar objectives, which include, advising the government on tourism matters, creating wealth and jobs, enhancing the image of their areas etc. * There are three RTBs in Wales and ten in England: * RTBs work together with NTBs to promote their areas; they have common programs under contract with the NTBs, such as information collection and networked tourist information centre systems. RTBs receive grants from the Central and National governments but they have to raise a portion of the income from commercial activities. * Local Authorities play an important role in developing, promoting and managing tourism in their areas e.g. Poole and Dorset are local authorities that work with local businesses to provide websites that promote tourism. Tourist attractions serve as sites of interest for a tourist. A tourist may visit different sites in connection with his or her private interests. The ETC defines a visitor attraction as: A permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest or education, rather than being a primary retail outlet or venue for sporting, theatrical or film performances. It must be open to the public, without prior booking, for published periods each year, and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists as well as local residents. Outhart, T. Taylor, L. Barker, R. Marvell, A. (2000) Unit 1: Investigating travel and tourism, Structure of the travel and tourism industry. Advanced Vocational Travel and Tourism, London, Collins, p. 60. Attractions can be further divided into natural and built. Built attractions have been built by man or women e.g. Hampton Court Palace was built by King Henry VIII as a royal residents and today it is a tourist attraction because of its link to royalty and its preserved art work. Natural attractions have occurred through nature e.g. Cheddar Gorge. Some attractions are run by the private sector for a profit e.g. Madame Tussauds, while others are run by charities, such as, the National Trust or controlled by the public sector e.g. Stonehenge. Theme and leisure park attractions are action packed, family centred leisure and entertainment complexes, which often include technological versions of fun fair rides e.g. Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures etc. People are attracted to theme parks as it can be a family day out, as most theme parks have a variety of rides that cater for all age groups e.g. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, has a huge roller coaster, which is an attraction within itself. Heritage and historic sites range from century old historic sites e.g. Stonehenge to castles, cathedrals and stately homes. The majority of these historic sites were erected for a specific purpose in history e.g. castles were the residents/home to royalty, cathedrals were places of worship and the Tower of London served as a jail. Many historic buildings are owned by religious organisations or government agencies e.g. the historic royal palaces. The Museums Association defines a museum as: An institution which collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit. Outhart, T. Taylor, L. Barker, R. Marvell, A. (2000) Unit 1: Investigating travel and tourism, Structure of the travel and tourism industry. Advanced Vocational Travel and Tourism, London, Collins, p. 63. In other words, they are protestors of works of art. Museums are important for regional and local areas, as they protect and exhibit works of art or history from local areas e.g. Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum attracted over a million visitors in 1998, as people were interested in Scottish history. Countryside visitor attractions provide opportunities for people to enjoy leisure pastimes e.g. picnics, walks etc. Many areas have urban parks e.g. Hyde Park in London or gardens e.g. Kew Gardens. The best-known areas of countryside attractions are the national parks. National parks are protected areas of land; they protect the fauna and flora of the local area. There are not many facilities available to the public in these areas. Some parks may offer accommodation and activities, such as; walking, abseiling or pony trekking but these activities will be limited. There are now eleven national parks in England and Wales e.g. Dartmoor, Snowdonia, Lake District etc. All the above components of the travel and tourism industry work simultaneously to provide a total tourist experience for a tourist or visitor. It starts with a tour operator, who will plan the holiday to the travel agent, who sells the package. The airline, train or ferry will provide the transport to the hotels or campsites, where the tourist will sleep (accommodation), to whichever restaurant or take away that he/she eats from (catering). The tourist might then visit an attraction that has been promoted in some way, either by the tourist board or through the local tourist information kiosk. These components are invisibly linked but work together to make sure that the tourist enjoys his/her visit to such an extent that he/she will return or by word of mouth, to generate other visitors.

Virginia Woolfs Jacobs Room - Jacob Flanders, Many Things to Many Rea

Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room - Jacob Flanders, Many Things to Many Readers Listless is the air in an empty room, just swelling the curtain; the flowers in the jar shift. One fibre in the wicker arm- chair creaks, though no one sits there. - Jacob's Room The year 1922 marks the beginning of High Modernism with the publications of T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland, James Joyce's Ulysses, and Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room. Woolf's novel, only her third, is not generally afforded the iconic worship and critical praise so often attached to those works of her most famous male contemporaries. Jacob's Room is seldom suggested as one of Woolf's best fiction; the novel has not generated the same encomia as her recognized masterpieces Mrs. Dalloway, Between the Acts, and The Waves. But Jacob's Room is indeed a revolutionary work in its original technical mastery, its mournful historicity, and its evocative tone. The novel is Woolf's manifesto in fiction of her unique enterprise to create character beyond the one-to-one mimetic method of conventional Victorian and Edwardian realism. Uniquely self-conscious and conscious of self, Woolf was attracted to exploring new modes of characterization, fictional consciousness, and epistemology. She is especiall y interested in exploring the nature, communication, and limits of fictional knowledge. Woolf's idiosyncratic mode of characterization in Jacob's Room is the epistemological complement in fiction to Eliot's formula for emotional expression in poetry, the objective correlative. While Eliot's description of the ideal artistic technique tries to be concise and formulaic, a direct mimetic correspondence, Woolf's technique is symbolic and metaphoric, collective, indefinite, and infinitely more ... ...Merry. "Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts: Fascism in the Heart of England." Virginia Woolf Miscellanies: Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf. Ed. by Mark Hussey and Vara Neverow-Turk. Lanham, MD: Pace University Press, 1992. pp. 188-191. Ruddick, Sara. "Private Brother, Public World." New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf. Ed. by Jane Marcus. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. pp. 185-215. Schug, Charles. The Romantic Genesis of the Modern Novel. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979. Woolf, Virginia. The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Volume III. 1919-1924. Ed. by Andrew McNeillie. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. -----. Jacob's Room. New York: The Penguin Group, 1998. -----. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Volume II. 1912-1922. Ed. by Nigel Nicholson. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

“Sequel” to Fahrenheit 451

Burning Bright, Burning Right It was that time of day when the afternoon barely gave away to the glorious wonders of the night. The birds had stopped chirping and the many creatures that stirred in the ruins of the city, those that found it livable, had retreated to their underground homes. It had been a decade, a lifetime since the city had been reduced to rubble. The radiation still lingered in the air. It added a new taste, similar to the taste of an orange or a lemon. The crater from the bomb had been filled with rainwater to form a lagoon.The river’s natural current carried away the radioactive debris to the forest where, undoubtedly, the creatures of the forest would drink the contaminated water. There had been an occasional drizzle now and then soaking most of the wood in the area. Montag had managed though. He had come prepared essay writer helper. It took him three full hours to build the raft and funeral pyre in which Faber’s body now rested on. He looked at t he horizon just in time to catch the everlasting rays of the sun fade to the night and began. â€Å"Faber, my dear friend; it has been awhile since we talked. Almost three months.I heard that you were shooting propaganda somewhere by the Eastern Battle; probably condemning the unworthy fools that fought against us. Remember when we first met? You called yourself a coward for not standing up to stop the madness when it was beginning. I always found it ironic that you would become the symbol of rebirth, that you would be dubbed the phoenix. A coward really, but that was not my decision to make,† he stopped and took a breath. â€Å"You were my mentor. When I was blind to the knowledge of books, you educated me; you showed me what I was missing.You were everything I could ever ask for. Granger was there for me, but you were there for me to the, I mean your, bitter end. I can remember when you were approached about the face of the phoenix. That bright day in St. Louis. â€Å"Fab er, tell me what happened yesterday? I thought all was going well with your friend. He had printed books for us before†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Montag stopped. â€Å"Why won’t he do it now? † â€Å"I’m afraid that he is no longer on our side of the battle,† Faber said. â€Å"Not on our side of the battle? That’s absurd! One doesn’t just simply stop being a savior,† Montag said. Well he isn’t trustworthy anymore. He had tricked us. Pulled the wool over our eyes. We were only seeing what we wanted to see. † It was at that moment that Montag noticed the man standing in the corner of the room. He had his face turned away from us, but it was obvious he was listening to them. â€Å"You there, who are you? † â€Å"Nobody. I heard that the almighty Guy Montag and the wise Faber were in town, I simply couldn’t resist the opportunity of meeting them,† said the strange man. Montag took a good look at him. He was well dress ed. He was very well dressed.It was obvious that he knew who we were and it was also obvious that he was there for a reason. His fingernails were clean; an indicator that he was no fighter. Either he was a very good ally to have, or a powerful enemy to dispose of. When he noticed Montag looking at him he gave a wry smile. He decided it was best to trample through the bush. â€Å"Why are you here and what do you want? And this time don’t be shy to tell us your real name. † Montag asked. â€Å"My oh my, the rumors about you are true. You see Mr. Montag I want to help you. You could say that I have friends in high places, places that can help you.While you have been fighting your wars silently, and rather immaturely, some of us,† he paused, â€Å"have been thinking of the bigger picture,† he stopped as he met Montag’s cool but deadly gaze. â€Å"What are you implying? † â€Å"Nothing at all. Just an offer to, how do I put this? Just an offer t o help move things along. We want to take the war public,† the man said. Montag raised his eyebrows until they almost became part of his receding hairline. â€Å"I don’t know what rock you have been living under but it is obvious that you have lived a very luxurious life up until now.The war was thrown out of the shadows three years ago. † â€Å"I know that,† the man replied, â€Å"but there was never a reason. † â€Å"What? † Montag said. â€Å"For the past three years we have been fighting a war about nothing. Some say it’s about money. Others? They say the world is hungry. It’s a blind man’s game. You may be thinking about what I think. I think that the world is hungry. It’s hungry for knowledge, for books. Some of us believe it is time to throw it out in the open to light the flames under the fire. To throw something out in the open, we need a face.Somebody that will inspire and mock every policy and rule that the government symbolizes. We need a phoenix. † â€Å"I’m not interested,† Montag replied. â€Å"I was expecting that,† he answered, â€Å"That’s why I wasn’t going to ask you. † He turned to Faber and said, â€Å"We need a face but we think Montag has too much baggage attached to it. It may scare some, to see a dead man come to life. You on the other hand are a somebody that became a nobody. Your wounds have healed, have they not? Why not find the strength to rise from the ashes? Faber, why won’t you join me? † Montag stood stunned in silence.He had been rejected. Faber was sitting there looking at his damn, shaking hands. He had been offered to be the face of a rebellion, to lead a revolution; yet he sat there, solemn as a statue. Finally he spoke: â€Å"I am not a phoenix. I, at the very best, can be compared to a humble field mouse. I was a coward when it all began. I watched books burn in front of me but did nothin g of it because I was too afraid to change anything. I decline your offer. † â€Å"I was also expecting that. † A sudden flash of emotion passed through his eyes, like a fox that knew his prey would be his. I haven’t even introduced myself yet. Here I am, trying to convince you to start a revolution with me, yet you do not even know my name. My name is Hubert Hoag. † He looked nothing like the man Montag had seen on the parlor walls. Albeit he was short like him, but he must have lost weight. A quick glance at Faber showed that he wasn’t the least bit surprised. â€Å"Faber I know that you failed when it began. I also know that you aren’t exactly the bravest but this is your chance at redemption. You can finally fix the mistakes you made when it was all beginning,† Hubert said.Montag was back in the forest with Granger. He remembered what he had said. That it was the right kind of mistakes to be where they are now. Montag opened his mou th to protest but was interrupted by Faber. â€Å"I’ll do it,† Faber said in a sharp whisper. â€Å"I’ll do it,† he said with more confidence. I’ll start a rebellion. † Hoag gave a smile like he knew that the stars would align for him. He stood up and said, â€Å"Excellent. I’ll be in contact with you soon. † We didn’t see Hoag for three months. When we were contacted; things changed. Things changed fast. Faber was soon an international icon.He looked younger and radiated power. Hoag and his friends dressed him in the image of the revolution and soon there were ads and posters everywhere. That was then. Now things had changed. Montag was back in the ashes of the city. The scurrying of various animals in the bones of the dead brought back his fond memories of Faber. The sun was nowhere to be seen. It was behind the mountains, hiding, like Faber. He turned to the one animate body of Faber. â€Å"How does it feel Faber? To start a revolution. When they look back in history, whether or not we won the war, you will be remembered.But your arrogance got the best of you. You were no humble field mouse. You looked at yourself as the new phoenix. You had risen from the ashes of the old and were ready to guide mankind to this new age. Spending time with Hoag got the best of you. Soon you were thinking like them. You words were weak and empty. You became the image that you were trying to fight. You became a problem,† Montag said. He looked around. It was around midnight. Not even the moon showered him with its pale glowing light. He lit a match. A match that he had used such a long time ago to burn others, to burn his problems.And then he was somewhere else, thinking about how a decade ago he had the same problem with another. The wise words of Beatty rang in his head: â€Å"Don’t face a problem, burn it† â€Å"Beatty, I’ve done just that. † He looked on to see the body of Fab er leaning against the funeral pyre in such a way that it would collapse into a beautiful red flower once the match had engulfed the small raft. He thought of the phoenix. â€Å"Faber, you were to be the phoenix. The rebirth of man rising from the ashes. You were a failure. Maybe all we need to do is burn the ashes one more time. †

Global Economic Outlook and V-shaped Economic Free Essay Example, 2250 words

A V-shaped economic recovery forecasted in the middle of the global financial fiasco is now underway. The process of recovery initiated last year in countries like China, Indonesia, and India and gradually spread to other emerging and advanced economies. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to outdo the 8 percent growth forecast. This will be led by a real growth rate of 10 percent by China (Mussa, 2010). The process of recovery will be slow in advanced economies. In countries like the US, the biggest growth drivers will be a business investment, government spending, and foreign consumers; and the rebound is expected to be risk-laden. This is the same in the case of Japan as the country s economic revival appears fragile due to record unemployment levels, falling wages, etc. Despite this, the Japanese economy is likely to exhibit a growth but there may be a decline in the growth momentum. China has performed much better than the other countries in the recent global phenomenon. This h as been added by massive monetary and fiscal expansions (Deloitte, 2009). The industry of household appliances has gained competence in economically developed regions of China like the Pearl River Delta. We will write a custom essay sample on Global Economic Outlook and V-shaped Economic or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page It is predicted that the 21st century will be a century of plastic and China will be the largest plastic market. Along with the continuous rapid economic development in China, the plastic industry will keep developing at a high speed in the long term. It is widely believed that the price of the plastics has decoupled from the crude but there is still a co-relation. The price of oil is difficult to predict as it is based on market factors. With the rising price of oil, the price of plastics produced from oil will also move up. Any mismatch between global demand for oil and its supply has a profound effect on various industries including plastics. Business Forecast of Canada Corporation Ltd. The plastic industry is an industry with low entry barriers, strong bargaining power of the suppliers and buyers.