Volume 2, Issue 2 Autumn 2007

Issue
Volume 2, Issue 2 Autumn 2007
ISSN: 1790-8418
TOURISMOS is an international, multi-disciplinary, refereed (peerreviewed) journal aiming to promote and enhance research in all fields of tourism, including travel, hospitality and leisure. The journal is published twice per year by the Interdepartmental Program of Postgraduate Studies in Tourism Planning, Policy & Management of the University of the Aegean, 54 Michail Livanou Street, GR-82100, Chios, Greece. Phone: +30-22710-35322, Fax: +30-22710-35399, E-mail: mstath@aegean.gr, website: http://www.chios.aegean.gr/tourism Full-text articles of TOURISMOS can be downloaded from the journal website, at http://www.chios.aegean.gr/tourism/journal.htm Indexing & Abstracting coverage: C.I.R.E.T. (Centre International de Recherches et d Etudes Touristiques, www.ciret-tourism.com) University of the Aegean. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved. Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 2007, ISSN: 1790-8418
TOURISMOS is an Open Access journal, conforming fully to the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). TOURISMOS has adopted the BOAI policy of "free availability on the public internet, permitting its users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, is to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited".
TOURISMOS An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism

EDITOR- IN-CHIEF Paris Tsartas, University of the Aegean, Greece ASSOCIATE EDITORS Haris Kokkosis, University of Thessaly, Greece Gerasimos Zacharatos, University of Patras, Greece MANAGING EDITOR Evangelos Christou, University of the Aegean, Greece BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR Marianna Sigala, University of the Aegean, Greece CONFERENCE REPORTS EDITOR Vasiliki Galani-Moutafi, University of the Aegean, Greece EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Konstantina Tsiakali, University of the Aegean, Greece SCIENTIFIC BOARD: Bill Bramwell, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom Richard Butler, University of Surrey, United Kingdom Chris Cooper, University of Queensland, Australia Jafar Jafari, University of Wisconsin-Stout, U.S.A. David Harrison, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Chris Ryan, University of Waikato, New Zealand John Swarbrooke, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom John Tribe, University of Surrey, United Kingdom Francois Vellas, University of Toulouse, France EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Amal Aboufayad, Lebanese University, Lebanon George Anastasopoulos, University of Patras, Greece Konstantinos Andriotis, Hellenic Open University, Greece Vassilis Angelis, University of the Aegean, Greece David Airey, University of Surrey, United Kingdom 1
Teoman Alemdar, Bilkent University, Turkey Sofia Avgerinou-Kolonia, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Thomas Baum, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom Eleni Briasouli, University of the Aegean, Greece Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom Nevenka avlek, University of Zagreb, Croatia Konstandinos Chatzimichalis, Harokopion University, Greece Kaye Chon, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR China Lorant Denes David, Kroly Rbert Fiskola, Hungary Alex Deffner, University of Thessaly, Greece Hugo Goetch, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Antti Haahti, University of Lapland, Finland Michael Hall, University of Otago, New Zealand Atsuko Hashimoto, Brock University, Ontario, Canada Svetlana Hristova, University Neofit Rilski, Bulgaria Olga Iakovidou, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece Elizabeth Ineson, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Zoran Ivanovic, University of Rijeka, Croatia Peter Jones, University of Surrey, United Kingdom Jay Kandampully, Ohio State University, USA Hanan Kattara, Alexandria University, Egypt Saad Al-Deen Kharfan, Tishreen University, Syria Maria Kousi, University of Crete, Greece Metin Kozak, University of Mugla, Turkey Dimitrios Lagos, University of the Aegean, Greece Maria Lekakou, University of the Aegean, Greece Leonidas Maroudas, University of the Aegean, Greece Cynthia Mayo, Delaware State University, USA Audrey Mc Cool, University of Nevada - Las Vegas, USA George Papageorgiou, University of Surrey, Greece Andreas Papatheodorou, University of the Aegean, Greece Alex Paraskevas, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom Harald Pechlaner, Katholische Universitt Eichsttt-Ingolstadt, Germany Mukesh Ranga, Bundelkhand University, India Gordana Reckoska, University of Bitola, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Chris Roberts, University of Massachusetts, USA Ana-Isabel Rodrigues, Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Portugal Odysseas Sakellaridis, University of the Aegean, Greece Ian Senior, Emirates Academy, United Arab Emirates Konstandina Skanavi, University of the Aegean, Greece Pantelis Skagiannis, University of Thessaly, Greece 2
Ioannis Spilanis, University of the Aegean, Greece Snezana Stetic, University of Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro Marianthi Stogiannidou, University of the Aegean, Greece Theano Terkenli, University of the Aegean, Greece Adriana Mirela Tomescu, University of Oradea, Romania Maria Vodenska, University of Sofia, Bulgaria Sandra Watson, Napier University, United Kingdom Craig Webster, College of Tourism and Hotel Management, Cyprus Hannes Werthner, University of Innsbruck, Austria Elfrida Zefi, University Fan Noli of Korca, Albania

Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 2007, ISSN: 1790-8418
CONTENTS EDITORIAL 08
RESEARCH PAPERS: SHOULD YOU REWARD MORE THOSE TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATE MORE? A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF IN-SERVICE TOURISM TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS 11 Babu P. George
Ability to participate and communicate in different social settings is considered to be very important qualities for tourism graduates. Tourism educators are supposed to inculcate these qualities in the students and one the finest means of training for which is to make the classroom sessions more interactive. Yet, educators, especially those who belong to the old school find it difficult to forego the teacherdominant one-way lecture method. Thus, student-centered learning and teacher-as-facilitator are some of the vital-most values that are aimed to be imparted through training programs for in-service academic staff in tourism. Resource persons who handle tourism teacher training program sessions believe that these objectives could best be achieved by rewarding with higher grades those participants who interact more during the sessions. The basic assumption behind this approach is that encouraging teacher-participants who interact more shall instill in them the spirit of the aforesaid values, which they shall later enact in their professional lives as tourism teachers. The present study conducted in India critically examines this assumption and establishes that rewarding teacher-participants for their interaction might in fact defeat the very same purpose for which the scheme was primarily introduced. The astonishing finding is that those teacherparticipants who participate more during the sessions of the in-service training programs constitute the most dictatorial ones in their regular teaching roles along with their least participating colleagues. Those who participated moderately were noted to be the best tourism
educators in terms of their facilitating student participation and encouraging student centered learning.
CURRY CUISINE: PERCEPTIONS OF INDIAN RESTAURANTS IN MALAYSIA 25 Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro
Malaysia is an Asian country with a multi-ethnic population that includes native Malays, and people of Chinese and Indian ethnicity. Malaysia has identified tourism as a priority sector and is aggressively promoting the country. Consequently, restaurants in Malaysia operate with an increasingly more ethnically diverse customer base. Ethnic restaurants and differential perceptions of customers of varying ethnic backgrounds have not been studied in detail. This study examines the perceptions of South Asians, Caucasians, East Asians, and those of other ethnic origins in their perceptions of Indian restaurants in Malaysia. The findings suggest that there are universal likes/dislikes as well as differential perceptions between ethnic groups. Implications for restaurant operators and researchers are suggested.
COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggios
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The purpose of this paper is to provide insights of the Greek Hotel Industry practices in the field of Cost Accounting. To this end, a survey was conducted with 85 firms of the Greek hotel sector with the use of questionnaires. Results show that hotel enterprises have a high fixed cost structure and also face a high proportion of indirect costs. The gathered data led us to the conclusion that the majority of the hotels use traditional cost accounting systems. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of an activity based costing (ABC) system is considered rather satisfactory considering the rates that come from surveys conducted in hotel enterprises in other countries. According to the statistical analysis, the factors that mostly affect the managerial decision of hotels in favour of an ABC system include their cost structure and the cost calculation per customers' categories.
CULTURAL TOURISM IN A GREEK INSULAR COMMUNITY: THE RESIDENTS PERSPECTIVE 61 Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi
Cultural tourism constitutes an alternative strategy of sustainable local development for improving quality of life. The main objective of this type of tourism is to transform the regions, which are characterized by cultural resources, into ideal places for vacation, residence or business.
In this study the residents perceptions of cultural tourism were examined in a case study of a Greek island, Andros. It was found that the majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of cultural tourism and they argued that it could contribute to the islands local development. The findings also suggested that there is a strong relationship between the respondents characteristics and their perceptions of the impacts of cultural tourism on the islands development.
EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR TOURIST GUIDES: EVIDENCE FROM EGYPT 77 Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy
Tourist Guides, like all employees within the travel (Tourism) industry must be aware of the needs of travelers (Tourists) and adjust their service and products accordingly, to accomplish this goal TGs are expected to process knowledge of guiding. This paper measures the degree of the influence of the area of study and the level of knowledge on experienced TGs through a study conducted on 200 of 6846 the working population of TGs in 2005, licensed to work in the field by the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt. The study used a self-administered questionnaire that revealed important results showing defects in the areas of study and shortage in the knowledge background of the TGs to a certain extend. The conclusion of the study will propose a guiding scheme to develop a certain standard of education and knowledge needed by TGs in Egypt in their drive towards professional recognition, in order to be able to perform effectively in an increasingly competitive field.
CASE STUDIES: TOURISM & THE CITY: OPPORTUNITY FOR REGENERATION 95 Rossana Galdini
Urban tourism is in full expansion due to world-wide urbanisation and internationalisation of our societies. New economic impulse created by investments in urban regeneration, and improving the quality of life, produces different consequences. This paper tries to examine the benefits and costs which tourism has on host environments, economies and societies and analyses the strategic conditions which can assist cities to revitalise their territory, through a coherent tourism policy. An Italian case study, Genoa is used to illustrate some of these impact issues. Genoa, after a deep crisis, has regained a new identity and its role in the Italian economic and social system. The paper provides a critical approach of how places of cultural significance are transformed
into places of consumption by investigating the relationship between culture as a resource for identity and culture as an economic resource.
TOURISM, VILLAGE SPACE AND THE RE-APPROPRIATION OF RURAL: TOWARDS A NEW SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 113 Eleni-Christina Sotiropoulou
Modern countryside is increasingly becoming a place utilised by city dwellers, a phenomenon particularly observable in Greece, where distances are relatively small and relations between villages and cities remain strong. The case of two Greek villages, where tourism has played a leading part in their social and economic recovery, will help us understand, through a conflict analysis, the way in which different expectations and aspirations expressed by various groups of local actors, concerning the use of rural space, determine the development and social organisation of rural areas.
RESEARCH NOTES: THE EFFECTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTMENT OF CHANGES IN TOURISM DEMAND 129 Elvio Accinelli, Juan Gabriel Brida, Edgar J.S. Carrera & Juan S. Pereyra
In this short paper we analyze the impact of tourist demand in hotel rooms on the investment of hotels on environmental quality. In particular we show that when income of the tourists increases, then in order to maintain the demand for rooms, the hotels must increase the investment on the environmental quality of the region where there is an increment of the tourist activity. In the particular case where we have three different hotel chains located in three different tourist regions, we show that the incentive of hotel chains to invest in environmental quality depends on the demand for days of rest on the part of tourists and on the level of aggregate income. We also show that if total income increase then the incentive to invest in environmental quality increases in the region where the price of an hotel room is lower.
ENVIRONMENTALISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF TOURISM 141 Zoltan Baros & Lorant Denes Dvid
As a consequence of the rapid growth of the tourism sector, special emphasis is placed on destinations and tourism products connected to
or based on certain physical and environmental factors. However, the negative environmental consequences of tourism are, in many cases, overemphasised to the social and/or economic elements of sustainable development. Thus, it is important to find an adequate balance of the elements mentioned above within tourism development in order to achieve an optimal way of fulfilling all requirements of sustainable development. In order to this, a potential method is introduced by applying the Sustainability Value Map, developed originally for buildings and urban development projects, to the evaluation of sustainable tourism products. This method implies further questions arisen concerning the selection of the right set of indicators and the importance of local or regional issues. Using it as a tool, it may promote the process of holistic tourism planning and development.
CONFERENCE REPORT 2007 INTERNATIONAL CHRIE (COUNCIL ON HOTEL, RESTAURANT & INSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION) CONFERENCE 153 Panagiotis Kassianidis FORTHCOMING EVENTS JOURNAL AIMS AND SCOPE NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS 155 157 164
EDITORIAL1
This is the fourth issue of TOURISMOS, which soon will enter into its third year of publication (volume three). In the previous two years, our multidisciplinary journal aimed at justifying the rationale behind introducing yet another journal in tourism academic studies. Capitalising on this effort, we now focus on furthering our scope and consolidating our position in both conceptual developments and practical applications in tourism. In this context, the present issue contains five research papers, two case studies and two research notes with an international flavour. The papers address a number of topics namely tourism education, consumer behaviour and visitor perceptions, hotel accounting, cultural tourism, urban and rural tourism, tourism demand and sustainable development. In particular, Babu George produced a very interesting contribution on tourism teacher training programs. The paper examines student-centred learning and in-service training of tourism educators and their impact on educator teaching and learning styles and practices in India. The second paper by Bharath Josiam, Sadiq Sohail & Prema Monteiro examines consumer behaviour and perceptions of Indian restaurants. Based on surveys undertaken in Malaysia, the paper identifies differentiated perceptions of different ethnic groups of potential customers and describes managerial implications for restaurant operators. The third paper by Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggios thoroughly discusses industry practices of hotel cost accounting. The authors present findings of an empirical study in Greece, and examine the adoption rate of an activity-based costing system. Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi focus on the examination of cultural tourism in insular communities, in relation to residents perceptions of the impacts of tourism. Last but not least, Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy carefully examine quality of service delivered by tourist guides in Egypt from a customer satisfaction perspective. Findings are related to educational needs and priorities in relation to tourist guide development and lifelong learning. With respect to the case studies, Rossana Galdini tries to examine the benefits and costs which tourism has on host environments, economies and societies and analyses the strategic conditions which can assist cities to revitalise their territory, through a coherent tourism policy. An Italian case study, the city of Genoa, is used to illustrate some of these impact issues. Eleni-Christina Sotiropoulou presents the case of two Greek villages, where
University of the Aegean. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1790-8418
tourism has played a leading part in their social and economic recovery, helping us understand, through a conflict analysis, the way in which different expectations and aspirations expressed by various groups of local stakeholders concerning the use of rural space determine the development and social organisation of rural areas. Finally, the first research note deals with the effects on environmental investment of changes in tourism demand. Elvio Accinelli, Juan Gabriel Brida, Edgar Carrera & Juan Pereyra analyze the impact of tourist demand for hotel rooms on the investment of hotels on environmental quality. In particular they show that when income of the tourists increases, then in order to maintain the demand for rooms, the hotels must increase the investment on the environmental quality of the region where there is an increment of the tourist activity. The second research note is produced by Zoltan Baros & Lorant Denes David apply the Sustainability Value Map, developed originally for buildings and urban development projects, to the evaluation of sustainable tourism products. Using it as a tool, they conclude that, it may promote the process of holistic tourism planning and development. Based on the previous analysis, I trust that you will enjoy reading the contributions made in this fourth issue of TOURISMOS; we are all looking forward to our next issue in spring 2008! Paris Tsartas Editor-in-Chief
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TOURISMOS: AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF TOURISM Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 2007, pp. 11-24
SHOULD YOU REWARD MORE THOSE TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATE MORE? A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF IN-SERVICE TOURISM TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS
George P. Babu Pondicherry University
Abilities to participate and communicate in different social settings is considered to be very important qualities for tourism graduates. Tourism educators are supposed to inculcate these qualities in the students and one the finest means of training. Yet, educators, especially those who belong to the old school find it difficult to forego the teacher-dominant one-way lecture method. Thus, studentcentered learning and teacher-as-facilitator are some of the vital-most values that are aimed to be imparted through training programs for in-service academic staff in tourism. Resource persons who handle tourism teacher training program sessions believe that these objectives could best be achieved by rewarding with higher grades those participants who interact more during the sessions. The basic assumption behind this is that encouraging teacher-participants who interact more shall instill in them the spirit of the aforesaid values, which they shall later enact in their professional lives as tourism teachers. The present study conducted in India critically examines this assumption and establishes that rewarding teacher-participants for their interaction might in fact defeat the very same purpose for which the scheme was primarily introduced. The astonishing finding is that those teacher-participants who participate more during the sessions of the in-service training programs constitute the most dictatorial ones in their regular teaching roles along with their least participating colleagues. Those who participated moderately were noted to be the best tourism educators in terms of their facilitating student participation and encouraging student centered learning. Keywords: tourism education, in-service teacher training programs, the value of interaction in learning, interaction as a teacher-participant, interaction as a teacher, India
1
INTRODUCTION Radical changes have been taking place in the higher education scenario in tourism. With the changing course content, novel techniques
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and methodologies of imparting education have also been introduced at various levels of education. Teacher is no longer the cornerstone of the evolving educational system, whose role has got diametrically shifted from that of a teacher to one that facilitates learning (Houldsworth and Mathews, 2000). Four paradigms have dominated the debate on teacher education in recent years: the behaviorist orientation; (2) the personalistic orientation (3) the traditional-craft orientation; and (4) the inquiry orientation (Zeichner, 1983). In the context of tourism education, especially for those educational programs in tourism that aim to train students to work in the industry, it has been noted that the first two are vital (Ruhanen, 2005). Collaborative learning is an area that is receiving increasing attention in tourism academic fields. This is because cooperative, group-based, shared, de-centralized, and interactive learning has many benefits to individual student learning (Slavin, 1996). Student-Student-Teacher interactive learning approaches such as role-play have been found to be valuable methods of bridging the divide between academic knowledge and practical skills, a problem often cited in tourism and hospitality management education. Such approaches have been found to contribute towards deeper learning by enhancing students' interest, motivation, participation, knowledge, and skill development, according to Ruhanen (2005). The present paper examines how rewarding teacher-participants in in-service tourism teacher training programs for their training-classparticipation is related to their behavior in the regular classrooms as a participatory teachers. The commonsensical viewpoint that the former has an unproblematic positive relationship with the latter is challenged in the face of empirical evidence. The study discloses that those teacherparticipants who participate more during the sessions of the in-service training programs constitute the most dictatorial ones in their regular teaching roles along with their least participating colleagues. Those who participated moderately were noted to be the best tourism educators in terms of their facilitating student participation and encouraging student centered learning. TOURISM TEACHER EDUCATION IN INDIA Like in the rest of the world, initial phases of tourism education in India were fraught with significant confusion. The multi-dimensionality of tourism phenomenon has made it difficult for any single discipline to 12
comprehensively grasp its nuances. Tourism education is faced with issues of integrated curricula and it could be a long time before a consensus is achieved. The system of tourism and hospitality higher education in India is divided into academic higher education and technical or vocational streams. Over the past years, tourism higher education in India has witnessed rapid growth in numbers and increasing diversification in program names. Historically, higher education institutions in India have begun to offer certificate, diploma, graduate, and post-graduate programs in tourism from the early 1980s. One salient feature of all these programs was that the programs were not offered under an eclectic Faculty of Tourism Studies, but as nave disciplinary extensions of the Faculty concerned that hosted the program. For instance, the History Departments of some universities started MA Programs in Tourism focusing historical and cultural tourism; the Geography Departments started MSc (Tourism) focusing geography of tourism; the Business Administration Departments started Mater of Tourism Administration, and so on. Recently, due to sheer market pressures, most of these programs, including those run under the Departments of History and Geography, have been rechristened as MBA (Tourism) at the post-graduate level and BBA (Tourism) at the under-graduate level. This was just a facial polishing with no change in the disciplinary orientation. Yet, this change has brought about a widespread realization that tourism is a profession and tourism education is professional education. This happened despite the fact that the traditional business schools in the country have always been reluctant to introduce higher education program in tourism. In fact, none of the premier business schools, including the government funded Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs), has got a tourism or related academic program in their course portfolios. The philosophy of Indian education emphasizes holistic development of an individuals potential for the benefit of the society and the nation (Singh and Singh, 2004). A vulgar and misinterpreted adaptation of this can be observed in most of the modern Indian university curricula leaning heavily on theories and concepts, sparing lesser scope for soft-skill development. Also, students asking questions and intervening during class sessions were looked down up on as disrespect to the teacher. Despite constant professionalization efforts from various quarters, tourism programs too remained, by and large, heavily theory-ridden in content and lecture-driven in delivery. If at all there are some changes, all that took place in the late 1990s or even later. This is, however, a long gap after the need for change in the Indian higher educational scenario 13
George P. Babu
was realized and formally put on record long back by Kothari Commission (1964-66). The report stated that the dull pointless method of giving lectures and dictating notes on knowledge invented in the past keeps on passing from generation to generationsuch knowledge as shared by this method often remains as a dead mass in the learners memorythe incalculable loss involved in this unimaginable approach can and should be avoided. The National Policy of Education-India (1986) emphasized the need to organize specially designed orientation and refresher courses for the new entrants into the teaching profession. However, much remained the same with no major alternation until the late 80s. In the year 1988, Universities Grants Commission (UGC) of India introduced the concept of Academic Staff Colleges (ASC), which would take care of the learning needs of the teachers in the higher education institutions of India, including tourism teachers. From then onwards, the ASCs have begun to offer two types of courses of 2-4 weeks duration: Orientation Programs and Refresher Programs. Orientation Programs are aimed at sensitizing the participants in areas like teaching methodology, educational philosophies, content development, etc. Refresher Programs are tailored to upgrading and updating the disciplinary knowledge of the participant in his area of specialization and other related disciplines. As of now, there are 51 ASCs across the country. Besides, the UGC has also identified as many as 74 institutions to organize and conduct refresher courses for faculty members in their chosen areas of specialization. ASCs facilitated a framework that advocates the development and implementation of a specific teacher-education policy, to bring higher education closer in line with national educational policies. The Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) had been offering training programs ever since its inception in 1983. IITTM was established under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, as an apex centre of tourism learning, primarily to serve as a human resource wing of the Ministry of Tourism. The institute initially conducted several conferences, seminars, workshops etc. on various chosen themes related to tourism and travel education. In the next phase, it has entered further into the role of training the trainers by launching Refresher Programs in Tourism in collaboration with the University Grants Commission of India. For this, IITTM has been accredited with the status of an Academic Staff College (See IITTM, 2006). In addition to IITTM, a few universities like Himachal Pradesh University, Garhwal University, Kurukshetra University, University of Lucknow, Marathawada University, etc too offer Teacher Orientation and 14
Refresher Programs in the area of tourism. In addition to these, there are no formal program. ENCOURAGING LEARNER PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM Though faculty members in the institutions of higher learning do not require any formal professional qualification in teaching other than a postgraduate degree or so, short term in-service training has now come to be recognized as a significant step in professional development in higher education (Zeichner, 1999). Teachers who underwent formal servicepreparation programs are more likely to be effective teachers than those who do not have such training, notes Richardson (1990). As of now, all across the world, such training programs are regularly being offered to teacher-participants equally or more to develop proper attitude as to refresh domain expertise. Castle et al. (2006) observes that Professional Development School trained teachers make a significantly more positive impact upon many aspects of their professional lives than their untrained counterparts. The impacts include better planning, instruction, management, assessment, and a superior sense of ownership of their institutions. Most research on the relationship between teacher characteristics and pupil achievement focuses on salaries, experience, and education. The effect of in-service training and how the values acquired from it influences teaching has received negligible attention (Angrist and Lavy, 2000). Many educational experts have stressed the need to convert classrooms into participatory learning spaces. According to Karp and Yoels (1976), our educational system is the biggest culprit for making students to think that instructors are uncrowned experts and that the duty of students is to listen passively. Evidence suggests that cooperative learning promotes higher order and critical thinking (McKeachie, 1990; Smith, 1977). While tourism curriculum should have the components of general, business, experiential, and tourism knowledge specific (such as industry dynamics, operations, laws, planning and geography) components, experience education is the most-vital one, notes Koh (1995). This is because, experience education instills in the learner the essential attitude required to work in the hospitality industry. Industry recruiters prefer to recruit for the right attitude more than knowledge since it is easier to feed the latter than the former. The predominance of customer relationship as a recurring theme in tourism education has been 15
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noted by Churchward and Riley (2002), according to whom the commercial nature of tourism dictates that the learner should acquire a range of soft skills including the ability to effectively interact and negotiate. The learner of tourism should master as to how to make the customer feel as if he/she were the king but at the same time impress upon the king with suggestions and solutions. One way communication from the lecturer to the student, a legacy that the Indian higher education system got from the British colonial times onwards, was hard to disown and is still being practiced as the major-most means of content delivery. Yet, one way lecturing within the four walls of the classroom is antithetical to the traditional Indian educational practice. In the ancient India until the colonial times, a system known as Gurukula System of Education was the predominant mode of schooling. At the Gurukula, all the aspects of one's personality are developed utilizing an integrated curriculum that empowers the student to know oneself and develop the confidence and empathy to utilize knowledge for serving the society. Gurukula encompasses intellectual cognitive abilities but extends it to include the development of intuition, aesthetics and a futuristic and ecological perspective based on universal outlook. Despite criticisms of sorts, one of the outstanding features of this system was that the disciples learned things through participative learning method in the real life setting. Educational methods that facilitate students' willingness to raise questions or offer comments are likely to enhance their intellectual development, reveals a study by Fassinger (1996). Gurukula education could be a good example for this. Though quite lately, since the late 1990s, the central and various state governments in India have been acting upon the reports of commissions constituted to look into the maladies of the post-colonial system and one area where immediate improvement sought is in the lecturing method. To aid the reorientation from one way lecturing to more student centered instructional procedures, in-service teacher-training program participants are being given special training in the recent past. Two of the supposedly vital-most values that are intended to be imparted to the teacher-participants throughout the various sessions of the training program are student-centered learning and teacher-as-facilitator (Ramsden, 2003). Resource persons who handle sessions as well as the organizers of the teacher training programs believe that these objectives could best be achieved by rewarding with higher grades to those participants who participate/interact more during the sessions. The conjecture behind this approach is that encouraging teacher-participants to 16
interact more shall instill in them the spirit of the aforesaid values, which they shall later enact in their professional lives as teachers. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM Teacher educators studying their own practices with methods like life history and autobiography and focusing on the connections between their lives and works in teaching and teacher education programs has achieved the much needed respect in educational research (Clandinin, 1995; Zeichner, 1999). The beginnings of the present research may also be traced back to the self study of one of the in-service teacher training programs that the present researcher attended with one of his colleagues, during 2004. Before attending the program, the colleague had regularly been rated by his students as one of the most imposing and autocratic teachers that they have ever encountered and who never gave any room for classroom discussion. His students were not allowed to ask a question of doubt during, or even after, the lecture. This being the case, to the researchers surprise, this colleague was found to be the most participative of teachers during the sessions of the program and was declared as the topper. Later, the researcher has had a series of self reflections about this anomaly. He had been rated by his students as one of the best teachers in terms of providing ample opportunities for class participation. The filledin student feedback forms contained a lot of favorable qualitative comments too in this regard. Critically analyzing own behavior as a participant of the aforesaid program, the researcher noticed that he remained as a silent spectator and did not participate much in any of the sessions due to the overwhelming thought that subconsciously brimmed up often in mind that his own intervention would reduce the opportunity for the fellow participants to participate to that extent. In other words, he could not keep aside his dominant identity as a participatory and nurturing teacher even as he was given to enact the role of a participatory student during the training programthe very same reason for which he gave generous opportunities for his own students to participate in the regular graduate program sessions. If the above explanation is correct, the popular wisdom that a teacher-participants intensity of interactions during the teacher training program sessions and his or her adopting participatory learning style in the regular classroom are positively associated requires some serious rethinking. 17
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The available scholarly literature on this issue is very limited. How individual students and their exhibited personality characteristics mediate teacher perceptions is not clearly understood (Hammond, 2006). Good (1981) presented some of the subtle processes that predispose resource persons to call on one group of learners more than another group: a resource person who solicits responses from learners does not haphazardly pose questions and randomly focus on one of the many waving hands. He has a reason for asking questions, and he tries to call on pupils who are capable of satisfying this purpose, often based on his past experience. Hall and Sandler (1982) term it the Chilly Syndrome. Also, teachers sometimes fail to provide response opportunities to low achievers because they wish to avoid raising these learners' anxiety levels or embarrassing them in front of their peers. A study by Brophy and Good (1974) revealed that those who are active and intelligent were given more opportunities to participate in the classroom discussions mainly due to their potentially disruptive nature. In the context of teacher training programs, while trainers deliver messages to participants as to what behaviors and traits are appropriate for the student role, opportunities that these participants have got to publicly respond in the classroom are not equal: the smarter ones grab the bigger pie. Those who do not allow their students to participate in the regular classroom participate the maximum as attendees of the training program (because they like to talk), sometimes to the extent of not even allowing the trainer to carry forward with the lesson! In the light of the above discussion, the association between a teacher-participants participation during the teacher-training sessions and his or her adopting cooperative learning style in the regular classroom was sought to be empirically verified. The hypothesis is formally stated below: Hypothesis: There is a significant positive association between a teacher-participants participations during the teacher training program sessions and his or her adopting participatory learning style in the regular classroom. RESEARCH METHOD The questionnaire was administered to a convenient sample of 60 tourism and hospitality management educators who attended a two-week in-service training program during 2005-2006. Respondents were asked to give their ratings across a 7-point scale for the following questions: 18
To what extent do you like class participation from your students? To what extent do you participate in your role as a teacher-participant during this orientation program? The sample consisted of 38 males and 22 females; of all the respondents, 16 had doctoral degrees and the remaining had at least a post-graduate qualification. The age of respondents varied from 27 yrs to 45 yrs and the average age was calculated to be 34 yrs, app. Similarly, the number of years of teaching experience varied from 1-11 years but the average years of work experience was only 3.5 yrs, app. All the respondents were from within India working full time in various colleges and universities and teaching tourism or allied subjects at undergraduate level, post-graduate level, or both. The data thus collected was inputted into the SPSS software to examine the inter-variable correlation. The output table is displayed below (Table 1). Table 1. Correlations
Correlations parti_as_ trainee parti_as_trainee Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N parti_as_teacher Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 60 .053 .689 60 60 1 parti_as_ teacher .053 .689 60 1
The analysis shows that the Pearson correlation coefficient is negligibly small (0.053) and is insignificant (p>0.1). This implies that there is no association between a teacher participants intensity of interaction during the teacher training program and his or her encouraging participatory learning in the regular classroom. The fact that there exists no significant negative correlation either means that it is impossible to conclude that the higher the participation the training sessions the lower the degree of adoption of participative learning styles in the regular
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classroom. But, is it not against intuition that there is no relation what-soever between these two variables? What if there existed a relationship, which is but nonlinear that a Pearson correlation analysis could not unearth? It was decided to match the standard curves to the data distribution to see if the latter fits into any of them. The Curve Estimation procedure available with SPSS produces curve estimation regression statistics and related plots for 11 different curve estimation regression models. The output diagram is presented below (Graph 1). Figure 1. Curve Estimation
parti_as_teacher
7.00
Observed Linear Logarithmic Inverse Quadratic Cubic Compound
6.00
5.00
Power S Growth
4.00
Exponential Logistic
3.00
2.00
1.00
1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00
parti_as_trainee
The graph as well as the model summary and parameter estimates (Table 2) implies that Quadratic (R2=0.709) and Cubic (R2=0.712) models give the two finest fits. Though other models like Inverse and S-Curve are also significant, their R2 values are negligibly small. The shapes of quadratic and cubit curves are similar except that the latter is 3dimensional. Since the quadratic curve gives the best and statistically significant fit and it explains in relatively simpler terms the basic shape of the curve (principle of parsimony), it can be concluded that the distribution of permitting participation in the regular classroom upon
20
own participation during the training program sessions is quadratically related. Table 2. Model Summary and Parameter Estimates
Model Summary and Parameter Estimates Dependent Variable: parti_as_teacher Model Summary Equation Square R Linear Inverse Cubic Power S Growth Exponen Logistic .003 Logarithm .064 F .161 3.952 df1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 df2 58 58 58 57 56 58 58 58 58 58 58 .689 .052 .001 Parameter Estimates Sig. Constant 3.800 3.031 b1 .053 .810 4.149 5.114 1.007 .241 -.958 .007 .007 .993 -.513 -.790 .023 b2 b3
.164 11.357 .712 46.178 .023 3.153 .023 .023 .023 .052 .000 .000 .000
5.133 -2.965
Quadratic .709 69.306 Compoun .000
.000 -2.143 .000 -2.998 .881 .081 .002 .881 .881 .881 3.200 2.451 1.551 1.163 3.200 .312
.156 10.715
The independent variable is parti_as_trainee.
CONCLUSION The present study unravels that it is neither the most participative nor the least participative teachers during their in-service training programs that make the best participatory tourism teachers in the regular classrooms, but, instead, it is the average participants (see the shape of the quadratic curve given in the graph 1). The least participative teacher participants may have certain inherent deficiencies which get reflected in both the situations (i.e., during regular classroom as well as during training program environments) making them to be poor performers across both the variables. Likewise, their utmost participative counterparts too perform poorly since their hi-participation during the training program is reflective of nothing but their inability to forget their habitual nature as non-stop sermonizers in the regular classroom. On the contrary, the moderately participative teacher participants of the training program excel
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George P. Babu
themselves as the best: they express their views and contribute to the class proceedings but simultaneously give room for alternative voices to come up; both during the training program and in their roles as tourism teachers in the college or university. This conclusion should be a vital guideline for the academic staff colleges as well as other similar institutions that are in the business of training the academics to become superior teachers. By rewarding the over-participators more than the moderate participants, they would be doing a great injustice. Over a period of time, this practice positively reinforces an undesirable trait (Skinner, 1968) which should in fact be engineered to attenuate once someone attends an academic Orientation Program or similar programs. Note that this research does not conclude that those teacherparticipants that participate more are inferior in any respect. In fact, they may have more advanced critical thinking ability and higher order learning capacity as individuals. Also, they may turn out to be the best teachers in certain specialized situations. Nor do we advocate the closure of teacher training programs the way Popham (1971) did in conclusion of his investigation. Apart from the teachers motivating the students, other factors such as classroom size, climate, peer diversity, nature of the subject studied, culture, etc. have been found to be influencing student propensity to interact (Devadoss and Foltz, 1996; Truong et al., 2002). What we can conclude from this study is only that these individuals, as teachers in the regular classroom, de-promote the very same values that they allegedly exhibit in the training classroom. While stressing that the study was conducted among a sample of tourism academics who were participating an in-service training program, the results could still be generalizable to the wider academic fraternity. However, the results of the study deserve special relevance for tourism since it is one of the disciplines where interaction and participation are some of the most sought after values. Productive strategies for evaluating outcomes are becoming increasingly important for the improvement, and even the survival, of tourism teacher education (Hawkins, 2005). The demands of an increasingly globalizing tourism economy underscore the importance of experiential and collaborative learning in the field of tourism. However, it is an unusual but convincing conclusion that promoting collaborative learning in the tourism teacher training programs does not positively reinforce the same in the regular classrooms. This paper is concluded with the optimism that our research has been able to unpack a deep rooted myth, for quite a long time assumed to be the truth, de-facto. 22
REFERENCES Angrist, J. D. & Lavy, V. (2001). Does teacher training affect pupil learning? Evidence from matched comparisons. Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 19, pp. 343369. Brophy, J. & Good, T. (1974). Teacher Student Relationships: Causes and Consequences. New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Castle, S., Fox, R. K. & Souder, K. O. (2006). Do professional development schools (PDSs) make a difference? A comparative study of PDS and nonPDS teacher candidates. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 65-80. Clandinin, D. J. (1995). Still learning to teach. In T. Russel and F. Korthagen (Eds.). Teachers who Teach Teachers, London: Falmer Press, pp. 25-31. Devadoss, S. & Foltz, J. (1996). Evaluation of factors affecting student class attendance and performance. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 78, pp.499-507. Fassinger, P. A. (1996). Professors' and students' perceptions of why students participate in class. Teaching Sociology, Vol. 24, No.1, pp.25-33. Good, T. (1981). Teacher expectations and student perceptions: A decade of research. Educational Leadership, Vol. 38, pp.415-428. Hall, R. & Sandler, B. (1982). The classroom climate: A chilly one for women. Project on the Status and Education of Women. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges. Hammond, L. D. (2006). The usefulness of multiple measures for assessing program outcomes. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 57, No.2, pp.120138. Hawkins, D. E. (2005). Experiential education in graduate tourism studies: An international consulting practicum. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, Vol. 4, No.3, pp.1-29. IITTM (2006). The official website of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Gwalior. Http://www.iittm.org. Accessed the 21 st of September 2006. Karp, D. A. & Yoels, W. C. (1976). The college classroom: Some observation on the meaning of student participation. Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 60, pp.421-439. McKeachie, W. (1990). Research on college teaching: The historical background. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 82, pp.190-200. Popham, J. (1971). Performance tests of teaching proficiency: Rationale, development, and validation. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 8, No.1, pp.105-117. Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to Teach in Higher Education. London, Routledge. Richardson, V. (1990). Significant and worthwhile change in teaching practice. Educational Researcher, Vol. 19, No.7, pp.10-18. Ruhanen, L. (2005). Bridging the divide between theory and practice experiential learning: Approaches for tourism and hospitality management education. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, Vol. 5, No.4, pp.33-51.
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Skinner, B. (1968). The Technology of Teaching. New York, Appleton-Crofts. Singh, S. & Singh, T. V. (2004). Tourism education in India: In search for appropriate integration. In Airey, D. and Tribe, J. The International Handbook of Tourism Education, USA: Elsevier Science. Smith , D. (1977). College classroom interactions and critical thinking. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 69, pp.180-190. Truong, T. M., Griswold, W. G., Ratto, M. & Star, S. L. (2002). The ActiveClass Project: Experiments in encouraging classroom participation. Technical Report CS2002-0715, UC San Diego, Department of CSE. Http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/wgg/Abstracts/aclass.pdf. Accessed January 2006. UGC. (2006). The official website of the University Grants Commission of India. Http://www.ugc.ac.in. Accessed the 8 th August 2006. Zeichner, K. M. (1983). Alternative paradigms in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 34, No.3, pp.3-9. Zeichner, K. M. (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education. Educational Researcher, Vol. 28, No.9, pp.4-15.
SUBMITTED: DECEMBER 2006 REVISION SUBMITTED: MARCH 2007 ACCEPTED: APRIL 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Babu P. George (myselfgeorge@gmail.com) is a Lecturer at the Pondicherry University, Department of Tourism Studies, School of Management, 605014, Pondicherry, India.
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CURRY CUISINE: PERCEPTIONS OF INDIAN RESTAURANTS IN MALAYSIA

Bharath M. Josiam University of North Texas Sadiq M. Sohail King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Prema A. Monteiro. University of Wisconsin-Stout
Malaysia is an Asian country with a multi-ethnic population that includes native Malays, and people of Chinese and Indian ethnicity. Malaysia has identified tourism as a priority sector and is aggressively promoting the country. Consequently, restaurants in Malaysia operate with an increasingly more ethnically diverse customer base. Ethnic restaurants and differential perceptions of customers of varying ethnic backgrounds have not been studied in detail. This study examines the perceptions of South Asians, Caucasians, East Asians, and those of other ethnic origins in their perceptions of Indian restaurants in Malaysia. The findings suggest that there are universal likes/dislikes as well as differential perceptions between ethnic groups. Implications for restaurant operators and researchers are suggested. Keywords: ethnic marketing, Indian restaurants, spicy food, customer perceptions, Malaysia
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INTRODUCTION Malaysia is an Asian country with a multi-ethnic population. The population includes native Malays, as well as people of Chinese and Indian ethnicity. In addition, the Malaysian government has identified tourism as a high priority growth sector and is aggressively promoting Malaysia worldwide (Saeed, Josiam & Ismail, 2000). As a result, restaurants in Malaysia operate with an increasingly more ethnically and culturally diverse customer base of locals and tourists. Consumer interest in, and acceptance of ethnic foods continues to expand worldwide. In the USA, it reflects the increasingly pluralistic composition of contemporary
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Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro
American society (CREST, 1997). In the past decade, ethnic foods have become widely available and increasingly popular in western consumer food markets (Iqbal, 1996). By the 1980s itself, ethnic restaurants constituted 10% of all restaurants in the USA (Gabaccia, 1998). With estimates of over 10,000 Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom, Indian cuisine is the most popular cuisine there (In the pink, 1999). While there are no statistics on Indian restaurants in Malaysia, there are many Indian restaurants there. With growing interest in ethnic and spicy foods worldwide, it appears that there is tremendous potential for Indian cuisine in Malaysia. NEED FOR THE STUDY The restaurant industry is highly competitive and to attract and retain customers, restaurant operators have to have a deep understanding of the wants, needs, and perceptions of customers who will be most likely to choose their establishment (Gregoire et al., 1995). The purpose of this study is to enable Indian restaurant operators in Malaysia to better understand consumer needs and attitudes towards Indian restaurants, so that they can be well positioned to take advantage of this growing worldwide trend towards eating ethnic foods, particularly Indian food. This study would also enable them to better understand the differing needs of their multi-ethnic customer base. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY This study researched the factors that influence the decision of patrons to dine at selected Indian restaurants in the Kuala Lumpur Metro area in Malaysia. The research objectives were: 1. To determine the demographic profile of patrons of Indian restaurants. 2. To identify factors influencing patrons to dine at Indian restaurants. 3. To determine differences in influential factors, between patrons of South Asian origin, and those of other ethnic origin, at Indian restaurants. 4. To identify the most important factors influencing all patrons.
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5.
To determine differences in the most important influential factors, between patrons of South Asian origin, and those of other ethnic origins.
METHODOLOGY Questionnaire The data for this research was collected through the use of a survey questionnaire, which was given to patrons of five selected Indian restaurants in the Kuala Lumpur Metroplex in Malaysia. The questionnaire was developed based on the literature, issues identified in the National Restaurant Associations Customer Attitude Questionnaire (Reid, 1983); a research study on perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the USA (Qu, 1997); a research study on perceptions of Indian restaurants in the USA (Montiero & Josiam, 2002); and the objectives of this study. The questionnaire was developed for the purpose of collecting data on the factors that influence the decision of patrons to dine at selected Indian restaurants in the Twin Cities. The survey comprised five parts: (1) demographic data, (2) comparison of frequency of dining at other similar ethnic restaurants using a likert scale, (3) the importance of various factors when making a decision to dine out, using a 5-point Likert scale, (4) the factors that influence the decision to dine at an Indian restaurant, using a 5-point Likert scale, and (5) open-ended questions. The points on the Likert scale were: Unimportant = 1, Somewhat Important = 2, Important = 3, More/Very Important = 4, Extremely Important = 5. Data Collection The researcher conducted surveys at five Indian restaurants in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. These restaurants were selected because of their urban and suburban locations, similar type of food served, and similar price range of RM10 to RM20 per person per meal (RM, Ringgit Malaysia, is the local currency, currently RM2.80 = US$1). The operators consented to have the researcher conduct the survey on the premises during meal times. It was decided to distribute 100 completed surveys from each restaurant. A total of 220 completed responses were obtained, giving a 28% completed responses, which is considered normal in surveys of this kind. Of the completed responses 22 of them were rendered unusable, due 27
to incomplete or insufficient responses. The usable responses of 198 are considered adequate for arriving at statistically significant results. A pilot test was conducted to test for reliability and consumer acceptance at one of the five Indian restaurants. Upon completion of the pilot study, the survey was updated and improved. The surveys were conducted during the lunch and dinner services, at the restaurants. Restaurant patrons were approached by the researcher, requested to complete the survey, and told that their individual responses were anonymous and confidential. No compensation was provided to the respondents. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings are presented in Tables and discussed in the context of the literature in the same sub-section. Statistical findings are supported by discussions of the responses from open-ended questions on the survey. While not all respondents gave open-ended remarks, those that did apparently felt strongly enough about certain issues to supplement their responses to the closed ended questions. Demographics A total of 500 surveys were distributed, while198 usable responses were obtained. Of these, 82 (41.4%), respondents were female while 116 (58.6%) were male. The average respondent was in the 25-34 age group, and of Malayan nationality (78.8%). Almost half the respondents (49%) were of Indian ethnicity. Over half of the respondents had bachelors degrees (56.1%), while one eight (12.6%) had graduate degrees. Table 1. Demographic Profile of Respondents by Ethnic Origin
Ethnic Categories South Asian Other Total N 139 59 198 % 70 30 100
Since, many of the objectives of this study are focused on ethnic differences, respondents were asked to identify their ethnicity with subcategories such as Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Malay, Sri Lankan, American, French, Australian, Bangladeshi, Greek, British, Nepali, and Thai. For purposes of meaningful statistical analysis, these sub-categories 28
were collapsed into two categories of South Asian, and Other Ethnic Origin. The results are provided in Table 1. Given that South Asians dominate the sample, it should be noted that averages would be skewed by their perceptions. Customer Perceptions of Importance of Influential Factors To address the second objective of the study, respondents were asked to score on the likert scale how important were each of the 15 given characteristics when deciding to dine at an Indian restaurant. The findings are presented below in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 shows the score on the importance of restaurant characteristics, while Table 3 focuses on importance of various influences on respondents. Table 2. Means Of Importance Of Restaurant Characteristics To Respondents
Restaurant Characteristics Quality of food Cleanliness of restrooms Hygiene and cleanliness Atmosphere Employee Friendliness Efficient Service Value for money Authentic cuisine Convenience of location Portion size Menu variety offered Reputation/Word-of-mouth Vegetarian choices Availability of new items Halaal Certification Mean for Total Sample 4.82 4.81 4.78 4.57 4.54 4.49 4.29 4.24 3.82 3.75 3.69 3.67 3.60 3.40 3.09
Table 3. Mean Scores of Importance of Various Influences on Respondents

Food Attributes Taste of the food Price Spicy food Personal preference Appearance of the food Cultural familiarity Aroma/smell Mean for Total Sample 4.82 4.39 4.20 4.16 4.11 3.99 3.95
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Taken together, Tables 2 and 3 show that the most important factors for the entire sample in terms of restaurant characteristics were quality of food, cleanliness of restrooms, general hygiene and cleanliness, and price/value for money in descending order of importance. In terms of food attributes, the most important attributes were taste of food, spicy food, and appearance of food, while availability of vegetarian choices, availability of new items, and halaal certification were the less important factors for the whole sample. These findings are consistent with national studies of restaurant patronage in the USA. Food Quality and Cleanliness/Hygiene are consistently rated among the most important factors in selecting restaurants (Reid, 1983; Dulen, 1999). Ethnic Differences in Customer Perceptions and Influences To address the objective of measuring differences of perceptions of ethnic groups, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted. The results are shown in Tables 4 and 5. Significant differences were found on several influential factors. South Asians had significant higher expectations on the following factors: authentic cuisine, menu variety, spicy food, availability of new items, and atmosphere. There was no item on which respondents of other ethnic origin had significantly higher expectations than South Asians. Table 4. Analysis Of Variance Of Restaurant Characteristics By Ethnic Origin
Characteristic Authentic Cuisine Menu Variety offered Availability of new items Atmosphere No Significant Differences Efficient Service Employee Friendliness Hygiene and cleanliness Cleanliness of restrooms Quality of food Vegetarian choices Portion size Value of money Halaal Certification Convenience of location Reputation/Word-of-mouth South Asian Mean 4.46 3.79 3.52 4.68 4.53 4.55 4.76 4.83 4.85 3.70 3.81 4.35 3.15 3.88 3.69 Other Ethnic Mean 3.78 3.40 3.07 4.32 4.42 4.50 4.82 4.77 4.75 3.37 3.63 4.17 2.90 3.72 3.62 F 30.110 8.796 8.474 10.846 1.215 0.236 0.502 0.796 2.495 2.758 2.101 1.972 1.124 1.456 0.235
Note. F is significant if p < .05
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Table 5. Analysis Of Variance Of Food Attributes By Ethnic Origin

Characteristic Spicy food No Significant Differences Taste of the food Appearance of the food Aroma/smell Cultural familiarity Personal preference Price South Asian Mean 4.42 4.85 4.19 3.98 4.04 4.14 4.43 Other Ethnic Mean 3.68 4.78 3.93 3.87 3.88 4.22 4.28 F 27.658 0.871 3.182 0.736 1.166 0.361 1.363
Note. F is significant if p < .05
Role of South Asians as Gatekeepers To address the objective of measuring the role of South Asians as Gatekeepers, CROSSTABS analysis was conducted. The results are shown in Table 6. Significant differences were found (Chi-Sq. = 27.853, p< .000). Non-South Asians were very heavily influenced (90%) by South Asian friends and colleagues. Interestingly, even a large segment of South Asians (50.4%) were influenced by other South Asians. This shows the strong role of South Asians as gatekeepers for Indian restaurants, particularly for non-South Asians. Table 6. Role of South Asians as Gatekeepers
Frequency South Asia Other Ethnics Total YES 68 54 122 Percentage 50.4% 90.0% Frequency NO 67 6 73 Percentage 49.6% 10.0%
Chi-Square = 27.853, p< .000
Perceptions of Hot and Spicy Food South Asians tend to like hot food, and therefore their mean score for the importance of spicy food was higher than the mean rating by the all other ethnic origin group. Moy and Witzel (1998) state that Indians embraced the chili pepper, although it was not a native Indian plant. South Asians and some other cultures have a higher tolerance for spicier food, since they are accustomed to it (Dulen, 1999). 31
Perceptions of Menu Choice While the all other ethnic origin group perceives that the items on the menu offer a lot of choice, South Asians probably make many of the items at home. Therefore, they seek new items, and/ or something different. Perceptions of Atmosphere/Ambience Atmosphere or ambience refers to the internal environment of a restaurant. It is a fairly important decision factor when people go out to restaurants. Sight, sound, smell, and touch all combine to create the stage setting for the dining experience (Marvin, 1992). For many South Asian respondents, atmosphere in an Indian restaurant is very important. It is likely that they see it as an extension of themselves, and as a showcase of their culture. They are generally knowledgeable about South Asian (i.e. their own) culture and are therefore better able to rate Indian restaurants, than those who are unfamiliar with the culture. Role of South Asians as Gatekeepers It appears that South Asians are more critical of the Indian restaurant experience across the board. Given their cultural and culinary familiarity, this is not surprising. While South Asians may be only a small segment of a given restaurants patronage base, Indian restaurant owners should also be aware of the gatekeeper power of their customers of South Asian origin. Gatekeepers are people who have the power to prevent sellers or information from reaching members of a buying center (Kotler et al, 1999). For example, often non-South Asians ask a South Asian to recommend a good Indian restaurant. Respondents were asked about the role of other South Asians in selecting this restaurant. All ethnic groups were significantly influenced by the recommendation of South Asians. Non-South Asians were predominantly influenced by their South Asian friends and colleagues (90%). Interestingly, even among South Asians, over half (50.4%) were influenced by other South Asians! Restaurant operators would do well to heed these results (Table 6).
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Perceptions of Hygiene/Cleanliness It would appear that restaurant patrons in Malaysia are more demanding customers when it comes to hygiene and cleanliness, independent of ethnicity. It seems that all patrons have a perception that Indian restaurants need to improve their standards of hygiene and cleanliness, and cleanliness of restaurant restrooms. They may be more critical of the hygiene and sanitation standards in Indian restaurants, than they are of those maintained in other restaurants. Independent of ethnicity, poor sanitary conditions were close to the top of the list of reasons for consumer dissatisfaction in an NRA consumer survey conducted in the USA (Reid, 1983). It was a greater source of annoyance as income increased. Perceptions of Service Standards and Quality South Asian respondents had higher mean scores on Efficient Service, and Employee Friendliness. In the familiar cultural setting of an Indian restaurant South Asians may indeed have a higher expectation for efficient service and friendliness of employees, than other ethnic groups. Given the role of South Asians as gatekeepers, restaurant operators need to pay particular attention to the service provided to them and not fall into the familiarity breeds contempt; trap, identified by Montiero & Josiam (2002) in their study of Indian restaurants in the USA. Perceptions of Price and Value South Asians attached greater importance to value for money and price. This suggests that South Asians are more price-sensitive, as a group (4.43, 4.35). Furthermore, other ethnic groups also had relatively high mean scores for this attribute (4.28, 4.17). In the original study conducted in the USA, (Montiero & Josiam, 2002) many of the openended responses from South Asians indicated that they felt that Indian restaurants were overcharging and serving small portions. A consumers relative perception of value must be considered when establishing menu prices (Reid, 1983). The concept of value for money is related to price. Although larger portions do not always equate better value in the minds of all consumers, larger portions do enhance perceived value for customers (Grindy, 1999). Operators of Indian restaurants need to be sensitive to price and value for money perceptions. 33
Perceptions of Taste of Food The higher score for taste of the food by South Asians may well be because they are more familiar with Indian cuisine and make many of the restaurant items at home. It is not very exotic for them, in comparison to the view of the other ethnic origin group. They may also feel that the taste may not be quite as they want it, or are accustomed to, but is an acceptable substitute. On the other hand, the other ethnic origin group probably does not have any other yardstick by which to measure or compare the food. Perceptions of Vegetarian Options South Asians reported a higher mean for vegetarian choices. This is because Indians have a high percentage of the population that is vegetarian. Religion has affected the diets of Indians. Over 80% of Indians are Hindus. Vegetarianism is part of Hindu philosophy, although some Hindus do eat chicken, fish, goat, or lamb. Buddhists and Jains avoid meat altogether (Moy and Witzel, 1998). Perceptions of Cultural Familiarity It is only natural that there would be a difference on the mean scores of cultural familiarity. While respondents in the all other ethnic origin group go to an Indian restaurant for what they consider a cultural experience, (as stated by many in the open-ended questions in the Montiero & Josiam, 2002 study), South Asians probably view the dining experience as an integral part of who they are. Their comments in the open-ended questions reflect this: I really like the element of cultural familiarity in Indian restaurants; I really like the Indian atmosphere; Availability of food prepared in the style of my country; Nice people and feel at home, were some of the many comments. These reflect a cultural familiarity not only with reference to the food and its preparation, but also the atmosphere of the restaurant. The comments of respondents of other ethnic origin mentioned that It is interesting to me since I am not a part of the culture; and How interested some people are in their culture.
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CONCLUSIONS Indian restaurants in Malaysia are serving a diverse clientele, with at least two distinct ethnic market segments of South Asians and others. Both ethnic groups are interested in high quality food and service. Despite the fact that South Asians are only one segment, they do play the role of both patrons and gatekeepers, hence their perceptions need to be addressed also. Recommendations for Indian Restaurant Operators This study provides information, which facilitates a better understanding of customers and their needs, and systems that can be implemented to improve customer satisfaction. The following recommendations can be made for Indian restaurateurs: 1. Improve hygienic practices in all restaurant areas, including the restrooms. 2. Staff should be properly trained to deliver quality service. Performance standards should be set and staff trained on the following dimensions: Describing menu items Delivering prompt and efficient service consistently 3. Improve restaurant ambience. Use the services of a professional interior designer. 4. Control quality of food. Train kitchen staff in the importance of standardization of each dish, and maintenance of quality control standards. 5. Set reasonable prices after researching price sensitivity of their customers. 6. Serve larger portions for the same price. Recommendations for Researchers The researchers have the following suggestions for future studies. Similar studies can be conducted with other ethnic restaurants. National and international research can be undertaken in countries with a large number of Indian restaurants and/or a large population of South Asians, such as Australia or UK. Where market segmentation exists among Indian restaurants, studies can be performed to identify similarities and differences between the various segments. 35
In locations with large South Asian population, comparative studies can be undertaken between acculturated South Asian and recent immigrants.
REFERENCES Crest: Consumer Reports on Eating Share Trends. (1997). Dining out: a matter of taste. Restaurants USA, Vol. 17, No.1 (January), pp.44-45. Dulen, J. (1999). Quality control. Restaurants and Institutions, Vol. 109, No.5 (February), pp.38-41. Gabaccia, D. R. (1998). We are what we eat: Ethnic food and the making of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gregoire, M. B., Shanklin, C. W., Greathouse, K. R. & Tripp, C. (1995). Factors influencing restaurant selection by travelers who stop at visitor information centers. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Vol. 4, No.2, pp.41-49. Grindy, B. (1999). Foodservice trends. Restaurants USA, Vol. 19, No.8 (September), pp.38-43. In the pink. (1999). Economist, Vol. 352, No.8131, pp.46. Iqbal, S. (1996). Ethnic foods the allure for the consumer. IFIS Newsletter, Foodinfo, December, pp.7. Monteiro, P. & Josiam, B. M. (2002). Tandoori tastes: Perceptions of Indian restaurants in America. Proceedings of the 5th Biennial Conference on Tourism in Asia: Development, Marketing, & Sustainability. Hong Kong, SAR, PRC: May 2002. Kotler, P., Bowen, J. & Makens, J. (1999). Marketing for hospitality and tourism. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Marvin, B. (1992). Restaurant Basics: why guests dont come backand what you can do about it. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Moy, A. L. & Witzel, M. (1998). Influences in Modern Indian Cooking. Http://2028.harvard.net/people/alycem/work/icooking.html. Accessed the 6 th of June 2000. National Restaurant Association. (2000). Pocket factbook. 2000 Restaurant industry pocket factbook. Http://www.restaurant.org/research/forecast/ 2000/index.htm. Accessed the 10 th of April 2000. National Restaurant Association. (2000, July 20). New research reveals that restaurants are increasingly meeting or exceeding consumer expectations. Press Releases: Announcements from the Association. Http://www. restaurant.org/PRESSREL/archive/00_07_20.html. Accessed the 24 th of July 2000. Qu, H. (1997). Determinant factors and choice intention for Chinese restaurant dining: a multivariate approach. Journal of Restaurant & Foodservice Marketing. Vol. 2, No.2, pp.35-49.
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Reid, R. D. (1983). Foodservice and Restaurant Marketing. Boston, CBI Publishing Company, Inc. Saeed, M., Josiam, B. M. & Ismail, I. (2000). Marketing Malaysia to International Tourists. Journal of International Business and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 8, No.1, pp.41-6.1.
SUBMITTED: JANUARY 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: MAY 2007 ACCEPTED: JUNE 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Bharath M. Josiam (josiamb@unt.edu) is an Associate Professor at the University of North Texas, School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management, PO Box 311100, Denton, TX 76203-1100 USA. Sadiq M. Sohail (ssohail@kfupm.edu) is an Associate Professor at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Department of Management & Marketing, Dahran 31261, Saudi Arabia. Prema A. Monteiro (monteirop@uwstout.edu) is a Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Department of Hospitality & Tourism, Menomonie, WI 54751, USA.
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38
COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

Odysseas Pavlatos Technological Institute of Chalkida Ioannis Paggios University of Piraeus
The purpose of this paper is to provide insights of the Greek Hotel Industry practices in the field of Cost Accounting. To this end, a survey was conducted with 85 firms of the Greek hotel sector with the use of questionnaires. Results show that hotel enterprises have a high fixed cost structure and also face a high proportion of indirect costs. The gathered data led us to the conclusion that the majority of the hotels use traditional cost accounting systems. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of an activity based costing (ABC) system is considered rather satisfactory considering the rates that come from surveys conducted in hotel enterprises in other countries. According to the statistical analysis, the factors that mostly affect the managerial decision of hotels in favour of an ABC system include their cost structure and the cost calculation per customers' categories. Keywords: cost accounting practices, cost accounting systems, cost accounting techniques, activity based costing, hotel enterprises, Greece
1
INTRODUCTION Very little is yet known about cost accounting and its use in tourism enterprises and especially in hotels (Pellinen, 2003). Research in cost accounting has traditionally focused on accounting systems of large manufacturing companies. In addition, most accounting researchers interested in service production have conducted their research in non profit, public sector organizations (Olson et all., 1998). There is no question about the importance of the above mentioned surveys in accounting, but the number of studies on cost and management accounting of other profit seeking organization than auditing firms has remained very limited (Brignall et all, 1991; Sharma, 2002). Interestingly, however, there is an active interest in hospitality management and more specifically there is a lot of research in cost and management accounting
39
Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios
practices of hotels and tourism enterprises (Harris and Brown, 1998). Potter and Schmidgall (1999) believe that little innovation has occurred in hospitality cost and management accounting practices and there are many issues that deserve research attention. In light of the above, the objective of this study is to describe the present state of cost accounting practices in the Greek hospitality industry. The findings of this study are compared with prior cost accounting knowledge, and earlier cost accounting practices in lodging industry.
RESEARCH OF COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING IN HOTELS Studies in cost and management accounting applied in the lodging industry have been contacted both in tourism management research and accounting research. Studies exist for the various aspects of the tourism business of restaurants (Ahrerns and Chapman, 2002), passenger transportation (Dent, 1991; Rouse et all., 2002) and hotels (Sharma, 2002). Apparently, however, most of the studies have focused on hotels (Harris and Brown, 1998). The topics of the previews research cover the whole field of cost and management accounting. Regarding hotels, there are studies on strategic management accounting (Collier and Gregory, 1995), the structure of cost accounting system (Brignall at all., 1991; Brignall, 1997), the general and relative importance of the knowledge in accounting techniques in hotels management (Damitio and Schmidgall, 1990), the use of cost accounting information (Downie, 1997; Mia and Patier, 2001), the causes and consequences of implementing yield management (Jarvis et all., 1998; Edgar, 1998), the activity- based modelling of costumer profitability analysis (None and Griffin, 1997; 1999), the roles of and participation on controllers in hotel management (Pickup, 1985; Burgess, 1996; Gipson. 1998; 2002; Subramaniam, 2002), the links between managerial accounting and corporate management (Mongiello and Harris, 2006), the pricing practices and their relationship to cost accounting (Pellinen, 2003), the acceptance and usage of Uniform Systems of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (Kwansa and Schmidgall, 1999) and the budget system characteristics and practices (Sharma, 2002; Brader Brown and Atkinson, 2001, Winnata and Mia, 2005; Schmidgall at all., 1996; Schmidgall and Ninemeier, 1989; Jones, 1998; Brothertone, 2004).
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COST ACCOUNTING IN HOTELS Cost Accounting measures and reports financial and non-financial information related to the organizations acquisition or consumption of resources. It provides information for both financial and management accounting (Hornegren, Bhimani, Datar and Foster, 1997; Hilton, 2000). Cost accounting, as applicable in the hospitality service industries, is a set of concepts and techniques designed to facilitate the accumulation, analysis and utilization of historical and projected per unit cost for use in management decision making (Fay at all., 1971). While managers in the hospitality service industries require cost accounting information, just as manufacturing firm managers do, the nature of activities in hotels (fixed capacity, perish ability, demand patents, product range, real time activities, production and conception, location and size, labour and capital intensity, and cost structure) makes the cost accounting systems used in manufacturing firms inapplicable (Jones and Lockwood, 1989; Harris, 1992; Harris, 1995).
UNIFORM SYSTEMS AND DEPARTMENTAL ACCOUNTING The development of systems of uniform accounting (and uniform costing systems) is by no means a recent trend. A significant hospitality accounting development for many years has been the publication of uniform accounting systems for the key sector of the industry, notably hotels, restaurants and clubs in the United States, where their first appearance, for hotels, trace back to 1926. The Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) has become the industry standard, particularly for the large hotel businesses and international and global chains in Europe and US (Harris and Brown, 1998). It relates effectively to the operating characteristics of hotels and it is based on departmental accounting principles, reflecting the fact that rooms, food and beverage and other services are produced in departments (telephone, garage and parking, guest laundry, golf course, golf pro shop, tennis club, tennis pro shop, health club, swimming pool etc) rather than in production lines, as in the case of manufactured products. Kwansa and Schmidgall (1999), in a recent survey in lodging controllers determined that 76% of lodging operations were using the USALI but only 11% of these controllers responded that the were following it all the time, while 65% indicated in most of the times. 41
The data provided in the detailed USALI accounts is used by the management of the lodging firms. The income statement consist of 3 major sections (USALI, 1996; Everett, 1989): a) a section covering departments, that reports the revenues and the directly expenses of profit centres b) a section displaying undistributed operating expenses including administrative and general, marketing, property operation and maintenance, and utility expenses, and c) a section that includes management fees, fixed charges, and income taxes. For the most lodging properties, undistributed operating expenses, combined with management fees, rent, property taxes, and insurance, comprise a considerable portion of total expenses for period. The process of allocating these overhead costs have been presented in detail by Coltman (1998), Geller and Schmidgall (1980), Schmidgall (1996), Damitio and Schmidgall (1994), Turkel (1993), and even in the USALI (1996).
COST STRUCTURE Most hotels have a high proportion of fixed cost (Kotas, 1997, Brigmal, 1991; 1997) with approximately tree-quarters of the total cost of a hotel being fixed and uncontrollable. The room department has a fixed cost (mainly department wages and salaries) of 15-20% in relation to its sales volume, and a considerable lower proportion of variable costs (laundry, dry cleaning, domestic supplies, etc). Hotel food and beverage operations entail relatively high fixed costs (mainly kitchen and restaurant wages) as well as high variable costs (food and beverage costs and energy). High fixed costs mean high gross profit margins and this, in turn, means that each addition to total revenue results in a substantial rise in net profit (Kotas. 1973; 1982).
COST ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND COST ACCOUNTING TECHNIQUES Historically, two cost accounting systems, job order costing and process costing have been used to cost product and services and many companies continue to use these traditional costing systems (Garrison and Noreen, 2000). Since the mid1980s, however, companies have been adopting activity based costing (ABC) for products and customer costing (Briedley et all, 2001). Traditional costing systems use actual departments 42
or cost centers for accumulating and redistributing costs. ABC systems, instead of using cost centres for accumulating costs, use activities; that is, rather than asking how to allocate a service department expense to a production department, the ABC system designer asks what activities are being performed by the service departments resources. The resource expenses are assigned to activities based on how much of them are required or used to perform activities (Atkinson et all. 2001). Both traditional and ABC systems vary in their level of sophistication but, as a general rule, traditional systems tend to be simplistic (are inexpensive to operate, make extensive use of arbitrary cost allocations, have a low level of accuracy, high cost or errors, etc) whereas ABC systems tend to be sophisticated (are expensive to operate, make extensive use of cost and effect cost allocations, have a high level of accuracy, low cost of errors, etc) (Drury, 2002). Kaplan and Cooper (1998) suggest that service companies are ideal candidates for ABC even more than manufacturing companies. Their justification for this statement is that most of the costs in services organizations are fixed and direct. Kock (1995), states that ABC is suitable for marketoriented sectors. A UK survey by Drury and Tayles (2000) reported that 51% of the financial and services organizations surveyed, compared to 15% of manufacturing organizations, have implemented ABC. Fay at all.,(1971) show the possible use of traditional costing systems in the hospitality services industry. None and Griffin (1997) propose that ABC is the most effective and accurate costing method for Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA) in a hotel environment. Dunn and Brooks (1990) and Noone and Griffin (1999) document the implementation of CPA using ABC. However, the use of ABC in the hotel industry is minimal (Tai, 2000) with an informal survey by Graham (quoted in Tai, 2000) identifying no hotels in Europe to have adopted this approach. Tai interviewed a range of industry personnel in order to identify the reasons for this and found that, although there was considerable knowledge of the theory of ABC, there was a low understanding of how it might be used in a hotel context (Burgess and Bryant, 2001). Brignall at all. (1991) studied a hotel chain and determined three main considerations that shaped their product cost accounting practices a) valuating stocks had the least significance for the tasks of cost accounting b) calculating a full margin was used less than calculating a contribution margin and c) cost planning and control focussed on cost centres according to the functions of the organisation, because the products are obviously not particular points for cost analysis. Brignall suggests (1997) 43
that in shop services (e.g. hotels) standard costing systems will be rare, but some service shops delivering standardized services may find that investment in a standard costing system may be a useful competitive weapon. He also reported that shop services do not have full cost service systems. The cost management problem in shop services is how to maximize the use of fixed capacity, which leads to cost control via direct variable costing. Pellinen (2003) in her survey in 6 tourism enterprises found that the product cost accounting system of most of them could be characterized as variable costing. Only the direct costs, the causes of which were possible to measure objectivity based on the consumption of physical resources, were usually allocated to products.
METHODOLOGY Sample characteristics and data collection The sample surveyed included the leading Greek hotel enterprises. The criteria used for the selection of the hotels where both their sales revenues and net profit for the year 2005. The research was conducted between March and June 2006 and was realised in two phases. Specifically, in the first phase a participation form, accompanied by a cover letter where we made a brief reference of the main goals of the study, was sent to the selected companies. Financial managers were asked to indicate the type(s) of cost accounting practice(s) used by their hotels, as well as to state correspondence information in order to address the survey questionnaire, in case they were interested. In the second phase of the research, the survey questionnaire was designed and sent to the sampled hotels. Before the finalization of the questionnaire, a pilot test took place. More specifically, interviews were conducted with four Chief Accountants who had a long experience in cost accounting practices in order to make sure that the questionnaires content was easy to understand. Through this testing we managed to account for omissions or vagueness in the expressions used to formulate the questions. The participation form was sent to 146 hotel companies and 98 firms responded positively in the first phase of the survey (65% response rate). For the companies that did not show interest in the research, the main reasons they cited for non-response was the lack of time and the fact that answering questionnaires was not one of their top priorities. The hotels that completed the participation forms were sent the questionnaire and 85 44
completed questionnaires were finally received during the second phase of the survey. The response rate was 58%. The questionnaires were answered at a percentage of 96% by executives in the top hierarchy of the financial departments (financial managers and chief accountants) that have firm knowledge of the cost accounting information used within their companies. Thus, we believe that the answers can be considered reliable. The financial, geographical and company demographic characteristics of the final sample of hotel enterprises are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1. Sales revenue date for the sample of the hotel enterprises (2005)
Mean sales revenue for the year 2005 ( mil) Std. Deviation 12.25 Maximum Minimum
9.85
3.3
99.5
Table 2. Category, geographical area, number of beds, management status and type of hotels that participated in the survey
N Categories 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars Geographical Area Athens Crete Aegean islands Ionian islands Macedonia Other 17 24 22 12 6 4 20 28.2 25.9 14.1 7.1 4.7 30 48 7 35.3 56.5 8.2 %
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No of beds Up to 300 300 -350 350-500 Over 200 Company management status Private company Member of national chain Member of multinational chain Type of Hotel Resort City hotel 34 51 40 60 43 27 15 50.6 31.8 17.6 6 4 20 55 7.1 4.7 23.5 64.7
RESULTS The use of USALI The survey revealed that only 11.8% of hotels in Greece use the Uniform System of Accounts for Lodging Industry (USALI). According to our data, 53.3% of hotels that are members of a multinational chain use the USALI, while only 2.9% of hotels that are private companies or members of national chains use this system. Statistical analysis shows that there is a statistical significant relation between these two variables (Table 3). Table 3. Relation between the use of USALI and management status of the hotel
Other Use USALI Yes No Total 2 (2.9%) 68 (97.1%) 70 (100%) Members of international chain 8 (53.3%) 7 (46.7%) 15 (100%) Total 10 75 85 Fisher exact test Exact Sig. (2- sided) 0.021
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COST STRUCTURE The analysis of the empirical evidence showed that the majority (31.9%) of the hotels' fixed cost accounts for 65%75% of the total cost. As shown in Table 4, 27.1% of the hotels' fixed cost accounts for more than 75% of the total cost. Table 4. Fixed cost as a proportion of the total cost of the hotel enterprises that participated in the survey
N up to 45% 45 55% 55 - 65% 65 - 75% over 75% Total 6 10 18 28 23 85 % 7.1 11.8 21.2 31.9 27.1 100
Also, the results of the survey showed that hotels face a high proportion of indirect cost, which was estimated at 47% of total cost (Table 5). These results confirmed the main findings reported in existing literature. Table 5. Indirect cost as a proportion of total cost of hotels that participated in the survey
Mean Indirect cost as a proportion of total cost Std. Deviation 7.662 Maximum Minimum
46.93
30
63
The analysis of the data also revealed that resorts have a higher proportion of indirect cost (mean value = 49.21, Std. deviation = 6.732) than city hotels (mean value = 45.21, Std. deviation = 7.928). Statistical analysis shows that there is a statistical significant difference between these two variables (Table 6).
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Table 6. Resort and City Hotels mean value of indirect cost as a percentage of total cost
Resort hotels mean value Proportion of indirect cost to total cost 49.21 City hotels mean value Mean difference t value (p value)
45.41
3.79
2.292 (0.024)
COST ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND COST ACCOUNTING TECHNIQUES Cost accounting systems The survey revealed that 76.5% of the hotels use traditional cost accounting systems and 23.5% use ABC systems. 58.5% of the hotels that use traditional cost accounting systems apply job order costing system and 41.5% apply process costing and job order costing. Thus, 23.5% (20 firms) of the sample companies have adopted an ABC system and 76.5% (65 firms) have not (Table 7). Table 7. Costing systems of the hotel enterprises that participated in the survey
N ABC costing system Traditional costing systems Job order costing Job order and process costing Total 20 65 38 27 85 % 23.5 76.5 58.5 41.5 100
Hotel enterprises that apply traditional cost accounting systems, tend to rely on two second stage allocation bases - namely, sales (84.8%), direct labour cost (69.2%) and direct labour hours (38.5%). In contrast, hotels that apply ABC systems, used as cost drivers mostly the number of 48
room nights (100%), the number of stays (100%), sales (75%), the number of covers (60%) and the number of customers (35%). Table 8. Allocation bases used by traditional and ABC costing systems
N Traditional costing systems Sales Direct labour cost Direct labour hours Other ABC systems No of room nights No of stays Sales No of covers No of customers Other 20 20 15 12 7 2 100 100 75 60 35 10 56 45 25 4 84.8 69.2 38.5 6.1 %
From the survey it was concluded that 52.9% of the hotels, whether they use traditional or ABC systems, apply normal costing and 47.1% apply actual costing. Thus, the majority of hotels allocate overhead cost using budget overheads. The majority of resorts apply normal costing (79.4%), while only 51% of city hotels make the same choice. Statistical analysis shows that there is a statistical significant relation between these two variables (Table 9). Table 9. Relation between overheads cost handling and type of hotel
Resorts 27 (79,4%) 7 (20,6%) 34 (100%) City hotels 26 (51%) 25 (49%) 51 (100%) Total 54 31 85 Fisher exact test Exact Sig. (2- sided) 0.021
Normal costing Actual costing Total
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As shown in Table 10, cost is mainly monitored in a profit center (100%) and cost center basis (82.4%) while less hotels monitor it by room night (61.2%), customer category (70.6%) and room (52.9%). Table 10. Cost monitoring choices by hotels that participated in the study
N Profit center Cost center Customer Room night Room 85 70 60 52 45 % 100 82.4 70.6 61.2 52.9
Furthermore, the activities monitored by the majority of the Hotels that use Activity Based Costing include housekeeping (100%), check in/out (100%), reservation (75%), marketing (16%), general administration (80%), food production/service (80%) and beverage production/service (45%) (Table 11) Table 11. Activity monitoring choices by hotels that participated in the study
N Housekeeping Check in/out Reservation Marketing General administration Food production/service Beverage production/service Meeting room administration Switchboard operation Main courante Other 20 20 15 16 16 16 10 4 5 5 4 % 100 100 75 80 80 80 45 20 25 75 20
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ABC systems in lodging industry are not excessively detailed as they do not include a big number of cost drivers (mean value 6.55) and calculate the cost of a rather small number of activities (mean value 3.95) (Table 12). Moreover, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between these two variables, i.e. number of cost drivers and number of activities estimated at a 10% significant level. That means that the more (fewer) activities an ABC system includes the more (fewer) drivers are used (Table 13). Table 12. Number of activities and cost drivers used in ABC systems of hotels
Mean Number of activities Number of cost drivers 6.55 3.95 Std. Deviation 1.605 1.432 Maximu m 4 2 Minimum 9 6
Table 13. Relation between number of activities and cost drivers

No of drivers Kendalls Tau_b No of drivers No of activities 1.000 0.543 No of activities 0.543 1.000 Sig. 0.003
Cost accounting techniques According to our data, 76.5% of hotels apply full - absorption costing and 44.7% variable costing. Only 20% apply standard costing (Table 14). Table 14. Costing techniques of the sample hotel enterprises
N Variable costing Full - absorption costing Standard costing 38 65 17 % 44.7 76.5 20
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ABC adopters and ABC non adopters Cost accounting literature suggests that firms that have adopted ABC systems have some characteristics, which distinguish them from companies that have not (Anderson and Young, 1999; Bjornenak, 1997; Groot, 1999). Cooper (1991) has identified cost structure, competition and product diversity as factors conducive to the introduction of ABC. Innes et all (2000) and Brown et all (2001) found that size influences the decision to adopt or reject ABC. According to our data, there are statistically significant differences in cost structure as well as size, in term of sales revenue, between ABC adopters and ABC non-adopters. In contrast, the differences in capacity, in terms of number of beds, and in services diversity, were not statistically significant. Hotels that use ABC have a higher percentage of indirect cost and higher sales than those that do not use ABC. Table 15. Differences between ABC adopters and ABC nonadopters
ABC nonadopters mean rank (N = 65) Sales revenue for the year 2005 40 ABC adapters mean value (N = 65) Indirect cost to total (%) No of beds No of services variants 44.63 565.45 7.25 ABC adopters mean rank (N = 20) 52.75 ABC adapters mean value (N = 20) 54.50 668.89 7.90
Mann Whitney U 455 Mean difference -9.77 103.44 -6.38
Wilcox n 2600 t value -5.907 1.219 -0.65
Sig.
0.043
Sig.
0.001 0.226 0.525
An important finding was that there are not statistically significant differences between hotels that apply ABC and hotels that do not, as regards their category, geographical area and type (Table 15). Based on the statistical analysis, we came to the conclusion that 75% of Hotels that use ABC monitor cost on a customers' category basis, while that percentage for non-users is as low as 15,4%.
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Table 16. Relation between cost per customer calculation and ABC adoption
Cost per customer Yes ABC Non adopters Adopters Total 10 (15.4%) 15 (75%) 25 No 55 (84.6%) 5 (25%) 60 Total 65 (100%) 20 (100%) 85 Pearson Chi Square 20.753 Exact Sig. (2- sided) 0.001
The above discussion is based on a separate analysis of the factors assumed to influence the adoption of ABC. It is also possible that a combination of factors was affecting the rate of adoption. In order to check for, all combinations of variables were tested in a discriminant analysis. The best discriminating function was obtained by combining cost structure (X1= proportion of indirect cost to total cost), and boy cost per customer calculation (X2 ) The following function was produced: Discriminant score = 0.711 X1 + 0.588 X2 Eighty four, seven per cent of original grouped cases correctly classified. The above function (Wilks = 0.613, Sig. 0.001) classified correctly 75% of ABC adopters and 87.7% of non-adopters.
DISCUSSION CONCLUSIONS This study presents the results of a survey in the leading hotel enterprises of the Greek hospitality sector. The results of this survey are in line with the existing literature in hotels accounting regarding the high level of fixed costs. Indeed, for the majority of the hotels that participated in this study (60%) fixed cost consists of more than 65% of total cost. Additionally, these enterprises face a high proportion of indirect expenses (mean value is estimated at 53%). The statistical analysis showed that resorts face higher indirect costs than city hotels. The majority of the hotels (88%) do not use the USALI system? that is mainly adopted by hotels members of multinational chains. Fields 53
(1995) view that the US system uses source of terminology to be incorporated in hotel management contracts agreements is confirmed. Another finding of the research is that the majority of hotels (76,5%) use traditional cost accounting systems. Most of them (57,7%) apply job order costing and the rest of them apply job order costing, as well as process costing. ABC diffusion in hospitality industry in Greece is considered very satisfactory. This research reported higher adoption rates than ones presented in previous studies in lodging industry (Tai, 2000). Our findings confirm the increasing pace of ABC adoption in Greece in recent years (Cohen et. all, 2005). The surveys results demonstrate that the majority of the ABC systems in hospitality industry are not excessively detailed, as they include a small number of cost drivers and calculate the cost of a rather small number of activities that mainly include housekeeping, check in/out, reservation, food production/service, marketing and general administration. Through their cost accounting systems hotels determine cost per profit and cost center and very few of them per customer category, room night and room. The hotels that follow traditional cost accounting systems for imputing cost on cost objects use as imputing basis the number of sales and the cost of direct working, while those that use ABC use the number of room nights and the days of staying at the hotel. It should be noted that hotel enterprises mainly use normal cost accounting. This conclusion is in line with the existing literature, which reports that normal cost accounting fits companies facing fluctuations in production volume. The statistical analysis showed that resorts use normal than actual cost accounting more frequently, and this could be attributed to the fact that they face higher fluctuations in their production volume than city hotels. Based in our findings, ABC adopters and nonadopters appear no be different in terms of cost structure and sales. On the contrary there doesnt seem to be any substantial differences as regards their category, number of beds, their type and the number of offered services. The analysis proved that hotels that determine cost per customer category mainly use activity based costing. This conclusion confirms the findings that appear in literature that cost accounting can be effectively combined with the profitability analysis of the customer (None and Griffin,1997;1999; Dunn and Brooks,1990) Hotels use standard cost accounting less frequently than other cost accounting techniques, confirming Brignall (1997) findings that standard cost accounting is more appropriate for manufacturing industries.
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The study contributed to what is already known about cost accounting practices in hospitality industry in Greece. In the future the findings of this survey could be compared to Cost Accounting practices in other countries. Also, the cost accounting systems of firms that use activity based costing could be studied in depth in order to examine the perceived benefits and problems from their implementation. Finally, the use of cost accounting information (budgeting, decision making, and performance evaluation) by hotel enterprises could also be examined, so as to trace possible differences between firms that apply traditional and ABC systems.
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Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 18, No.5, pp.364379. Noone, B. & Griffin, P. (1997). Yield management and costumer profitability analysis. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 9, No.2, pp.75-79. Noone, B. & Griffin, P. (1999). Managing the long term profit yield from market segments in a hotel environment: a case study of on the implementation of costumer profitability analysis. Hospitality Management, Vol. 18, No.3, pp.111-128. Olson, O., Guthrie, J. & Humphrey, P. (1998). Global Warning! Debating international developments in new public financial management. Oslo, Cappalen Akademisk Forlag. Pellinen, J. (2003). Making price decisions in tourism enterprises. Hospitality Management, Vol. 22, No.3, pp.217-235. Pickup, I. (1985). Budgetary control within the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4, No.4, pp.149155. Potter, G. & Schmidgall, R. (1999). Hospitality management accounting: current problems and future opportunities. Hospitality Management, Vol. 18, No.5, pp.387-400. Rouse, P., Putterill, M. & Ryan, D. (2002). Integrated performance measurement design: insights from an application in aircraft maintenance. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 13, No.3, pp.229-248. Schmidgall, R. (1996). Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting. East Lansing, Educational Institute of American Hotel and Motel Association. Schmidgall, R. & Ninemeier, J. (1987). Budgeting in hotel chains: coordination and control. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 28, No.4, pp.79-84. Schmidgall, R., Borchgrevink, C. & Begnum, O. (1996). Operations budgeting practices of lodging firms in the United States and Scandinavia. Hospitality Management, Vol. 15, No.2, pp.89-203. Sharma, D. (2002), The differential effect of environmental dimensionality, size, and structure on budget system characteristics in hotels. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 13, No.1, pp.101-130. Subramaniam, N., McManus, L. & Mia, L. (2002). Enhancing hotel managers organisational commitment: an investigation of the impact of structure, need for achievement and participative budgeting. Hospitality Management, Vol. 21, No.2, pp.303320. Tai, H. (2000). The application of activity based costing in hotel context, Unpublished Msc Thesis. Oxford, UK: Oxford Brooks University. Turkel, S. (1993). Futher thoughts on unallocated cost accounting for food and beverage operations. Lodging, Vol. 18, No.1, pp.1-5. Winata, L. & Mia, L. (2005). Information technology and the performance effect of managers participation in budgeting: evidence from the hotel industry. Hospitality Management, Vol. 24, No.1, pp.2139.
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SUBMITTED: FEBRUARY 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: APRIL 2007 ACCEPTED: JUNE 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Odysseas Pavlatos (paulatos@altecnet.gr; opaulatos@yahoo.com) is a Lecturer in Accounting at the Technological Institute of Chalkida, 23 Attalou Str., 11631, Pagrati. Athens, Greece. Ioannis Paggios (pagso@unipi.gr) is a Full Professor in Cost Accounting at the University of Piraeus, Department of Business Administration, 67 Aklionidon Str., Voula, Athens, Greece.
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CULTURAL TOURISM IN A GREEK INSULAR COMMUNITY: THE RESIDENTS PERSPECTIVE

Despina Sdrali1 Harokopio University Katerina Chazapi Empirikio High School of Andros
Cultural tourism constitutes an alternative strategy of sustainable local development for improving quality of life. The main objective of this type of tourism is to transform the regions, which are characterized by cultural resources, into ideal places for vacation, residence or business. In this study the residents perceptions of cultural tourism were examined in a case study of a Greek island, Andros. It was found that the majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of cultural tourism and they argued that it could contribute to the islands local development. The findings also suggested that there is a strong relationship between the respondents characteristics and their perceptions of the impacts of cultural tourism on the islands development. Keywords: alternative tourism, cultural tourism, cultural heritage, sustainable local development, Greece
INTRODUCTION During the last twenty years an increasing emphasis has been placed on alternative tourism, the interest of which is focused on the protection of natural and cultural environment, in an effort to solve the problems of mass tourism (i.e. low wages, seasonal employment, environmental degradation). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, cultural tourism has gained an increasing attention, with a growing body of specific literature (Balcar and Pearce, 1996). At present, an expanding range of concepts and definitions characterizes cultural tourism (i.e. Konsola, 1993; Silbergerg, 1995; Balcar and Pearce, 1996; Stebbins, 1997; Thompson, 1998; Waitt, 2000; McHale, 2004), which is perceptibly differentiated from mass tourism and is not related to the common sea and sun destinations. The World Tourism Organisation (1985) has stated one of the most acceptable
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Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi
definitions of cultural tourism, describing it as the peoples movements for essentially cultural motivations, which include study tours, performing arts, cultural tours, travels to festivals, visits to historic sites and monuments, folklore and pilgrimages. According to Asplet and Cooper (2000), cultural tourism can also include local language, gastronomy, the technology of the past, clothing, leisure activities and educational programs. Cultural tourism can contribute to the local economic regeneration and prosperity (Prentice and Andersen, 2003; Smith, 2004), since it is regarded as a tool for generating new employment opportunities for the host population. It encourages the opening of small and medium-sized family enterprises (Bachleitner and Zins, 1999), which offer unique and authentic local products. Moreover a large number of unskilled or semiunskilled workers may be available locally during the whole period (Barnett, 2001). Due to cultural tourism local traditional jobs are maintained or revive (MacDonald and Jolliffe, 2003). Furthermore, this type of tourism mainly attracts wealthy tourists and, as a consequence, the local income increases (Strauss and Lord, 2001; Xie and Wall, 2002; Callegar, 2003; Howard and Pinder, 2003; Medina, 2003) as well as the communitys tax revenue (Cabrini 2002). Cultural tourism also encourages the development of a kind of infrastructure, which is friendly to the natural and cultural environment, and conduces to the high quality of services, such as medical services and police vigilance (Grnewald, 2002). On an individual level, cultural tourism is regarded as a method for enhancing the residents learning, awareness, appreciation, community pride, ethnic identity and tolerance of others (Bachleitner and Zins, 1999; Taylor, 2001; Burns and Sancho, 2003). It also fosters a cross-cultural communication that can promote understanding between the host and the guest. Finally, as Smith (2004) argues, cultural tourism offers numerous possibilities for a region to make a name for itself and to re-establish its position. The region is therefore becoming more well-known and more attractive to a high proportion of repeated visitors.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Several researchers tried to explain the benefits of cultural tourism and the residents perceptions of them. Among them, Ryan and Montgomery (1994), Korca (1996), Haralambopoulos and Pizam (1996), 62
Perdue et al. (1999) have concluded that certain socio-demographic variables, such as age and educational level, are important and must be taken into account. It has also mentioned that the dependency on tourism activities is a factor that explains the residents attitudes toward tourism (Getz, 1994). The residents, who are occupied in tourism sector and are economically dependent on tourism, seem to have positive attitude toward cultural tourism. Then, Bachleitner and Zins (1999) studied the reactions of Austrian rural households toward cultural tourism during two different periods: in August 1994 (during the organisation of cultural local events) and in June 1995 (a year after the events). They found that the organisation of local cultural events acted as an instrument for improving the residents quality of life, who finally ended up supporting cultural tourism. However, a year later the limited number of cultural activities made the residents negative toward cultural tourism. According to the research, the length of residence was also a factor, which could explain the residents perceptions of cultural tourism, since the long-term residents tended to be negative toward it. This result was consistent with Brunt and Courtneys findings (1999). Gilbert and Clark (1997) concluded that the residents of two different cultural areas in the United Kingdom saw cultural tourism as a means of preserving their cultural heritage and supporting the local income. However, the high rates of tourism development had negative effects on the residents perceptions of cultural tourism. Similarly, Gursory et al. (2002) found that the residents in the southwest Virginia, USA, who lived in less developed tourist areas, were more positive toward cultural tourism. The development of cultural heritage can bring to prominence regions that are tourist underdeveloped or isolated, such as islands (Burns and Sancho, 2003; Smith, 2004). Thus, Agenda 21 attributes importance to the cultural heritage with reference to small islands and small communities, having recognized that these environments have rich and diverse cultures (UNCED, Http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21.htm). Concerning Greece, it is a country with plenty of cultural resources in the mainland as well as on the islands. However, Greece was deprived of a cultural tourist policy until 1992. Since then, culture has constituted a factor of significant importance for the planning of the national tourist policy. The aim of this study was to measure the residents perceptions of cultural tourism on a Greek island, Andros, which is characterized by rich cultural resources. More specifically, the research questions were: 63
Has cultural tourism contributed to the fields of economy, culture and community on the island? Can the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the residents influence their perceptions of cultural tourism?
THE STUDY AREA Andros is situated in the northern part of the southern Aegean Sea and it has 41 kilometers length, 17 kilometers width and 111 kilometers perimeter. Its total land area is approximately 380 square kilometers of which only the 10% is cultivated. The islands surface is a mountainous landscape with a lot of capes, while the plains are very limited. The climate of Andros is characterized by intense humidity, strong winds during the summer period and northern winds during winter. Andros has 10,009 residents, while during the summer period the population can reach a number of 34,000 people. The active population is 3,567 people, of which 29% are occupied in the primary sector (mainly in stock farming), 27% in the second and 44% in the tertiary one (Statistical Bureau, 2001). The islands economic development is heavily based on tourism, trade and shipping. he unemployment rate is around 18%, while the countrys unemployment rate is 10%. Andros is a classic case of cultural tourism development due to its cultural heritage and infrastructure. Culture is evident in a great number of sites on the island, including antiquities, Byzantine and post-Byzantine monuments, castles, medieval towers, neoclassical buildings, monasteries and churches, monuments of pre-industrial technology, museums, exhibition centers and a library. The proportion of the museum visitors is around the 8% of the total number of visitors to the island. In 2005 the number of the visitors to museums on the island was around 45,000. The rich cultural and architectural heritage of the island, in combination with its improving infrastructure and proximity to the Capital, has leaded to an increasing number of tourists on the island. Since the 1980s, Andros has experienced high rates of growth, providing a mass of services and facilities to support tourism, such as hotels, rooms to let, taverns, bars, cafes, craft stores etc. Nowadays, 31 hotels, 134 rooms to let, and 174 restaurants and caf-bars can be found on the island. A proportion of these tourist-related businesses, which are the 50% of the total number of enterprises on the island, are owned by the local people and managed by their family members. 64
During the summer period the island is heavily dependent on visitors and it is one of the most popular trip destinations in Greece. In 1997 it was estimated that around 54,000 domestic and foreign tourists visited the island, of which the 69% were Greeks.
METHODOLOGY A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect primary data for this study (July-August 2005). The questionnaire gathered information about major sociodemographic and economic characteristics of 350 residents in Andros. Moreover, the study measured the residents perceptions of cultural tourism, relating to the fields of economy, community and culture. Three general limitations of the study can be identified. First, the survey was carried out during the tourist season (the months of July and August), which is a heavy populated period for the island, and this fact enabled permanent as well as temporary residents of the island to respond to the questionnaire. Second, all the participants were aged 18 and over. At last, only one adult from each household could respond to the questionnaire. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics for calculating the means and standard deviations of continuous variables and the frequencies and percentages of categorical variables. The correlation between the residents characteristics and the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands development was studied using multiple linear regression analysis. The empirical regression model was defined as follows: Yi = 0 + 1 1 + 22 + + 14X14 + i Yi : Dependent variable 0, 1, 2 14 : Regression model parameters 1 , 2 X14 : Independent variables i : Error term The dependent variable was measured with the following statement: "Due to cultural tourism, Andros is characterized by a rapid development" and it was based on the residents responses to a 5-point scale: by no means, little, moderate, much, very much. The independent variables included the respondents sex, age, occupation, birthplace, place of permanent residence, length of residence, benefits from the tourism industry, the contribution of tourism to investment, the image of the area,
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culture exploitation, sea transportation and the reasons why the respondents chose the island for their residence (Table 1). Table 1. List of variables
Variable Development Sex Age Occupation Birthplace Permanent Years Benefit Seatransport Investment Image Exploitation Awaycities Calm Bringchild Type Categorical Binary Continuous Binary Binary Binary Continuous Binary Categorical Categorical Categorical Categorical Binary Binary Binary Description Due to cultural tourism, Andros is characterized by a rapid development (1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much) 1 if respondent is male; 0 otherwise Years of age 1 if respondent is employed; 0 otherwise 1 if Andros is the birthplace of respondent; 0 otherwise 1 if respondent is permanent resident in Andros; 0 otherwise Length of residence in Andros (years) 1 if respondent is economically dependent on tourism in a personal or family level; 0 otherwise Cultural tourism impact on sea transportation (1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much) Cultural tourism impact on investments (1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much) Cultural tourism impact on the image of the area (1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much) Cultural tourism impact on culture exploitation (1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much) 1 if respondent chose the island for being away from cities; 0 otherwise 1 if respondent chose to stay on the island for calm; 0 otherwise 1 if respondent chose the island for childrens upbringing; 0 otherwise
FINDINGS Sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the sample According to the data analysis, the majority of the respondents (52%) were men. Most of the individuals were married (63%) and the average number of children per respondent was two. The respondents, on average, 66
were 41.4 years old, had attended high school (38%) and were employed mainly in the private sector (33%) or their personal business (25%). Table 2. Sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the respondents
Characteristics Gender Marital Status Education Men Women Married Unmarried Primary school Junior high school High school Undergraduate studies University Postgraduate studies Other Employee in the civil sector Employee in the private sector Entrepreneur Sailor Constructional worker Technician Housewife Non employed <1,000 1,001-2,000 2,001-3,000 3,001-4,000 4,001-5,000 >5,001 Yes No Permanent Non permanent Respondents (n=350) % 52 48 63 37 3 10 38 7 23 4 15 9 33 25 5 2 1 10 15 14 36 21 12 6 10 41 59 87 13
Occupation
Monthly family income ()
Economically dependency on tourism Type of residence
Thirty six percent of the sample had a monthly family income ranged from 1,000 to 2,000, income particularly poor, since most of the respondents were economically dependent on tourism (41%) in a personal or family level, which is characterized by seasonality. Eighty seven percent of the sample was permanent residents who had lived on the island an average of 25 years. Escape from urban centers, employment opportunities and the fact that the island is regarded as an appropriate
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place for the childrens upbringing leaded mainly the respondents to choose Andros for their area of residence. The most important sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 2. Residents perceptions of cultural tourism In recent years a rapid tourism growth has been taking place on Andros due to cultural tourism. In fact, the local cultural heritage is believed to attract tourists to the island and, therefore, the locals regarded it as an important (44%) or even extremely important factor (42%) for the islands tourism growth. Besides, the majority of the respondents (99%) were agreeable to the conservation and exploitation of the islands cultural resources as a means of promoting tourism growth. However, the results suggested that there is a major disappointment (71%) with the infrastructure related to hotels of the island. The respondents were asked to express their opinion about the impacts of cultural tourism regarding the fields of economy, culture and community. In general, the mean responses indicate that cultural tourism has improved moderately the development of the island and the islanders quality of life (Table 3). Table 3. Residents perceptions of the impacts of cultural tourism on the following issues*
Variables Employment opportunities Image of area Increasing number of local cultural events Greater knowledge of culture Culture exploitation Local development with quick rates Mean** 3.1 3.4 2.8 2.9 2.8 2.7 Standard Deviation 1.12 0.88 0.96 0.87 0.86 0.93
*To what extent cultural tourism has contributed to the following issues? **Scale: 1=by no means, 2=little, 3=moderate, 4=much, 5=very much
More specifically, the respondents claimed that cultural tourism has generated new employment opportunities, mainly for young adults and women, thus providing a solution to tourism seasonality (mean=3.1). The respondents also felt that cultural tourism has positively contributed to the image of the island (mean=3.4). Cultural tourism has rendered Andros to a more famous trip destination and more attractive to visitors and inhabitants alike, due to a lot of sites on the island and its favourable climate. 68
As to the rest of the variables (i.e. increasing number of local cultural events, greater cultural knowledge, culture exploitation and local development with quick rates), their mean may well indicate that the residents believed that the current level of cultural tourism has not influenced them to a great extent. More specifically, the islanders supported that cultural tourism has contributed to the increasing number of local events to a moderate extent (mean= 2.8), since local events (such as food festivals) are organised on the island during the summer period only. Furthermore, local authorities do not support enough the organisation of the cultural events on the island during the whole period. In an effort to encourage cultural tourism, specific support measures have been taken, including the restoration of churches and monasteries and the re-establishment of traditional paths, windmills and watermills. However, the protection of archaeological monuments is still one of the most serious problems on the island and therefore the respondents argue that cultural tourism has moderately contributed to the culture exploitation (mean= 2.8). According to the above, cultural tourism has contributed to the quick development of the island to a moderate extent (mean= 2.7). Residents characteristics and the contribution of cultural tourism to the local development The corellation between the residents characteristics and the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands development was studied using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of regression analysis are presented in Table 4. Only the 9% of the residents believed that cultural tourism has not contributed to the rapid tourism growth on the island, while the 29% of them believed that cultural tourism has contributed to the islands development little and the 45% to a moderate extent. At last, 16% of the sample supported that cultural tourism has contributed to the islands local development to a great extent. Conversely to other studies, in the present study the demographic characteristics of the sample, such as sex and occupation, did not seem to influence the residents perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands local development. On the other hand, the residents perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands development were influenced by age. The older residents had positive perceptions about the impacts of cultural tourism on the islands development. 69
Table 4. Residents characteristics and the contribution of cultural tourism to the local development
Variables Constant Sex Age Occupation Birthplace Permanent Years Benefit Seatransport Investment Image Exploitation Awaycities Calm Bringchild Adjusted R-squared statistic F-statistic Coefficient -1.413*** -0.033 0.006* -0.116 0.277*** 0.486*** -0.010*** 0.151* 0.213*** 0.098** 0.296*** 0.317*** -0.078 -0.039 -0.047 0.425 19.402 t-ratio -2.982 -0.418 2.005 -1.221 2.790 3.256 -3.352 1.864 4.806 2.268 6.124 6.285 -0.840 -0.417 -0.549
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Furthermore, the respondents for whom Andros was their place of origin had more positive perceptions about the impacts of cultural tourism on the islands development, suggesting that cultural tourism could promote the rapid local development of the island to a great extent. Similarly, the permanent residents were more positive toward the contribution of cultural tourism to the local insular development, while the temporary residents were more critical about it. In fact, the latter were concerned about the potential changes in the areas landscape caused by tourism growth while the former favoured cultural tourism contribution to the islands development. The permanent residents are able to have a more thorough opinion about the effects of tourism and cultural tourism specifically, since they stay on the island throughout the year and not during the summer only. The temporary residents see Andros as a place for calm and relaxation, and they do not therefore want anything that could disturb their calm. In accordance with Bachleitner and Zins (1999) and Brunt and Courtney (1999), the length of permanent residence was supposed to influence the residents perceptions of cultural tourism. The longer people lived on the island, the more negative they were in terms of the contribution of cultural tourism to the local development. These people are not aware of the importance of cultural tourism and are circumspect toward any field of development. 70
The dependency on tourism activities influenced also the residents perceptions of cultural tourism. Those who had an involvement with the tourism related industry were more favoured cultural tourism contribution to the islands development. Andros, as a peripheral and isolated region, faces multiple development constraints, such as less developed transport links with the mainland. The residents perceptions of the cultural tourism impacts on the proximity to the island influenced their perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the local development. The residents perceptions of cultural tourism were also influenced significantly by the investments of local authorities. The more the residents believed that local authorities were interested in the tourism development of the island, the more they argued that cultural tourism could contribute to the insular development. In general, the respondents were disappointed with the activities of local authorities in terms of the tourism development on the island. The residents believed that local authorities are not concerned about the training of the locals on the tourism sector, do not promote the image of the island to a great extent and do not support alternative types of tourism. Moreover, the residents perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the greater local development were influenced significantly by the impacts of cultural tourism on the image of the island. The more the respondents believed that cultural tourism could make Andros more famous, the more positive they were toward the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands development. The promotion of the image of an area is an important factor, since in this way the residents reciprocity, community pride and ethnic identity are strengthened. Furthermore, the residents attitudes toward the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands development were influenced by the exploitation of cultural resources. The exploitation of the islands cultural resources was related to the positive perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the local development, making thus the residents friendlier toward cultural tourism. Conversely, the reasons why the respondents chose the island for their residence did not seem to influence the respondents perceptions of the contribution of cultural tourism to the islands local development.
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CONCLUSIONS Cultural tourism brings benefits to the host communities and provides an important motive for them to care for and maintain their heritage and cultural practices. It is an alternative tourism strategy with economic, social, cultural, educational and ecological dimensions, aiming at the sustainable local development. Based on a sample of 350 residents on a Greek island, this study tried to measure the residents perceptions of cultural tourism. The results indicated that the majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of cultural tourism and they argued that cultural tourism contributes to the local development but not to a great extent. The findings also suggested that there is a strong relationship between the respondents characteristics and their perceptions of the impacts of cultural tourism on the islands development. In particular, the elderly residents, those who were permanent, had a business relation with tourism and for whom Andros was their place of origin represented the group within the insular population that believed that due to cultural tourism Andros is characterized by a rapid development, regardless of their sex and occupation. Furthermore, the residents positive perceptions of the impacts of cultural tourism on the image of the island, culture exploitation, investments and sea transportation have leaded them to a positive attitude toward cultural tourism. However, a more detailed study of the residents background in terms of their own travel experiences and their participation in the events of the island may prove to be a significant factor in explaining their attitude toward cultural tourism. The involvement and co-operation of local and indigenous community representatives, tourism operators, property owners and policy makers is necessary in order to achieve a sustainable tourism industry and enhance the protection of heritage resources for future generations. The populations active participation in the arts, the increasing opportunities for artists, the preservation and promotion of cultural resources and other alternative types of tourism, such as agrotourism, religious tourism etc., are some of the practices for supporting cultural tourism on the island.
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REFERENCES Asplet, M. & Cooper, M. (2000). Cultural design in New Zealand souvenir clothing: The question of authenticity. Tourism Management, Vol. 21, No.3, pp.307-312. Bachleitner, R. & Zins, A. (1999). Cultural tourism in rural communities: The residents perspective. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 44, No.3, pp.199-209. Balcar, M. & Pearce, D. (1996). Heritage tourism on the west coast of New Zealand. Tourism Management, Vol. 17, No.3, pp.203-212. Barnett, C. (2001). Culture, policy and subsidiary in the European Union: From symbolic identity the governmentalisation of culture. Political Geography, Vol. 20, No.4, pp.405-426. Brunt, P. & Courtney, P. (1999). Host perceptions of sociocultural impacts. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 26, No.3, pp.491-515. Burns, P. & Sancho, M. (2003). Local perceptions of tourism planning: The case of Cuellar, Spain. Tourism Management, Vol. 24, No.3, pp.331-339. Cabrini, L. (2002). Cultural heritage and tourism development. Paper presented at the International Conference on Heritage, New Technologies and Local Development. Ghent, Belgium: 11-13 September 2002. Callegar, F. (2003). Sustainable development prospects for Italian coastal cultural heritage: A Ligurian case study. Journal of Cultural Heritage, Vol. 4, No.1, pp.49-56. Getz, D. (1994). Residents attitudes towards tourism: A longitudinal study in Spey Valley, Scotland. Tourism Management, Vol. 15, No.4, pp.247-258. Gilbert, D. & Clark, M. (1997). An explanatory examination of tourism impact, with reference to residents attitudes, in the cities of Canterbury and Guildford. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 14, No.6, pp.343-352. Grnewald, R. (2002). Tourism and cultural revival. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 29, No.4, pp.1004-1021. Gursory, D., Jurowski, C. & Uysay, M. (2002). Resident attitudes: A structural modelling approach. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 29, No.1, pp.79105. Haralambopoulos, N. & Pizam, A. (1996). Perceived impacts of tourism: The case of Samos. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 23, No.3, pp.503-526. Howard, P. & Pinder, D. (2003). Cultural heritage and sustainability in the coastal zone: Experiences in southwest England. Journal of Cultural Heritage, Vol. 4, No.1, pp.57-68. Konsola, D. (1993). Cultural tourism and regional development: Some proposals for cultural itineraries. In D. Konsola (Eds.) Culture, Environment and Regional Development, Athens: Regional Development Institute. Korca, P. (1996). Residents attitudes toward tourism impacts. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 23, No.3, pp.695-726. MacDonald, R. & Jolliffe, L. (2003). Cultural rural tourism: Evidence from Canada. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No.2, pp.307-322.
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McHale, S. (2004). Definition of cultural tourism. Australia, Development of Culture and the Arts Government of Western Australia. Medina, L. (2003). Commoditizing culture: Tourism and Maya identity. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No.2, pp.353-368. Perdue, R., Long, P. & Kang, Y.S. (1999). Boomtown tourism and resident quality of life: The marketing of gaming to host community residents. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 44, No.3, pp.165-177. Prentice, R. & Andersen, V. (2003). Evoking Ireland. Modeling Tourist Propensity. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 27, No.2, pp.490-516. Ryan, C. & Montgomery, D. (1994). The attitudes of Bakewell residents to tourism and issues in community responsive tourism. Tourism Management, Vol. 15, No.5, pp.358-369. Silbergerg, T. (1995). Cultural tourism and business opportunities for museums and heritage sites. Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No.5, pp.361-365. Smith, M. (2004). Seeing a new side to seasides: Culturally regenerating the English seaside town. International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 6, No.1, pp.17-28. Statistical Bureau (2001). Greece. Stebbins, R. (1997). Identity and cultural tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 27, No.2, pp.450-452. Strauss, C. & Lord, B. (2001). Economic impacts of a heritage tourism system. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 8, No.1, pp.199-204. Taylor, J. (2001). Authenticity and sincerity in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 28, No.1, pp.7-26. Thompson, M. (1998). Cultural tourism. Washington Heritage Bulletin, Vol. 20, No.4, pp.1-4. UNCED, Agenda 21. (2006) Http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21.htm. Accessed the 20 th of March 2006, at 13:30. Waitt, G. (2000). Consuming heritage. Perceived historical authenticity. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 27, No.4, pp.835-862. World Tourism Organisation (1985). Developing Tourism. Xie, P. & Wall, G. (2002). Visitors perceptions of authenticity at cultural attractions in Hainan, China. International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 4, No.5, pp.353-366.
SUBMITTED: MARCH 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: JUNE 2007 ACCEPTED: JULY 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Despina Sdrali (dsdrali@hua.gr) is a Lecturer at Harokopio University, Department of Home Economics and Ecology, 70 El. Venizelou Str., 176 71, Kallithea, Athens, Greece. 74
Katerina Chazapi is a teacher of Home Economics at the Empirikio High School of Andros, Hora Androu, 845 00, Andros, Greece.
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EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR TOURIST GUIDES: EVIDENCE FROM EGYPT
Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy University of Alexandia
1
Tourist Guides, like all employees within the travel (Tourism) industry must be aware of the needs of travelers (Tourists) and adjust their service and products accordingly, to accomplish this goal TGs are expected to process knowledge of guiding. This paper measures the degree of the influence of the area of study and the level of knowledge on experienced TGs through a study conducted on 200 of 6846 the working population of TGs in 2005, licensed to work in the field by the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt. The study used a self-administered questionnaire that revealed important results showing defects in the areas of study and shortage in the knowledge background of the TGs to a certain extend. The conclusion of the study will propose a guiding scheme to develop a certain standard of education and knowledge needed by TGs in Egypt in their drive towards professional recognition, in order to be able to perform effectively in an increasingly competitive field. Keywords: tour guides (TG), area of study, knowledge background, Egypt
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND At the start of the millennium tourism was recognized as the number one industry (WTO, 2007b) dedicated to encouraging people to travel for pleasure and business (Collins, 2002), and as being the world's fastest expanding and largest industry in the world (Saayman et al., 2003), it had a considerable impact on local development trends in terms of foreign exchange earning and job creation (GDRC, 2007). Tourism showed a positive growth rate since 1950 as the number of international arrivals was only 25m., and as the result of the rising interest in art, culture and history, Cultural tourism had undergone a rapid growth (Munters et al., 2005), and the number of international arrivals reached in 2005 806m. (WTO, 2007a) corresponding to an average annual growth rate of 6.5%. It is noteworthy to mention that traveling from one place to another throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was encouraged by
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Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy
the urge to explore or to research (Ponds, 1993). By the nineteenth century Egypt as becoming a center of historic and cultural activities witnessed its first major development specifically after the French expedition to Egypt in 1798-1801, as it led to the revealing of the Egyptian heritage and encouraging the desire for travel to Egypt (Soliman, 1996). The book of Vivant Denon Voyage dans la basse et l'haute gypte that was published in 1802, and the Discription d'Egypte published in 1809-1829 that consisted of four folio volumes of text on antiquities, two (in three parts) on the tate moderne, and two (in five parts) on natural history. Plus five grand folio volume of plates covered Egyptian antiquities (Reid, 2002), in addition to the numerous drawings of Dozatte, Marilihatte, Brechmier, Terome, Frontan, Dongon, Market, and Figier featuring the beauty of Egypt, were a kind of indirect advertising to travel to Egypt, travelers started pouring to Egypt in large numbers seeking either knowledge or fortune (Diab, 1994). The flourishing of roads, trade, and economy in general, led to the expansion of travel industry (Clot, 1982), the number of transit customers through Egypt leaped from 275 in 1844 to 3,000 in 1847 (Reid, 2002), and due to the remarkable increase in the number of travelers between the years 1848 1879 (El-Rafey, 1948), the government started issuing regulations to organize the services offered to the travelers, who spent a lot of 60-80 during three months stay in Egypt (Reid, 2002). Among the first services was the tour guide (TG) who emerged immediately as a result of the expansion of the industry of travel, and he became the intermediary between the region and the visitors. Abbas I as the ruler of Egypt from 1848 to 1854 issued the 1849 regulation stating that only licensed TGs by the government would be allowed to conduct visitors through the different sites in Egypt for a fee of 150 Egyptian piaster which was considered enough for the TG to lead a wealthy life. The 1849 regulation covered conduct and even personal cleanliness. Also, TGs were required to get a certificate from the visitors themselves to prove that they adequately performed in their work (Diab, 1994). This procedure was to protect both visitors and TGs. By all accounts, licensing improved the quality of the TGs and improved their status. The previous was followed by the inauguration of the Suez Canal as an international event on the 17th of November 1869, and the number of tourists increased to 77,776, after it was 17,435 tourists in the year 1848 (Diab, 1994) reflects an increase of 346.1% in the number of tourists. Since then and onwards the twentieth century, Heritage attractions generated tourism (Papathanasiou-Zurt et al., 2005) towards Egypt and 78
heritage tourism - as defined by the UNESCO (UNESCO, 2007) in the Paris convention 1972 - became the primary product of tourism that gained significant attention as a political and economic engine for local and national interest, and generated new social relations and new ways of living (Tazim et al., 2005; Jamison, 1995). Substantially Egypt became a major destination and the number of tourists in 2005 reached 8.2m. corresponding to 21.1% of the international tourist arrivals to the Middle East (WTO, 2007a). Thus, in the growing movement toward organizing and professionally accrediting positions within the travel industry, the Ministry of Tourism was established. TGs developed a deeper understanding of their field, by the year 1965 the first official TG association was founded. In 1983 the EGTGS Egyptian Tourist Guides Syndicate the largest tourist guide association in Africa was created (EGTGS, 2006). It established a very sophisticated database about their members in order to maintain working conditions for guides including salaries, benefits, and status (Khalifa, 2005).
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY According to WFTGA (The World Federation Tourist Guides Association), a TG, is the person that possesses a licence issued or recognized by the appropriate authority in the the country concerned, or where the domestic legislation of the country concerned does not provide for such licence, has received in-depth guide training leading to qualification and/or recognition by the relevant local, regional or national authority, is as well the one who guides visitors within that specific country or area of that country in order to provide special information and explanation on matters relating to the history, archeology, monuments and works of art, cultural development, natural beauty, places of intrest, and in general any matter which may promote the country for the purpose of tourism (WFTGA, 2003 & 2006) Therefore, guides, site interpreters as being the front line for sightseeing, the ones who gives commentary and makes visitors feel welcome in a specific destination, (Braidwood et al., 2000; Ham et al., 2000; Weiler et al., 2000; Omar et al., 1998; Ponds, 1993) need a certain level of education within the tourism sector - as being the largest service industry employing more people than any other industry, that need more education institutions offering tourim programmes among which is tour
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guide principles - in order to establish their identity and image (Saayman et al., 2003). In Egypt one who desires to work as a TG should be licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and be a member of the Egyptian Guides Syndicate according to articale (2) in the law issued in 1983 no. 121 to organize the work of TGs in Egypt (Ministry of Tourism, 1983). So certified TG is either one (aged 21 years and above with no graduation limition) who is required to pass a formal licensing tests in fundamental knowledge of Egypt history, museums, cultural attraction and a foreign language that is developed by the Ministry of Tourism articale (3), or a graduate of a Faculty of Tourism, guiding department, (such as the Faculty of Tourism in Alexandria). As a result the number of licensed TGs in Egypt showed an almost steady percentage increase since 1983 till 2005 (Table 1), apart from that year 1993, as the percentage was 123.16 which is considered a very high percentage, and that was a result of the increase of the number of graduates of the faculties and institutions of Tourism established all over Egypt. And 2005 the percentage was 6.75 as the researcher started her research in March 2005, while the statistics are registered annually by the end of December. Based on the previous information, this study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of the areas of study, knowledge background and personal skills on experienced working TGs in Egypt. In order to measure the affect of the level of education on being a professional TG, the range of knowledge and to what extend it affects his relationship with tourists, all enveloped with his personal skills that is considered as an important factor to be a professional TG. In essence, this means presenting descriptive statistics based on the opinion of the respondents to determine: the sides of strength and weakness in education, knowledge background and personal skills of experienced working TGs in Egypt in an attempt to propose a guiding scheme for curriculum designing, with the hope to initiate new debates and ideas, and to determine the key knowledge and skills required by TGs, to perform professionally in the field of tourism.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY The study was testing two main hypotheses stated as follows: H1: The efficiency of TGs is affected by the knowledge background. H2: The efficiency of TGs is affected by the personal skills.
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Table 1. Numbers of Tourist Guides in Egypt 1983-2005.

Year 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2005 No. of guides 1021 1533 3421 5223 7869 8400 % of growth 50.15 123.16 52.67 50.66 6.75
Source: (Ministry of Tourism, 1995/1996:131; 2003:105; Statistics driven from the syndicate).
METHODOLOGY The study is an analytical case study divided into two main sections. The reviews of literature displays a historical background on the industry of tourism focusing on Egypt and the evolution of the tour guiding business, the literature study was based on journal articles, books, and similar studies, the internet played a role in this study. The case study of which data was collected from the questionnaires distributed among a random sample of TGs. The questionnaire was mainly based on the study developed on previous studies (Collins, 2002; Braidwood, 2000; Ponds, 1993), the review of literature therein and the researcher view. Face validity and reliability of the questionnaire was applied through two experts; one in the field of tour guiding and one academic. The questionnaire was reviewed and according to the remarks given, the final version of the questionnaire included translation of the statements into Arabic to give freedom for the respondents who do not comprehend English to answer by the convenient language to him/her. The questionnaire was divided into four parts; the first part was concerned with evaluating TGs' areas of study, and consisted of fifteen statements to know to what extend the respondents beneficiated from his/her study. The second part was concerned with measuring the knowledge background of the TGs in eleven statements. The third part was consisted of seventeen statements to get acquainted with the personal skills of the TG. While the fourth part concluded nine statements focusing on the challenges that prevent a TG from professionalism. The respondents were required to answer according the Likert scale that ranges from (1) to (5), as (1) matches strongly disagree answer, while (5) matches strongly agree answer.
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TGs were requested to fill the questionnaire in aspect to their experience. Two hundred self-administered questionnaires were distributed by the researcher in the branches of the syndicate in Alexandria, Cairo and Luxor in March 2005, representing a sample size of about 2% of the total population of TGs and about 2.9% of the working population of TGs in Egypt. It took about seven months to complete distribution, that produced 140 questionnaires representing a response rate of 70%, It is noteworthy to mention that it was difficult to assemble a large number of TG in one time, for it is known that tour guiding is a freelance kind of work, and TGs are not committed to work definite working hours on a steady basis in an organization or institution.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The profile of the respondents highlighted specific characteristics of respondents related to gender, years of experience and level of education. The results revealed that male TGs which represent 70% of the respondents exceeded their female counterparts which represent 30%. This result is due to that the ratio of male TGs to females' about 2:1 (EGTGS, 2006). As for the work experience approximately 58% of the respondents were working in the field for a period that is less than 5 years, 28% their work experience ranges from 5 to 10 years, and only 5% had a work experience profile that is more than 20 years. An average of 95% of respondents obtained their license as being graduates of a Faculty of Tourism guiding department, (62% B.SC. graduate and 33% post graduate Diploma), while 5% undertaken the test developed by the Ministry of Tourism. Table 2 shows the results regarding the evaluation of the importance of the area of the study for TGs. According to the results collected from the respondents; the statements from S1-S4 acquired an average score that ranged between (4.4-4.1), S1 with an average score of (4.4) indicating that the areas of study of TGs need improvement as there were a kind of conformity of their need to read, read and read before arriving at any destination. As for the S2, S3and S4 with an average score of (4.2), (4.1) and (4.1) respectively enlighted that TGs demonstrated an understanding to several educational concepts of which TGs formulate a clear picture of their place and establish an appropriate professional path, although the
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previous learning concepts are not independent courses taught to students in the Faculty of Tourism, but they are relevant to learning from work. While the average score of the statements from S5-S14 dropping from above average (3.6) to average (3) clarified that several learning concepts such as research, business and marketing, public speaking skills and social skills are concepts that need improvement. Concerning the last statement with the least average score of (2.5), the respondents denied that what they have learned was not functional in their career path. Overall if we take a look at the final total average score (3.6), it is clear that this score is above average which means that areas of study undertaken by TGs need improvement and development, specially methodologies of research, psychology, business and marketing in the industry of Tourism and in TG business, customer service and customer behavior. For there is a world wide trend toward developing and adhering to high standards, educational and training programs to TGs, such as The Professional Guides Association of America (PGAA) established in 1987, that has created a Professional Development Committee to develop the first national designation for professionalism in guiding, the Certified Professional Guide (CPG) (Ponds, 1993), The professional Tour Guide of Australia Inc, (PTGAA), Association Professionnelle des Guide Touristiques (APGT) (WFTGA, 2000-2001). The Association of Professional Tourist Guides, and the Guild of registered Tourist Guides in London..ect. (Collins, 2002). All approved that TGs should have a pervasive understanding of many subject areas; transfer procedures, accommodation check-ins, conducting walking and coach tours, know how to research for different tours, how to deliver commentaries for different groups, environmental issues, show personal awareness, know how to sell excursions, execute administration and paperwork, use the microphone and ones voice, study law, customer care, body language, map reading, marketing and finding work, and get on with colleagues (Ponds, 1993).
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Statements 1 S1-I always read, read, and read before arriving at any destination. 1 4 1 4 4 4 7 6 10 5 23 6 15 15 33 149 7 4 16 4 11 11 24 12 18 13 19 27 20 17 26 24 28 38 273 8 6 9 13 9 14 19 14 12 19 17 20 27 11 8 8 6 14 18 17 37 28 37 26 33 50 25 53 56 49 43 496 3 S2-I was trained to give my clients over view of an area focusing on their particular interests. S3-I learnt exactly the guide's role, and how to fulfill a variety of functions. 1 5 5 5 10 9 S4-I learnt how to take care of my customers and delivering commentaries for day tours. S5-I learnt how to research for information using academic methods. S6-I know all the details about the monumental sites all over Egypt. S7-The business& marketing aspects of guiding that I learnt helped me in my business. S8-I learnt how to read a map during my study. S9-I was obliged to have course in travel& tourism before I was licensed to work as a guide. S10-Cultural awareness as one of the basic courses of guiding I had studied. S11-I received a course in safety& first aid that was very crucial for me during my tours. S12-The amount of study I received, was exactly required in the field. S13-My area of study covered a course in public speaking skills. S14- Social skills is one of the topics of study I had undertaken. S15-By the time I have finished school, half of what I have learned is non-functional. Total 5 2 4 10 2 3 7 10 13 12 26 20 26 19 24 36 18 38 40 35 31 Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. 4 48 46 58 48 45 60 42 52 36 43 32 29 34 32 21 626 34 33 41 34 32 43 30 37 26 31 23 21 24 23 15 % Freq. 5 76 67 52 62 41 29 38 34 34 22 43 26 11 16 5 556 54 48 37 44 29 21 27 24 24 16 31 19 8 11 4 4.4 4.2 4.1 4.1 3.8 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.3 3 3 2.5 3.6 % Average score
Table 2. Evaluation of the importance of the Areas of study for TGs
In table 3, S1 with an average score of (4.6), stated how the accumulated personal experience would benefit TG in his/her course of work. Followed by the statements S2-S5 with an average score that ranged between (4.5-4.3) highlighted on some of the enriching routine for TGs in their work path, as forming informative background of the local history of any destination, researching with passionate for new information, being environmentally aware and keeping updated with current event, for positive and passionate attitude of professional tour guide provide stimulating presentation, as passion is the essential ingredient for effective interpretation, as much passionate is TGs about people and their topic as they more likely to connect with the group (Fanning, 2005; Interpretation, principle & theory, 2007). S6 average score is (4), showed that the respondents did not feel any awkwardness in carrying light weight references in their bags. But S9 which scored (3.8) pointed that how the respondents political awareness would affect their attitude towards certain nationalities, as a matter of fact it is considered nearly high, for professional TGs should acquire a professional attitude in their business. The same would apply for S11 that posed a score mean of (3.4) showing that 48% of the respondents feel a sense of guilt and inadequacy for not having answers for all questions. By the end of the previous illustration the respondents in table (3) confirmed on the importance of the wide knowledge background for TGs, as it is obvious from the (4.1) total average score which proved H1. So TGs must be up to date with the latest in methods, technologies and trends, eventually continuous professional development is the major essential component for professionalism, and Rennie (2005) as a professional tourist guide marked that reading relevant books, visiting tourist attraction, subscribing to industry publication and journals, research, taking courses in customer service, attending seminars and workshops get TG prepared to exceed customers' expectations. Table 4 showed the results regarding the evaluation of personal skills for TGs, S1 with an average score of (4.5) showed how the respondents regard their work as an act of passion and a reflection of their interest. The same average score was acquired by S2 which displayed an important aspect in the business of tour guiding, and that TGs are asked to conduct different kinds of tours for a wide variety of travelers, so TGs should be understandable to the difference of the travelers.
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Statements 1 0 1 1 1 1 2 3 0 9 6 16 44 2 6 4 11 5 0 9 6 9 17 10 15 79 4 3 4 6 4 6 12 7 11 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 3 8 11 16 20 22 29 44 20 30 42 252 2 2 3 10 Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. 4 37 7 6 8 11 14 16 21 31 14 21 30 45 47 52 44 53 60 46 40 50 32 506 % Freq. 5 91 26 32 34 37 31 38 43 33 29 36 23 83 76 66 74 53 42 41 54 44 35 659 % Average score 65 59 54 47 53 38 30 29 39 31 25 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.3 4 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.4 4.1
Table3. Evaluation of the importance of the Knowledge background for TGs
S1-I benefit from others personal experience which add a special dimension to my commentary. S2-At the beginning of a tour day, I give a brief outline of the local history of the region. S3-I feel research is a pleasure, not a chore specially when traveling to areas I have passionate interest in. S4-En route of my tours, I give special attention to the natural environment (flora fauna, weather & geography) of the area. S5-I keep up to the minute about current events through radio, T.V., magazines, and daily newspapers. S6- I usually keep lightweight reference books tucked into my shoulder bag during my tours. S7- Although I am very busy, I find the time for reading. S8- I discovered by experience how unimportant so many of the things that we place enormous significance on, really are. S9-My awareness of national& international politics affects my attitude towards clients of certain nationality. S10-I have high sense of tasting arts. S11-I feel a sense of guilt and inadequacy for not having answers for all the questions. Total
Statements from 3 to 7 with an average score of (4.4) reflected several traits such as enthusiastic personality, decisive, well-organized and self-confident with high personal integrity. While S16 and S17 acquired a score mean of (3.7) stating that 37% of the respondents in S16 find some difficulty in remembering names faces and facts, and 42% in S17 do not have sense of direction which form a kind of inconsistency with what was mentioned in S5, as 89% of the respondents agreed to being detail-oriented and well-organized planner. According to the average score (4.3) of S8 and S9, 85% and 88% respectively of the respondents were self-starters that could work without supervision, disciplined and flexible. While S14 and S15 with an average score of (3.9), 26% and 33% respectively of the respondents see unexpected problems as obstacles, also they are not resourceful and not creative when faced with unexpected difficulty. It is obvious from the above that some of the respondents showed vagueness concerning some of the skills should be acquired by TGs. In S10, 85% of the respondents said that they have a great sense of humor as well as endless enthusiasm and energy. According to several researches enthusiasm plus the sense of humor in a TG would bring tourist and guide closer together through the guiding experience. Statements 11-13 showed an average score of (4.1), describing some of the qualities that I believe evitable for TG being emotionally steady and in good health. Rennie (2005) asserted that good and robust physical health and mental strength are amongst the TGs touring companion. The total average score (4.2), reflected the necessity of certain personal skills for professional TG which proved H2, and that goes matching to the results of several studies which picture an image of TG's important qualities. Stating that TG must be committed to lifelong learning (Ponds, 1993), therefore, they should acquire book-keeping experience, enjoy doing research, have an insatiable curiosity about the world and what makes people ticks (Rennie, 2005; Collins, 2002). Also these studies clarified that personal skills being qualities needed for effective guiding, some are natural and unteachable, but others must be taught or, at least, described and demonstrated; those are being enthusiastic, sensitive, self-confident, flexible, organized, with an out going, pleasant, proactive nature, sense of humor, good health, and charisma (Ponds, 1993).
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Statements 1 1 0 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 4 4 22 1 1 1 3 3 4 3 2 1 1 1 5 2 8 5 9 13 13 74 5 1 4 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 4 1 6 4 6 9 9 1 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 12 11 12 9 10 17 15 20 26 25 22 30 36 35 42 341 2 0 1 3 11 8 Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. 4 46 50 8 6 9 8 9 6 7 12 11 14 19 18 16 21 26 25 30 37 64 54 56 65 49 65 64 56 64 60 62 54 51 46 943 % Freq. 5 82 81 33 36 26 46 39 40 46 35 46 46 40 46 43 44 39 36 33 83 64 70 72 63 70 59 55 51 49 49 41 39 37 35 1000 % Average score 59 58 59 46 50 51 45 50 42 39 36 35 35 29 28 26 25 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.7 3.7 4.2 S1-I enjoy meeting and working with people of all backgrounds. S2-I am intrigued by respectful of different customs, even those that seems strange to me. S3-I love to travel anywhere and every where. S4-I am able to make decisions quickly when necessary and am willing to stand by my decisions. S5-I am detail-oriented, well-organized planner. S6-I am a good listener. S7-I have a strong sense of ethics. S8-I am a self-starter and work well without direct supervision. S9-I can plan and stick to a timetable, but I am also flexible and creative when I see unexpected opportunities. S10-I have a great sense of humor as well as endless enthusiasm and energy. S11-I have a steady, even temperament and seldom become flustered. S12-I seldom take a complaint personally, especially when it is about something I cannot control. S13-I am in good health, and am able to work for hours with the same stamina. S14-I see unexpected problems as challenges, not as obstacles. S15-I am resourceful and creative when faced with an unexpected difficulty. S16-I can remember names, faces, and facts easily. S17-I have a good sense of direction. Total
Table 4. Evaluation of the importance of the personal skills for TGs
Statements 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 3 5 4 19
Freq.
Freq.
Freq.
Freq.
Freq. 5 113 14
Average score 81 4.7
0 1 1 10 18 2 5 1 3 19 2 0 1 1 4 1 2 0 10 11 9 10 10 13 9 83 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 14
4 7 8 6 7 7 9 6
39 46 46 47 42 46 65 33 383
28 33 33 34 30 33 46 24
91 84 81 84 85 77 61 81 757
65 60 58 60 61 55 44 58
4.6 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.5
Table 5. Challenges preventing a tour guide from professionalism
1-To be a guide (to introduce visitors to their regions, to facilitate an environment of learning and exchange, and to be of service to travelers.) is a privilege and joy. 2-To formulate a broad-based knowledge about the region. 3- Must have a thorough understanding of their industry and their place within it. 4-Must have an understanding of his/her business. 5-Must learn a great deal about a variety of subjects. 6-Using many resource materials to expand knowledge about a variety of subjects. 7-Must be committed to life-long learning. 8-Be sensitive towards people, their needs, their beliefs and feelings. 9-Without real passion, a guide's knowledge is essentially meaningless. Total
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Table 5 attained a total average score of (4.5), as the respondents acknowledged that without the thorough understanding of the industry of Tourism, the nature of nowadays tourist (McCabe, 2005), and the place of TG within, his roles and duties as being ambassador, diplomat, entertainer, historian, psychologist, translator, mind reader and miracle worker, would formulate challenges preventing a TG from professionalism. Therefore, TGs should have an out-going personality with solid preparation and lots of hard work, depending on some formal education, keeping open to every possible way of improving his/her knowledge background. Also need to know employers working in the tourism industry to stand in a better position and solve any problem may occur with clients or colleagues (Braidwood et al., 2000). Furthermost TGs should know how to arise the audience imagination, to enrich the visitor's experience, to provoke curiosity and interest and to reveal a memorable experience (Papathanasiou et al., 2005; Coccossis, 2005; Rusk, 1994; Ponds, 1993).
CONCLUSION The study revealed some defects in the areas of study undertaken by the tour guides in academic institutions in Egypt, as it seems that most if not all the courses focus on; History of Egypt during different eras, History of Egyptian arts, Ancient Egyptian civilization, and Egyptian monuments (Faculty of Tourism, Alexandria University) (Ministry of Tourism, 2003). However, the research showed an interaction connection among the area of study, knowledge background and personal skills. For the respondents depended in their work mostly on expanding their knowledge background by depending on others personal experience, forming a solid background on a destination region through research and studying the environment of the surrounding, following the current national and international events through the media, but that does not prevent him/her from keeping lightweight references books during his/her tours, and investing time in reading and tasting arts. On the other hand, the respondents' beneficiated from their nature given personal skills in a freelance kind of work, as they showed real enjoyment in working with no formal restrains, under different circumstances and in different places, but with a sense of responsibility and ethics toward the clients as being detail-oriented, well-organized and good listener. Also they demonstrated the importance of being flexible 90
and creative with a sense of humor, enthusiasm and energy, in addition to being in good health and emotionally steady.
RECOMMENDATION AND IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY Relating to importance of tourist guiding in the tourism industry, Coccossis (2005) suggested that TGs need to be carefully selected, trained, motivated, monitored and regularly evaluated. So, it seems to be essential to educate guides in the best manner possible, and attempting to create a national theme curriculum among academic institutions and tour guide syndicate, by developing the educational programs adhered by the institutions, and the training courses organized by the syndicate under the sponsor-ship of the Ministry of Tourism, in order to deliver a well educated and trained tour guide capable of taking care of his/her customers, able to make places come alive, informative, interesting, and entertaining. As it is important to note that in Egypt professional guides are required to attain a certain standard of performance, however, guiding departments does not offer guide training, and guides who are willing to be trained in the field either are self-taught or learnt from other experienced guides, in some cases work as a local guide in one region. So it could be said that a guide , as a representative of his/her country, obliged to be culturally literate meaning one who provides a skilled, knowledgeable presentation, informs, interprets and highlights the surroundings and maintains objectivity and enthusiasm in a courteous and polite manner. Therefore, this study could propose some future research studies for guides that possibly would be adopted by the academic institutions, in order to lead TGs to form a deeper understanding of the industry of tourism and the TG within and to promote professionalism in an increasingly competitive field. These topics are suggested to be divided into two categories; core and additional courses: The core courses could inbound concepts and characteristics of Tourism, nature and characteristics of Tourists, history of Egypt in different eras, geography, architecture of Egypt in different eras and art history of Egypt in different eras. While the additional courses that would form a kind of balance and development in both knowledge and skills of TGs might include interpretation, communication skills, social skills, public speaking skills, cross culture understanding, ethics, business and marketing aspects of guiding and safety and first aid. Also we could follow the foot steps of the University of Cyprus and form useful links with the WFTGA to make 91
guiding skills more marketable and improve the standards of tourist guiding through a series of international seminars for enhancing tourist guide techniques and upgrading the standards of tourist guiding (WFTGA, 2007).
REFERENCES Braidwood, B., Boyce, S. M. & Cropp, R. (2000). Tour guiding business. Canada, international self-council press. Clot, A.B. (1982). General Glimpse to Egypt. Cairo, Al-Mawkef: Vol. 4. Coccossis, H. (2005). Operational management of cultural and heritage sites. In International Culture Tourism: management, implication and cases. Oxford, Elsevier. Collins, V. R. (2002). Becoming a tour guide, the principle of guiding and site interpretation. London, continuum. Diab, El-S. T. (1994). Tourism in Egypt during the ninteenth century. Cairo, General Egyptian association of book. El-Rafeey, A. R. (1948). The period of Ismail Pasha. Cairo, El-Feker: Vol. I.. EGTGS. (2006). Egyptian Tourist Guides Syndicate. Http://www.egtgs.com/ sindacato/. Accessed the 5 th of June 2005 & the 9 th of September 2006, at 11:00. Fanning, C. (2005). Language Interpretation and Tourist guides- Reflecting issues and education. Paper presented at the 11th WFTGA Convention. Melbourne, Australia: 30th of January- 4th of February 2005 Ham, S. H. & Weiler, B. (2000). Six principles for Tour Guides Training and Sustainable Development in Developing countries. Paper presented at 9th Nordic Research Conference. Bornholm, Denmark: 12-15 October 2000. Jamison, W. (1995). Preserving our past through heritage tourism, developing a heritage industry. Salt Lake, Utah, Heritage Tourism Plan. GDRC. (2007). The Global Development Research Center. International Council on Local environmental initiatives. Tourism and Sustainable Development. http:www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/iclei.pdf. Accessed the 21 st of January 2007, at 10:00. Interpretation, principle & theory. (2007). http://www.lews.uhi.ac.uk/about/ research/Heritage%202005/html/interpretation.html. Accessed the 23 rd of January 2007, at 10:30. Khalifa, A. (2005). The state of tourist guides in Egypt in the last two years. Speaker notes at 11th WFTGA Convention. Melbourne, Australia: 30 January - 4 February 2005. McCabe, S. (2005). Who is tourist?: A critical review. Tourist studies, Vol. 5, No.1, pp.85-106. Ministry of Tourism. (1983). Law no.121 concerning tour guide and their syndicate. Cairo. Ministry of Tourism. (2003). Tourism in figures. Cairo.
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Munters, W. & Freund de Klumbis, D. (2005).Culture as a component of hospitality product. In International Cultural Tourism: management, implications and cases. Oxford, Elsevier. Omar, A. & Hawkins, D. (1998). Tour guide principles. Cairo, Helwan University. Papathanasiou-Zurt, D. & Skellaridis, O. (2005). Destination information marketing and management systems and sustainable heritage tourism development. In International Culture Tourism: management, implication and cases. Oxford, Elsevier. Ponds, K. L. (1993). The professional guide, Dynamics of tour guiding. NewYork, John Weily. Reid, D. M. (2002). Whose Pharaohs? Cairo, AUC press. Rennie, P. (2005). Healthy tips for Healthy trips. Speaker notes at the 11th WFTGA Convention. Melbourne, Australia: 30 January - 4 February 2005. Rusk, P. H. (1994). Interpretation, A Road to Creative Enlightenment. CRM, Vol. 17, No.2, pp.37-40. Saayman, M., Steynberg, L. & Slabbert, E. (2003). A Global Tourism curriculum - organising pieces in the puzzel. Commercium, Vol. 4, No.1, pp.7-19. Soliman, M. (1996). Foreigners in Egypt - A study on the history of social life in Egypt. Cairo, Ein. Tazim, J. & Hyounggon, K. (2005). Bridging the interdisciplinary divide: Towards an integrated framework for heritage tourism research. Tourist studies, Vol. 5, No.1, pp.55-83. UNESCO. (2007). Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. Paris, France: 17 October - 21 November 1972. Http://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf. Accessed the 22 nd of January 2007, at 09:50. Weiler, B. & Ham, H. S. (2000). Tour Guide Training: Lessons for Malaysia about What Works and What's Needed. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Malaysia Business in the New Era. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 25 February 2000. WFTGA. (2000-2001). The Internet Magazine of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Association. Guidelines Internetion@l. Issue 1, Issue 3, August 2000, Spring 2001. Http://www.wftga.org/guidelines/guidelines1.htm. Accessed the 11 th of August 2003 & the 9 th of September 2006, at 11:45. Http://www.org/guidelines/issue-spring-2001.doc. Accessed the 11 th of August 2003, at 10:00. WFTGA. (2003 & 2006). World Federation of Tourist Guide Association. Http://www. wftga.org/. Accessed the 11 th of August 2003, at 09:00. Http://www. wftga.org/page.asp?id=15. Accessed the 9 th of September 2006, at 12:00. WFTGA (2007). Cyprus Weekly, Tourist guide seminars begin. World Federation of Tourist Guide Association. Http://www.wftga. org/cw20060203044.pdf. Accessed the 21 st of January 2007, at 09:30. WTO. (2007a). World Tourism Organization. Http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/ historical.htm. Accessed the 21 st of January 2007, at 10:45.
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WTO. (2007b). World Tourism Organization. Http://www.world-tourism.org/ aboutwto/eng/aboutwto.htm. Accessed the 21 st of January 2007, at 10.00.
SUBMITTED: FEBRUARY 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: APRIL 2007 ACCEPTED: MAY 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy (omnikhair2004@yahoo.co.uk), University of Alexandia, Faculty of Tourism, Alexandria, Egypt.
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TOURISM AND THE CITY: OPPORTUNITY FOR REGENERATION

Rossana Galdini University of Calabria
Urban tourism is in full expansion due to world-wide urbanisation and internationalisation of our societies. New economic impulse created by investments in urban regeneration, and improving the quality of life, produces different consequences. This paper tries to examines the benefits and costs which tourism has on host environments, economies and societies and analyses the strategic conditions which can assist cities to revitalise their territory, through a coherent tourism policy. An Italian case study, Genoa is used to illustrate some of these impact issues. Genoa, after a deep crisis, has regained a new identity and its role in the Italian economic and social system. The paper provides a critical approach of how places of cultural significance are transformed into places of consumption by investigating the relationship between culture as a resource for identity and culture as an economic resource. Keywords: urban tourism, regeneration, culture, environment, sustainability
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INTRODUCTION Approximately 80 % of Europes population lives in cities and towns, making Europe the worlds most built-up continent and the urban question one of the major issues for future years. European cities reveal the problems that face European society as a whole: traffic, pollution, lawlessness and unemployment. They are not just the main places in which wealth is created and the focus of cultural and social development, however, but places where people live and work, shop and enjoy leisure pursuits. Renewed interest in urban tourism since the beginning of the 1980s has brought about a sharp upturn in this kind of tourism. Various interlinked factors have played a part in this process: the need to breathe life back into and rehabilitate the historic centres of towns and cities, wider-ranging and more diversified cultural pursuits, consumers interest
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in the heritage and urban development and their search for things to do and for spending opportunities. The fact that people are taking more, but shorter, holidays, the advent of the single market and the general increase in mobility have also helped to build up urban tourism in Europe. The broader range of activities and leisure pursuits that visitors are seeking is extending what is on offer.This diversification is also due to a growing awareness of tourism among political decision-makers who are increasingly keen to promote it as a key factor in economic development bringing wealth and employment. Tourism is, infact, an important part of the citys economy and contributes to the leisure and well-being of the whole community. It is an expanding activity that helps to improve and promote the image of the city as a place to live and visit. Tourism also provides employment and income and increases the range of social facilities. It covers a range of visitors, for example, those on holiday, on day trips and on business trips to the city. Tourism combines a competitive supply able to meet visitors expectations with a positive contribution to the development of towns and cities and the well-being of their residents. For these reasons, urban tregeneration process, in the most european cities aims to act on both these fronts: economic development, on the one hand, and urban development, on the other. It does this by offering visitors a unique and original experience and by trying as far as possible to satisfy residents rightful aspirations for harmonious economic and social development which shows concern for the environment. Taking into consideration the case study of Genoa, this paper highlights factors that have helped to make such strategies successful, looks at methods and procedures and shows what resources have been implemented and what results have been obtained. THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM ON HOST ENVIRONMENT The tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the world and has seen significant growth throughout the 1990s and into the millennium. International tourist arrivals in 2004 alone totalled 700 million. Europe accounts for 58% of international tourism but, the fastest developing region continues to be East Asia and the Pacific. At the beginning of the new millennium, Travel and Tourism employment accounted for over 207 million jobs, or 8.2% of total employment. For decades tourism industry 96
growth has been a major contributor to increased economic activity throughout many countries. The tourism industry adapts to changes and trends in the world economy and consumers' tastes and fashions. During the past 20 years, tourism - both in negative and in positive terms - has developed into an important factor within the context of sustainability. For this reason, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) has placed tourism at the centre of its 1999 conference. The World Tourism Organisation estimates that the number of arrivals in Europe will double to 720 million tourists per year by 2020. This development involves serious risks for the European environment and the welfare of people, but also for the tourist industry itself. Tourism accounts for about 50% of passenger traffic in Europe, which has serious impacts both on the tourist destinations as such, and the areas along tourist travel routes. The local infrastructure and natural resources are often confronted with an dramatic increase population during the tourist season. In the most popular tourist destinations along sea coasts and in the Alps, the impacts on nature and the population already clearly exceed the critical limits. Three-quarters of the sand dunes on the Mediterranean coastline between Spain and Sicily have already disappeared, mainly as the result of urbanisation linked to tourism development. Similar developments are observed in the Alps. This trend is further reinforced by the constant increase of trafficintensive event tourism, the evolution of tourism mega-centres and a general change in vacationing patterns to the disadvantage of sustainable development: more vacations per year, shorter stays and longer travelling distances. The combined effects of major investments in infrastructure and the associated influx of visitors mean that tourism can have significant impacts, both positive and negative, on an economy, on its culture, and on the environment (Brown, 1998). In practice, the dominant motive for the development of tourism is economic (improvements in employment, incomes and exports), but the very process of developing tourism will impose costs elsewhere. If governmental and non-governmental organisations are to make sensible and rational decisions with respect to the current and future development of tourism, they must have reliable information on its costs and benefits (Fletcher, 1989). The purpose of this paper is to examine the main economic costs and benefits associated with tourism and to highlight the difficulties associated with their measurement. Most people think of tourism in terms of economic impacts, jobs, and taxes. However, the range of impacts from 97
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tourism is broad and often influences areas beyond those commonly associated with tourism. Leaders as well as residents who understand the potential impacts of tourism can integrate this industry into their community in the most positive way. The impacts of tourism can be sorted into seven general categories: 1. Economic; 2. Environmental; 3. Social and cultural; 4. Crowding and congestion; 5. Services; 6. Taxes; 7. Community attitude. Each category includes positive and negative impacts. Not all impacts are applicable to every community because conditions or resources differ. Community and tourism leaders must balance an array of impacts that may either improve or negatively affect communities and their residents. Local leaders should not expect tourism to solve all community problems. Tourism is just one element of a community. It is wise to acknowledge and identify possible negative impacts so actions can be taken to minimize or prevent them. To u r i s m researchers have identified a large number of impacts. Grouping the impacts into categories shows the types of impacts that could result from developing tourism in a community. A community will not experience every impact. Some are dependent on particular natural resource features or development and spatial patterns (special "tourist zones"). Others relate to the social condition of the community particularly the ability to culturally or socially connect with tourists. Tourism development may result in many and complex impacts and this consideration suggests that local elected officials, the tourism industry, and community residents need to work cooperatively and carefully to plan for its growth and development. The Economic Impact First we consider the economic impacts of tourism. Before discussing the various economic benefits of tourism in detail, it is perhaps appropriate to clarify the current position of tourism in the world economy. Arguably, tourism is the second largest industry in the world; estimates from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) suggest that it generates around 200 million jobs world-wide and accounts for 10% of global GDP (WTTC, 2003). Tourism increases employment opportunities. Particularly in rural areas, the diversification created by tourism helps communities that are possibly dependent on only one industry. As tourism grows, additional opportunities are created for investment, development, and infrastructure 98
spending. Tourism often induces improvements. Improves public utilities and transport infrastructure; creates new business opportunities in public utilities. Such improvements benefit tourists and residents at the same time. New jobs generate more income tax revenues. Greater demand for goods, services, land, and housing may increase prices that in turn will increase the cost of living. The Environmental Impact Another importanet aspect are the environmental impacts. Areas with high-value natural resources and great scenic beauty attract tourists and new residents who seek emotional and spiritual connections with nature. Because these people value nature, selected natural environments are preserved, protected, and kept from further ecological decline. Tourist income often makes it possible to preserve and restore historic buildings and monuments. The negative aspects of the tourism refers to the possibility to degrade an environment, generating waste and pollution. The needs of future generations, along with environmental, social, and cultural carrying capacities are setting the quality and limits of growth. All activities related to tourism must be sustainable, and respect the environment, the local and global economies, the social aspects of individual communities, and cultural identity. This means that tourism must be ecologically sustainable in the long-term, economically feasible, and acceptable from both an ethical and social point of view. Sustainable tourism must be integrated into the natural, cultural, and human environment. Tourism activities should have an acceptable impact on natural resources, biodiversity, and the capacity of the natural environment to absorb all impacts and waste. Tourism must assess its own impacts on the cultural heritage and on the traditional activities of the comunities it affects. Acknowledgement and respect of local communities, and support for their identity, culture, and interests must play a key role in the development of tourism policies, opportunities, and strategic projects. It is therefore very important to carefully plan and efficiently manage tourism-related activities, and to exchange best practices in order to be able to conduct feasibility studies before embarking on community related strategies. The rediscovery of the value of the protection of local landscapes, cultures, traditions, and historical identities goes hand-inhand with the European-wide need for opportunities, infrastructure, and places in which environmental quality is seen as a way to enjoy better vacations and protect the environment by acting responsibly. 99
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There is a strong need to intensify efforts to sensitise public opinion through adequate cominication and comparaison tools, as well as through the circulation of information on best practices among the various subjects involved. Tourism-related activities require careful analysis on the part of public administrations, which must be involved in both the supply side such as sustainable tourism production models and in terms of regulating resource use and the relationships between all stake-holders. Regional-level institutions are particularly important, since they are the public institutions best adapted to achieving the necessary operational convergence between the national/global level and local communities, and between the various public and private stakeholders involved in defining and creating the supply of sustainable tourism activities. The new tourism industry, through the creation of self-regulatory instruments, new specific legislation, and activities that respect the social, cultural, and environmental aspects of tourism, seeks to create a new code of behaviour that respects sustainable tourism. The implementation of projects to develop sustainable tourism requires feedback and self-monitoring, in order to guarantee a more sustainable quality of life. A network can have such a function, and it can facilitate the exchange of ideas, know-how, and results. Sustainable tourism can help to balance the economies of richer and poorer regions, to maintain public infrastructure and consequently to improve the quality of life. Moreover, tourism can be a vehicle for tolerance and better understanding among people and regions at local, national and global level. Social and Cultural Impacts The social and cultural effects of tourism are to be taken into careful consideration, as impacts can either become assets or detriments to communities. Influxes of tourists bring diverse values to the community and influence behaviors and family life. Individuals and the collective community might adopt tourist behaviors. Interactions between residents and tourists can impact creative expression by providing new opportunities (positive) or by stifling individuality with new restrictions (negative). Increased tourism can push a community to adopt a different moral conduct. Tourism offers residents opportunities to meet interesting people, make friendships, learn about the world, and expose themselves to new 100
perspectives. At the same time, tourism often promotes higher levels of psychological satisfaction from opportunities created by tourism development and through interactions with travelers. An important feature of recent European tourism development has been the explosion in cultural or heritage tourism. Many post industrial cities are currently undergoing profound changes in their economic and social structures as well as in their physical structure. As traditional industries decline, many urban areas have found difficulty in attracting sufficient investment to offset economic shortfalls. Attempts to regenerate such areas are increasing looking toward tourism as a potential method by which to stimulate local economies. Coalmines become museums, factories become visitor centres and, most relevant to the case of Ireland, countryside becomes leisure landscape (Cloke, 1993). Culture is an essential factor for the success of a town. Culture has the potential to bring a regenerative effect on the towns economy and nature. Cultural tourism is no longer restricted to the mainly visual consumption of high culture artefacts such as galleries, theatres and architecture, but has expanded to include simply soaking up the atmosphere of a place, sampling the local food and participating in local events. In Europe tourism has been particularly developed in the form of heritage attractions such as historic houses, interpretative centres, parks and monument. In addition to historical or heritage attractions, the people of the touristic places are seen as a key component of the cultural tourism product. In the following section, an attempt is made to conceptualise these responses in terms of the relationship between tourism and place identity. We have to onsider other possible effects like: - OVERCROWDING Tourism often develops around specific locations and concentrates there, providing growth yet avoiding sprawl. Historic buildings and grounds, which might otherwise slowly deteriorate, have great appeal for tourism development and can often be renovated to suit the industry. As people congregate, congestion and crowding produces stress, annoyance, anger, and other negative attitudes. - SERVICES Tourism creates opportunities to develop new amenities and recreation facilities that would not otherwise be viable in a community. - TAXES Increased retail activity from restaurants and tourist shopping will add state and local sales tax revenue. - COMMUNITY ATTITUDE 101
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It is possible that in a community tension between residents and tourists can occur. People will often feel stressed over the new, increasingly hectic community and personal pace of life worse. Where culture is part of the tourist attractions, over-amplification of cultural traits and creation of "new" cultural traits to satisfy tourist tastes may generate in the residents a sense of exclusion and alienation over planning and development concerns. The influx of outside businesses creates a sensation that the community is being manipulated and exploited by outsiders for the sole benefit of those developers or business people. Knowing the nature of tourism impacts wont automatically lead to solutions. It is equally important to identify the sources of these impacts and how they influence interactions between tourists and residents, the host community, and the environment. Directing tourism growth toward local needs, interests, and limits can greatly enhance tourisms value to the community and help create a sustainable industry. Creating a successful and sustainable tourism industry requires a right vision, planning and work. Tourism and Place Identies I will examine now aspects of the relationship between tourism and place identity in Europe. It is argued that the impact of tourism must be understood in terms of the new social relations which emerge as individuals and institutions interact to commodify place identity. These new relations in turn are mediated through residents existing social relations. An important feature of European tourism development has been the explosion in cultural or heritage tourism. As Richards notes (1996), this is part of a broader European trend towards the conversion of former production spaces into spaces of consumption. Cultural tourism is no longer restricted to the mainly visual consumption of high culture artefacts such as galleries, theatres and architecture, but has expanded to include simply soaking up the atmosphere of a place (Richards, 1996), sampling the local food and participating in local events. Therefore, tourism over the last decade or so has been characterised by rapid growth, with particular emphasis on the use of cultural or heritage tourism to promote bottom-up development in rural areas. The emergence of this kind of all-encompassing tourism has implications for the people who live in tourist destinations, people who themselves become part of the tourist product. In the attempt to 102
conceptualise the relationship between tourism and place identity we can observe that it is broadly agreed that tourism has an impact on place identities. What is not agreed is the extent and nature of that impact. The expression place identities refers to a wide range of social relations which contribute to the construction of a sense of place, a sense which enables people to feel that they belong to a place, or that a place belongs to them. Plural identities is used to suggest that different versions of identity may circulate within a place, versions which are shaped by the individual or collective experiences of different people. Tourism constructs or reconstructs place identities. The first theme is that place identities are (re)constructed in order to meet tourist desires for particular characteristics such as authenticity and tradition (Urry, 1990). Tourism destroys unique place identities. The idea that heritage centres contribute to the commercialisation and trivialisation of culture is common. These critiques of the heritage industry can be seen as part of a broader vision of tourism as a symptom of the homogenising of global capitalism, whereby places are seen to lose their distinctive identities in an increasingly bland world of MacDonalds and Coca-Cola consumption. In other words, tourism can be seen as an example of the unique ways in which global-local relations are negotiated within the context of particular places, thus allowing for the maintenance of diversity and difference. Whilst identities may be in a constant process of change, there are also elements of continuity which enable one to talk about a sense of place, to make qualitative, subjective assessments of what places are like. In each place, the relationship between change and continuity is different, with change being more rapid and noticeable in some locations than in others. Although the tourism industry may seek to promote uncomplicated, easily communicable and readily consumed images of place identity, these constructions exist alongside other deeply-rooted expressions of place identity and need not necessarily dominate or override all of them. TOURISM AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REGENERATION How can tourism represent an opportunity for cities regeneration? Tourism is one of the most significant social forces in the world today. It also has enormous international economic and geopolitical importance. Tourism constructs, rearranges, and inhabits geographic, social and 103
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cultural spaces globally. It cannot be denied that tourism is a terrific force for change. It accounts for prosperity in many countries. The hundreds of visitors who come do not only bring money but they also transform the lives of the locals for better or worse. They consume, devour and digest places so finally there is nothing left it seems. And indeed the commodification of landscape is the phenomenon that has brought the most significant changes to everybody lifestyles. Europe needs a sustainable tourism to maintain the most crucial assets of the tourism industry: intact nature, a rich and diverse culture, the satisfaction of visitors and the positive attitude of the resident population. Tourism is the natural ally of sustainable development, because any and all measures in this area implying more attractive offers for the tourists, higher quality of life for the residents, a positive long-term development for the tourism industry and, last but not least, for the environment of the regions whose preservation constitutes the necessary prerequisite to such a positive development. In Europe, tourism policy is wrongly classified as a purely local concern. Sustainable tourism operates in harmony with local environment, community and cultures, so that these become the permanent beneficiaries. All these reasons make tourism an engine for urban regeneration. There is a strong need for a European strategy and a European Action Programme for a more sustainable tourism in order to protect the environment and safeguard the quality of life in tourism destinations and regions affected by tourism transport. At the European, national and local level priority has to be given to the policy measures that can reduce environmental and health damage and improve new transport system, particularly regarding intermodality, accessibility, frequency and comfort. The tourism sector could contribute substantially to the three goals of regional policy in Europe, recently confirmed by the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP): - Economic and social cohesion - as tourism provides income in often remote rural regions. - Conservation and management of natural resources and the cultural heritage - which are the main assets of every tourism destination. - More balanced competitiveness within the European territory - as the tourism industry functions very often as a pioneer for the development of other local businesses. But at the same time tourism can exert a lot of pressure on local communities. In response to this reality of negative impact of tourism in the destination tourists have become aware of this and want something different. Responsible Tourism is a recent buzzword that is permeating 104
the tourism sector. Travelers are demanding authentic experiences, direct contact with the local communities, environmentally friendly tours and accommodation. Some resarcher finding a definition for this process use the term of responsible tourism is a concept closely related to the idea of ecotourism. It is from this latter concept that we can draw conclusions for a possible definition of responsible tourism. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as: Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.A sustainable and responsible tourism could reduce the negative impacts and increase the benefits on the contexts of the diverse regions giving the oppotunities of a dinamic regeneration processs. THE CASE OF GENOA: A CITY BETWEEN CHANGE AND CONTINUITY The case study, Genoa is a clear example of a city in that tourism is considered as an opportunity for regeneration. Genoa, after a deep crisis, has regained a new identity and its role in the Italian economic and social system. Today the city is re-opening towards the outside world, rediscovering its roots and its true greatness with a feeling of pride. In order to revitalise its territory and economy, Genoa has adopted a coherent tourism policy. The case study puts in evidence the possibility to find a compromise between tradition and innovation, between the idea of culture as a resource for identity and social meaning and culture as an important economic resource for post-industrial cities. The city has only recently raised its head again and tried to recover its rightful role. As Giuseppe Pericu, Mayor of Genoa said, Genoa is a city of great ferment and vitality, which is rethinking its pre-eminent role in Italy and in the world, after profound changes that are still underway. In 1970 Italy was the country with the highest tourist flows in the world; now it has lost its pre-eminence, and currently holds the fourth place. Opportunities such as these, however, will contribute to convey a positive and successful image of our country, and to attract quality tourism. In Genoa a programme for restructuring the old harbour areas, the waterfront and the historic centre has been set up. Genoa approaches functional specialisation as a more general element in its strategy for increasing economic competitiveness. The development of transport systems, services, infrastructures, promises considerable renovation of the urban functions with a significant 105
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growth in the economy linked to cultural activities and tourism. Regeneration programmes for de-industrialised areas have promoted the location and relocation of business investments as well as actions to improve a productive diversification. At present Genoa after a deep crisis, has regained a new identity and its role in the Italian economic and social system. The Strategy Since the early 1980s the image of Genoa as a place of industrial and tertiary activity has been under heavy pressure. Given the recession in the harbour and in the traditional economic activities the different actors conscious of the need to break the negative spiral took the decision to stimulate the shift to tertiary activities. Tourism was in this context considered as a possible spearhead. Today Genoa appears as an example of urban and socio-economic regeneration. A city with a glorious past as a maritime republic, home of great explores, centre of the state- controlled industry for a long time. After a long economic crisis has managed to renew itself, adapt to the present and plan for the future. Today the city has a different image, still based on the traditional pillars of its economy such as the commerce, the port and the industry, but with an expanding advanced technology sector and a burgeoning tourist trade. The main challenge is to fight decay in all its forms - physical, social, and economic - reversing a tendency and promoting actions that might have some positive ramifications. The programme is then to preserve the old town the way it is: all it is needed is to reduce physical, social, and economic decay and at the same time increase social mix together with maximising its assets. The programme is of an integrated nature, comprising actions and projects that at the same time affect physical, social and economic conditions. The aims are to increase the quality of life for the residents and develop touristic activities. There is also a programme that supports existing economic activities and is helping to develop new ones, together with a programme to rationalize and develop cultural facilities. The result is that the attraction of the city for tourists has been greatly improved in recent years. The main actions are meant to conclude the waterfront redevelopment process that should start a new relationship with the old town, entirely modifying the city and its functional system. Another series of actions is related to accessibility, the crucial topic for 106
the revitalization of the historic city centre. The strategy is driven by the interaction between the various parts of the integrated plan, but above all by the propulsive effect that every action can have on the whole context. In such a situation, the main problem is that it is necessary to act on two fronts. One is that of the various micro-actions to try, above all, to exploit all the possibilities of improvement. The other is to develop some major projects that can breathe new life into the system. Obviously, all the actions cannot be thought of as public interventions. Rather, the public actor must develop strategic actions, determining the conditions to accelerate the process of detailed revitalization that only residents and private owners can fulfill properly. The layout of the city has also changed radically over the last decade. The city centre has been reconnected with the sea. The old city has come alive again. Its beautiful historical and architecturally important buildings have recently been nominated as a Unesco World Heritage Site and its straordinary wealth of artistic treasures has been restored for the citys year of culture (2004), as European Capital of Culture. The city has also changed in social terms. It is becoming an evermore multicultural and multiethnic city, open to Europe and the rest of the world. Due to its geographic position Genoa represent, infact, a bridge between Nort-Europe and the Mediterranean. Genoa as revitalised city is full of potential and opportunity. Urban Interventions The process of urban regeneration which has taken place in Genoa has seen the renewal of a number of areas through projects which seek to revitalise places both economically and socially by helping small businesses and craft industries. This progressive socioeconomic transformation has been facilitate by funding from local, national and European institution designed to stimulate business development and emplyment growth. The most important intervention that has taken place in Genoa is the renovation of Porto Antico that has reconnected city and sea. The programme of reconnecting the city with its waterfront area will be completed i 2010 with the conclusion of Ponte Parodi project. Meanwhile, as a result of all these interventions, the historic heart of the city has begun to beat again. While some parts of the old city remain in poor states of repair, the new public lighting sistem and the repaving of the streets have helped the 107
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citizens of Genoa to rediscover the medieval area of their city. This revival is primarly due to the city itself which has retaken possession of an overlooked area and partly it is the result of the allocation of European funds. In particular the Urban Program has represented a foundamental instrument for Genoas regeneration. The area of the Centro Storico, is facing severe social and economic problems, resulting from the high level of immigration, unemployment, crime, decaying buildings and public spaces, decaying infrastructural systems and environmental damage. On the other hand, the area is located close to the main urban services and it contains a significant stock of historical buildings dating from the Middle Ages to the renaissance period. The tourism sector is therefore considered to have significant growth potential. Support for the weaker sections of society will involve projects designed to facilitate social interaction and improve service provision. In particular, preference will be given to projects which seek to combat the marginalisation of the elderly, immigrant communities and the youth. The logic behind this strategy is to carry out integrated projects which unite the clear need for structural works in conjunction with initiatives designed to promote economic and social regeneration. Of particular importance therefore is the development of the cultural and tourist potential of the area along with the improvement of living conditions. For these and many other easons Genoa is becoming an incresingly attractive place of study for both Italian and international students. The Role of Culture and Events as an Engine for Tourism and City Regeneration Hosting big events can represent an opportunity for the city to make changes and improvements in a shorter period of time that would usually be possible. This is the case over the last twenty years in Genoa. Major events like the Columbus celebrations in 1992, the G8 in 2001 and recently the citys year as European Capital of Culture have helped open up a city traditionally reluctant towards process of change and has changed Genoas cultural position within a dynamic Europe.The city has undergone a cultural renewal which can be seen in the renovation of some areas and in the refurbished museums and in the several important cultural events taking place in the city. The designation of Genoa as European Capital of Culture confirms the citys cultural rebirth. The tourist revival in Genoa is also the result of new identity of the city, based on the trasformations of the last decade. After the 80s the demand has changed with more and more people coming 108
to the city because of its attractions. Genoa has also become an increasingly popular destination both for Italians and visitors from aboard CONCLUSIONS Tourism is a key element in urban regeneration; and developing tourism can achieve economic growth and conservation of the environment. While tourism is now one of the largest industries in the world and has incredible potential for economic growth, it potentially carries with it significant negative social and environmental impacts. The art of the tourism development and management process is to balance the opportunities and costs for the community, the environment and the tourists. Tourism studies encompasses the significance of tourism to hosts and guests, the structure and operational context of the industry that serves the needs of those who participate in it, the expression of tourism development over space and time in a variety of contexts , the positive and negative effects of such development upon the environments and communities of destination regions, and the means by which tourism can be managed so as to make more sustainable use of the physical and human resources implicated in its production and consumption. All these inter-related aspects must be taken into consideration for effective planning and policy making for tourism and for the management of tourisms environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts. Nowadays, the worldwide economic crisis, the desertion of old industrial areas suggested a new policy that gradually turned into pragmatic programs, based on te idea that improving the quality of urban areas actually means achieving two goals: citizens approval, encouragement of new economic enterprises. Urban regeneragion takes therefore complex characteristics: in Genoas case it involves both the restoration of the historical centre and the whole port area. What changes with these interventions is the image of the existing city. Today Genoa appears as city that has completely transformed its image, without losing any of its vibrancy as a city however and has become economically competitive internationally trough its industries and the port Genoa is a dynamic city, not just becouse of its quality opf life, but due to its wealth of official cultural activities to rival other European cities. The process that has taken place in European cities in the last twenty years has features that define a deep innovation in the approach to urban 109
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transformation. This is not made trough demolition like in the past; it doesnt derive from additions, in most cases is a true transformation from within, with quality as its goal (Gabrielli, 2004). As tourism development progresses, efforts are being made to help the community identify and achieve tourism objectives by emphasizing principles that support community participation, environmental sustainability and cultural integrity. The underlying philosophy is a sustainable urban tourism management, based on the need to move from the rhetoric of sustainable development to locally-grounded tourism and management practices. Specifically, sustainability for the cities involved in a revitalisation process urban tourism destination management explores the challenges of achieving economic benefits from sustainable community tourism while mitigating negative social, cultural, and environmental influences. The main goal for the cities involved in a revitalisation process is not to simply create more opportunities for the hotel and hospitality industry. Rather it is to recognize tourism as a major force in community development, a force that must be carefully planned and managed taking into account the principle of sustainability.
REFERENCES Aug, M. (1995). Non-Places. London, Verso. Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge, Polity Press. Baudrillard, J. ( 1998). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Thousand Oaks CA, Sage Publications. Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford, Stanford University Press. Brown, F. (1998). Tourism Reassessed: Blight or Blessing. Butterworth Heineman, Oxford University Press. Clark, T. (2004). The City as an Entertainment Machine. Oxford/New York, Elsevier. Cloke, P. & Perkins, H. (1998). Cracking the canyon with the awesome foursome: representations of adventure tourism in New Zealand. Environment and Planning D. Society and Space, No.16, pp.185-218. Fletcher, J. (1989). Input-Output Analysis and Tourism Impact Studies. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 16, No.3, pp.514-529. Gabrielli, B.(2004). Lidea del futuro di Genova, InForum, No.7, pp.4-5. Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge, Polity Press. Gunn, C. A. & Var, T. (2002). Tourism Planning. London/New York, Routledge. Harvey, D. (2001). Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. London/New York, Routledge. Roche, M. (2000). Mega-Events and Modernity. London/New York, Routledge.
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Van den Berg, J., Van der Borgand, M. & Russo, A. P. (2003). The Infrastructure of Urban Tourism: A European Model? A Comparative Analysis of MegaProjects in fourEurocities, in 'The Infrastructure of Play: building the Tourist City', (2003). Ed. by Dennis R. Judd, New York: ME Sharp.. Urry, J. (1995). Consuming Places. London/New York, Routledge. Urry, J. (1990). The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London, Sage Publications.
SUBMITTED: NOVEMBER 2006 REVISION SUBMITTED: FEBRUARY 2007 ACCEPTED: APRIL 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Rossana Galdini (r.galdini@unical.it) is a PhD Candidate at the University of Calabria, Department of Sociology and Political Science, Ponte Bucci Cubo 0 87036, Arcavacata di Rende (Cosenza), Italy.
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TOURISM, VILLAGE SPACE AND THE REAPPROPRIATION OF RURAL: TOWARDS A NEW SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE COUNTRYSIDEi
Eleni-Christina Sotiropoulou Technological Educational Institute of Crete
Modern countryside is increasingly becoming a place utilised by city dwellers, a phenomenon particularly observable in Greece, where distances are relatively small and relations between villages and cities remain strong. The case of two Greek villages, where tourism has played a leading part in their social and economic recovery, will help us understand, through a conflict analysis, the way in which different expectations and aspirations expressed by various groups of local actors, concerning the use of rural space, determine the development and social organisation of rural areas. Keywords: tourism, appropriation conflicts, use of rural space
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INTRODUCTION This paper is part of a wider study, which deals with the recent social and economic changes occurring in the Greek countryside as well as with the spatial relationships that govern the rural territory. The actual picture presented by the countryside is the result of intense, essential and most rapid transformations that took place in the bosom of the entire Greek society during the second half of the 20th century. New balances arising between territories, populations and ways of life condition this brand new face of the modern rural world. The village, formerly represented by the rural community,ii and more generally rural society, opens its restrained geographic and social borders as rural population meaning countryside residents is being renewed, blended with new social groups. At the same time, rapidly developing transport encourages the commute to and from the countryside, cultural boundaries between urban and rural are getting indistinct, and new economic activities, beyond agriculture, are considerably growing in the rural space.
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At the same time, these changes occurring in the life of countryside residents are accompanied by a greater shift made by modern society towards the assessment of rural areas. This phenomenon is due to the qualities attributed to rural space, such as better life quality, natural environment, and recreational and cultural virtues. Seen in this context, these specific countryside characteristics are turning into values within modern lifes perceptions, especially for city dwellers. On the other hand, they reveal new alternative functions and ways to use and invest in rural areas. In other words, we could speak of a new perception, a new way in which modern society perceives the countryside. Within this social context of expectations, the use and exploitation of rural space give rise to several conflicts between individuals or groups expressing different motives, aspirations and aims. Thus, local life, as well as local development, are influenced to some extent by the interference of individuals or groups, formal or not, who claim the right to participate in and determine the economical, social, political, cultural and environmental physiognomy of the village with which they identify themselves. This phenomenon is particularly observed in touristically developed areas. The approach described above aims at investigating, in the first place, the way in which individuals and groups whether they are countryside residents or simply countryside users come into play with a particular space, tend to identify themselves with it and appropriate it, thus getting involved in a direct or indirect manner, with the formation of its residential, recreational, or environmental character, its social, cultural or economic local life. On the other hand, the approach adopted seeks to examine the way in which villagers react to the changes they confront. The confrontation of these two developing dynamics leads to a better understanding of the different positions occupied by local actors and of their interaction. Moreover, it illustrates the future development and image of the village. In this paper, two case studies will be presented. A coastal village, Panormo, situated along the north coast of Crete and a mountainous village, Tsepelovo, located in the area of Central Zagori, in Epirus. Both villages owe their rather recent social and economic upturn to their tourist exploitation, initiated approximately fifteen years ago. Tourist development, launched progressively since the 1980s, has curbed the socio-economic decline with which both rural societies were confronted for several decades, and has imposed its own pace to local life. At the same time, it has introduced new tensions and conflicts between both old 114
and recent village residents. These tensions, which often change nature in the course of a villages evolution, reflect on the one hand the endeavour of the old status quo to inhibit the preponderance of a new situation. On the other hand, they illustrate the predominance and appropriation of rural territories by the mentality of city dwellers. For each village case, we will specifically focus on the analysis of juxtapositions expressed between individuals or groups of different social categories who, in one way or another, interfere with local life, having an impact on local development and social cohesion. Our target, in the first place, is to reveal the intentions, motives and mentality of those who get involved in order to impose their own perceptions concerning the exploitation and use of rural space. In this manner, the analysis of conflict dynamics indicates the functions and utilities attributed to a specific territory, and reflects the way in which modern society perceives the modern countryside and rural areas in general.
PANORMO Built on the northern coast of Crete, in the prefecture of Rethymno, Panormo is situated alongside the RethymnoHeraklio national road, in a distance of respectively 22 and 59 kilometres from the mentioned towns. In addition, through a well-developed road network, the village is connected to the hinterland of Mylopotamos and all neighbouring communities. Panormos splendid history begins at the start of the 20th century. Its advantageous geographic location encouraged the development of one of the most important commercial harbours in the region. It soon became a rich provincial town, with developed administrative services, manufacture, trade and a small but powerful bourgeoisie, which however declined right after the great crash in 1929 which dragged down to destruction its commercial community. In the meantime, the opening up of the old national Rethymno-Heraklio road, traversing the hinterland of the province, marginalized the previously centrally situated Panormo. As a result of the economic disaster, the village faced a mass departure of its population, which found a way out of the crisis in internal and external immigration, which deteriorated in the second half of the 20th century. Agriculture and stockbreeding became the main occupations of those who were left behind. In 1970, the opening of the new Rethymno Heraklio national road along the north coast of Crete, re-established Panormos direct 115
communication with all the big towns of the island. At the same time, the National Organisation of Tourism (EOT) made the first attempts to exploit the villages coastal location. Panormo, beyond its natural beauty, that of a small, picturesque bay, is also eminent amongst the neighbouring communities, for its attractive architectural heritage, a legacy of its glorious past. Tourist traffic in Panormo has been growing since the mid 1980s, attracting at the same time investors, both villagers and external businessmen. Amongst the latter some originated from Panormo, while others, having no relation of origin with the place, foresaw and invested in its tourist exploitation. In the meantime, some small commercial shops, such as souvenir and traditional handcraft stores, jewellers, taverns and coffee shops, mini markets and car rental agencies started to operate. For about fifteen years, Panormo managed to maintain low profile, familyoriented tourism, while its inhabitants combined agricultural activity with supplementary income from tourist activities. In the late 1990s, three large hotel units, of approximately two thousand beds in total, started operating in the region. This event appeared to have a radical impact on the villages tourist profile. Today, apart from these three hotel units, nine smaller ones operate along with several rent-room units. The situation in Panormo is actually shaped as follows: tourist growth has attracted new investors and has largely contributed to keeping village youth and families in the village. Furthermore, its central position with regard to the main road axis of Crete and to the up-country regions has attracted new inhabitants and has rendered Panormo an increasingly habitable community. Thus, today, it assembles several new residents, mainly Greeks and a few Europeans, who have chosen to buy or build a house in this scenic site by the sea, not far from the labour market of Rethymno, offering at the same time better and cheaper living conditions. In addition, an important population of economic immigrants who have found employment both in agriculture and tourism in the area have settled down in the village. Over approximately ten years, Panormo enjoyed a spectacular revitalization of its economy and social life while its population practically appeared to have doubled, even if the figures between the last two inventories were fictitiously or provisionally raised because of the temporary presence of immigrants (Greek National Statistics Organisation, 1991 and 1992). As a permanent resident characteristically reports: Panormo is no more the village it once was for it is not constituted by the same people. Some have left and others have come. 116
Today, eight different nationalities live here and half of our co-villagers are foreigners. During summertime, permanent residents represent only 15% of the population. In the bosom of this new village society, different expectations and aspirations expressed by all social groups permanent and seasonal give birth to contradictions and strong conflicts concerning the development of tourism and its impact on local life. In some respects, thanks to tourism, Panormo has undeniably regained its status. On the other hand, tourism has strongly affected many facets of village life, the aesthetic aspect of the community, the social cohesion of the local population, the customs and habits of the villagers, as well as the serenity and pace of rural life. The major conflict that divides the villagers regards the type of development suitable for the growth of Panormo. In many ways, Panormites (Panormos residents) appreciate the advent of tourism, which brought about its social and economic recovery, nevertheless some aspects trigger off intense reactions, particularly since tourism has acquired a more massive profile. Hence, on the one hand stand those who defend the expansion of the residential area and support the development of mass tourism, while on the other hand, are positioned those who stand up for the preservation of the natural and architectural profile of the settlement and seek to maintain the old social and cultural status quo. The latter defend small-scale family-oriented tourism based on quality. In the second camp those who represent the older generation of Panormo join forces with a few members of the social group of heterodimotes, representing those who originate from the village but only occasionally live there, mostly during the summer and holidays.iii Both look forward to maintaining the old physiognomy of the villages territory and act likewise, in a direct or indirect manner, in order to secure their position. Besides, they claim their right to have a strong voice in the decision-making regarding local development. Thus, a group of elder members of the old village society, who once held most important and reputable positions, refuse to pass the torch of decision making onto the younger generation of local leaders. Nicknamed dinosaurs because of their attitude, these senior members object to the cession of public land to a large hotel for the purpose of a tennis court construction; they disagree with the expansion of the construction plan; they oppose the conversion of the old boarding school into a computer learning centre. In order to fulfil their aspirations, they get actively involved in the local governance and sometimes hinder the application of decisions taken by those 117
currently in charge. With the intention to make themselves heard and to rally behind their goals, they have re-established the old Research Association, which had first been established back in the 1930s, aiming at the supervision of local development and the sensitisation of the villagers. Some members of the old generation object to the alterations made to village space by the construction of tourist lodgings. Furthermore, they protest against any changes in everyday life, imposed by the requirements of tourism. They miss the old familiar and peaceful ambience of village life, they resent the fact that many flower gardens have been uprooted and substituted by the fashionable and traditionally designed stone constructions. As they state never has there been so much stone and so many cobbled-roads in the village as there are today. They dont appreciate the removal of poultry and other domestic animals from the residential area for aesthetic and sanitary reasons. For these elder villagers Panormo has become a big commercial centre! In favour of these attitudes are also some new residents, who took the decision to move into Panormo in their quest for a better quality of life, tranquillity and natural environment. The heterodimotes, who havent been involved in the tourist business, share the discomfort of the elders. They explicitly turn against any change they observe when they return, almost every year, to spend the summer in their country house or family house. From their standpoint, Panormo represents the return to the village of childhood memories they had left behind, a kind of antidote to the hasty town life. They demand a peaceful village, neat and clean, traditional and cheap, always willing to offer its hospitality to its roving children. They disapprove of the architectural interventions and innovations, they criticise the few restorations, the high prices, the dirty coasts, the piling up of litter, the nuisance of noise and congestion. By means of an association, which they have founded, and through interventions in the local paper they attempt to meddle in the affairs of local life. Even if they are practically absent members of the village society, they stand in the local elections and demand from the villagers to take any decisions concerning local development and public life in their presence. Likewise, as registered members of the local agricultural co-operative, they claim their right to participate in the decision-making and to vote during the elections. Those who live in Panormo throughout the year feel that heterodimotes, nicknamed fig-eaters, constantly harass and look down on them: They arrive from Athens thinking that the whole village expects only them. They interfere in everything; they have an opinion about everything; in short, they still consider us peasants. Moreover, 118
Heterodimotes remonstrate with us about not recognising any more the village that they had left behind. However, they only come over to Panormo to gather their olives and eat the August figs; they sow discord among the villagers and then they go away. Instead of complaining about whether the cobblestones should be grey or white, they should come here to live permanently, to stay in winter, to contribute financially and then we could talk. In any case, the co-operatives elections will be held after their departure. The prospect of expanding Panormos construction plan as well as its classification as a traditional Greek village, constitute two issues that illustrate in a vivid way the existing conflicts concerning the type of development appropriate for Panormo: that of mass tourism and the other of small-scale family-oriented tourism. At the head of the two sides taken are mainly businessmen involved in tourism, who, principally come from outside the village society. Groups of permanent or seasonal residents rally round them, defending one side or the other. The claim to expand the construction plan of Panormo assembles part of the businessmen, the local governing authorities, and those villagers who hoped to see their fields become building plots. On the opposite side stand the owners of small-scale tourist lodgings willing to promote quality tourism. This group of businessmen stands up for the classification of Panormo as a traditional village, which will automatically protect the community from any architectural interventions that threaten its traditional character. These people seem to be willing to achieve their goal by any means, by mobilizing the local population or by invoking the arbitration of the Archaeological Service. In some cases, the recriminations between those two groups became violent. Finally, the Municipality decided to put the issue to the vote and settled the matter through the Ministry of Culture, which granted permission to expand the village beyond the limits of the historical centre, which was declared scheduled. This confrontation clearly illustrates the intrusion of external investors in local development and in the determination of the use of village territory. One more example that shows the claiming of use of the village space concerns the beach. The occupation of the already restricted beach space by the large hotels, exclusively for the needs of their clients provokes the hostile reaction of both villagers and small tourist business owners. On the other hand, the latter, who aspire to promote the traditional and cultural face of Panormo, have claimed through the founding of a cultural association an old flourmill, property of the farmers co-operative in order to restore and use it. The flourmill was renovated and transformed into a multi-cultural centre for the organisation 119
of musical and other cultural events by Greek and foreign artists, with the intention of upgrading rural life and widening the villagers cultural horizons. This initiative was initially met with the opposition of some cooperative members and villagers who considered themselves excluded from any decision-making concerning their villages cultural life. On one occasion, the conflict lead to aggressive reactions against an inn owner who was at the head of the cultural association. However, these are not the only cases of aggression between villagers. Violent actions of intimidation have also taken place between external and native tourist investors. Another aspect of space appropriation concerns the cattle-breeders of the region who claim, by various interventions, both violent and nonviolent, the use of community territory for pasturage and construction of stock-farm facilities. Except for the occupation of a hill that towers over Panormo, they do not hesitate to bring their flocks down to the villages residential area or to trample on private agricultural property. Panormos residents hope for a peaceful settlement of these agitated relations through the development of tourism in the region. The intense confrontations that exist in the heart of Panormos society regarding the use of village space, the claims and rivalries of the residents, permanent or not, are explicitly reflected in the villages cultural life. Only a few years ago did the cultural associations of Panormo, which had remained inactive for many decades, begin to flourish again. Today, there exist twelve, out of which seven intend to ameliorate and promote the aesthetic and cultural aspects of the village. Finally, the growth of tourism and the important changes that have taken place in Panormos life and area, as well as the fervent confrontations among villagers, have motivated and strengthened the villagers awareness of the cultural, architectural and historical wealth of their native place. Moreover, they have become aware of the rising demand for their localitys assets and they have started taking advantage of it. Furthermore, they have realised the need to preserve the local colour and to protect the cosy, familiar atmosphere in order to attract constant family-centred tourism.
TSEPELOVO Perched on the slopes of mount Tymphe, at an altitude of 1,150 metres, Tsepelovo is situated in the area of Central Zagori and is the administrative centre of the Municipality of Tymphe. The village is only 120
forty minutes away from the regional capital, Ioannina, while an easily accessible asphalted road network connects it with its neighbouring communities. Today, it is easy to reach Tsepelovo in any season, even in wintertime. Approximately two hundred people permanently inhabit the village whose traditional occupation consists of livestock breeding and forest exploitation. Since 1990, mountain and rural tourism has also begun to develop. After the hard decades of demographic, social and economic decline that followed the important wave of immigration in the 1960s, towards the urban centres of the country and abroad, a brand new Tsepelovo seems to have risen, centering around the appreciation and exploitation of its natural and cultural heritage. The development of new activities and the reinforcement of traditional occupations have, especially during the last five years, contributed to the retention or attraction of village youth, which is currently working and living permanently in Tsepelovo. In the same manner, the villages natural and architectural environment has greatly been enhanced. In this sense, tourism demonstrates and somehow determines the new social reality that is being formed in Tsepelovo. But lets start from the very beginning. The sporadic passing through Tsepelovo of a few mainly foreign travellers in the 1970s was replaced by a more massive arrival of mostly Greek families when in 1991 a big hotel of seventy beds opened in the village entrance. At the outset, most of the villagers treated the advent of tourism with caution. This new activity, which at that time occupied only a minority of the population, seemed to offer a promising prospect, but on the other hand was still a delicate matter. In this first phase, while tourism was taking root in Tsepelovo, the villagers were divided into several camps. Those who operated the first tourist lodgings, having no experience in tourism, confronted the continuous criticism and hostility of their fellow villagers. This situation pushed them into professional solitude and cast doubt upon their venture. Three perceptions can be identified among these amateur businessmen. The first, intending to make a small Paris out of Tsepelovo, aimed at the development of services similar to the model of mass tourism. That is, rooms with modern furniture and equipment, including TVs to keep the visitors occupied, standardised breakfast and meals, collaboration with big tourist agencies. The second perception supported an alternative model of tourism more or less related to agrotourism, based on a personal contact between visitor and host and promoting the cultural and natural features of the region. That is to say, traditionally decorated rooms, meals based on local recipes, homemade 121
jam and sweets, touring and sightseeing in the region on bikes and horses, scouting excursions, participation in agricultural activities and collaboration with mostly foreign nature-worshippers and tourists. Between those two opposite aspects of tourism oscillated a few villagers who had taken the decision to enter the tourist business in order to build a couple of subsidized rooms-to-let and then bequeath them to their children as residence. Without having a clear attitude towards development, they made do with a few passing travellers, beginning though to form, little by little, their own clientele and perception of tourism. However, in the context of alienation that prevailed among those who worked in tourism, those people felt particularly isolated since they had a small number of beds to offer and no collaboration with the bigger tourist units. The criticism that was launched against all those who held a tourist business in the village by their fellow villagers was mainly about the quality of services and goods offered, the high prices, the lack of understanding, collaboration and group effort among inn-owners, the intrusion of unfamiliar morals and habits in local life as well as in the growing disaffection among villagers in the name of ephemeral profit. Those who were left out in the field of tourist business, blamed the others for their businesses isolation, for the fragmentation of the village society, for their preference of tourists to a local clientele, and, finally, for their reluctance to share information concerning subsidies and investing programmes. To the villagers criticisms were also added those coming from heterodimotes, who kept complaining about the changes introduced in Tsepelovo by the crowd of tourists. At the same time, livestock farmers and the forest workers were concerned about the ascendancy of tourism, considering that the sudden turn in favour of this new activity would marginalise them in such matters as the financing of infrastructures and private investments granted by the Municipality. Taking into account that traditional professions, such as stockbreeders and forest workers, were until recently the foundation of the local economy, they expressed their frustration especially since they were a majority compared to those promoting tourism. In this context, they were even deliberately opposed to arrangements that were in favour of those who sought to take advantage of the tourist high season. To an extent, a certain lack of confidence felt by the majority of villagers concerning the survival of the tourist activity also contributed to the antagonism arisen between those who worked in tourism and those who did not. The latter thought that tourism might have been a passing fad that 122
would not have lasted. According to them, development efforts should have continued to support traditional professions in the first place. Besides, stockbreeding and forestry had been providing the villagers income over a long period of time, whereas tourism remained an uncertain and low supplementary source of income. Nevertheless, despite the antagonisms and difficulties, tourism has steadily and progressively gained ground and reputation, largely assisted by the subsidies of the Common Agricultural Policy. Both permanent and seasonal residents, heterodimotes and external investors, have found a way to develop tourist activity. Construction of new rooms-to-let continues to this day while there are already two hundred beds available, which are occupied on an average of three months per year, mostly during summertime and holidays. Alongside the renting business, grow other complementary tourist activities, such as taverns, souvenir markets and bars, while the local caf mini-markets expand their clientele. At the same time, seasonal activities have flourished, such as tourist employees, waiters, trekking guides, sellers of herbs and aromatic plants, photoartists, as well as the hiring of bikes and horses for trips up the mountain. The increase of visitors has also resulted in an important upturn of local products, thus helping to support livestock breeders and the local craft industry of woodwork and carpentry, also assisted by the construction and restoration of traditional houses in the region. The above-mentioned developments have deeply affected the villagers attitudes. Little by little, they have become aware of the multiple profits tourist development could bring to Tsepelovo while at the same time, they have renewed their bonds with the local traditions, culture and heritage of their native place. Furthermore, they have strengthened their sense of origin and belonging to Tsepelovos society, contributing in this manner to the revival of collective activities. However, since the upturn of the villages social and economic life, as well as the renewal of interest in the opportunities offered by Tsepelovo and the exploitation of its amenities, conflicts and antagonisms between permanent residents and the rest of the lands users seem to multiply and change nature. The most important conflict within the village society exists between permanent residents and heterodimotes. The latter seem to appreciate their homeland once again and claim their right to intervene and participate in its development, either with the intention of investing in and making a profit out of tourist business, or by defending the protection of its traditional character among others (social, natural, architectural, etc.). They aspire to preserve its image unalterable, as fixed in their memories, 123
and seek, in the heart of its small society, meaningful and authentic communication between people, the type that is missing in city life. Thus, while some heterodimotes open taverns, inns and lodgings, some others restore their family houses in the traditional local style, trim their hedges and show up whenever possible, even at weekends, in order to indulge in the countrysides peacefulness and isolation, in the villages natural and familiar environment, away from hasty town life. Those people are opposed to the crowds of tourists arriving in Tsepelovo and to the alterations caused by the development of tourism to the physiognomy and habits of village life. They dont cease to criticise the aesthetic changes made to the architectural environment, the noise, the lack of water and space or even the desire of permanent villagers to create a new village. On the other hand, Tsepelovos inhabitants express resent towards heterodimotes, considering that these swallows that fly away when the difficult season of winter arrives, spend their time mostly away from the village and return only for a few days, dont have the right to determine the villagers fortune. This antagonism between heterodimotes and villagers is accentuated by the fact that heterodimotes seem to contribute little to the local development and to the everyday worries of the villagers when they arrive as conquerors seeking to influence things according to their opinion. However, we have to draw a distinction between heterodimotes who live in the nearby town of Ioannina and those who live far away, particularly Athenians. Those living in Ioannina are practically considered permanent residents, as they often visit the village at weekends and even during the week, thus participating actively in its social, cultural, economic and political life. Besides, they identify themselves strongly with the social group of permanent residents. What is more, having the privilege of living both in the town and in the countryside, they can easily perceive from a distant point of view a villages advantages. In todays context of re-evaluation of rural areas, the heterodimotes from Ioannina take several initiatives such as the re-establishment of the cultural association, brought into action by events such as the organisation of a local arts festival or the instigation of local population to grasp the opportunities offered by mountain tourism. Members of this group of heterodimotes are the Mayor, many town councillors, the postman, the primary school teacher and others. In this hostile climate of conflicts between permanent residents and the Athenians, the people of Tsepelovo express their disappointment that, although the village does not have a newspaper of its own with the 124
everyday issues and news, the Athenian heterodimotes periodically publish a newspaper, which allows them to expose their points of view. As a villagers statement illustrates: This newspaper refers to the longgone past and has nothing to do with the present reality of the village. Those people still live by the glorious memories of their childhood. They write about the wealth and the aristocracy, the manners and customs of a past society, even though they dont live there. In fact they are not at all familiar with the everyday life and issues of Tsepelovo today. It is totally unacceptable that they insist on preserving an image that no longer exists! So, while the residents themselves re-discover and re-evaluate their village through the visitors eyes trying to be the ones to make the crucial decisions that will determine its development, the heterodimotes and external investors see this as an opportunity to make a profit, intruding in local life in a direct or indirect manner. Thus, Tsepelovo nowadays has become a field of multiple interests, investments and expectations. These different aspirations related to the exploitation of the village, expressed by the permanent or seasonal residents of Tsepelovo, heterodimotes or foreign investors, young or old, through their conflicts and actions, determine the regeneration and development of the local social, economical and cultural life.
CONCLUSIONS Two Greek villages, one on the mountain, the other by the sea, helped us illustrate vividly the various different expectations, goals, investments, motives and interests that are manifested in their bosom regarding the demand and use of the rural space. The conflicts and antagonisms expressed between the different groups of space users, permanent or seasonal residents and investors, allow us to comprehend the new social and economic reality of the modern countryside. They also indicate the new functions attributed to rural space as well as the relations developed between the residents of the towns and villages. Being smaller and mountainous, Tsepelovo preserves the low-scale investments of moderate tourism, which flourishes along with and strengthens the remaining traditional activities. The conflicts are low profile, clearly indicating however the way in which the village evolves. On the other hand, Panormo, being three times the size of Tsepelovo and located by the sea, oscillates between a massive and more family-centred type of tourism, while being at the same time a suburb of Rethymno and 125
the hinterland of Mylopotamos. The interests at stake in Panormo are big, so are the names involved and so is the tension of the conflicts taking place in it. We could say that the development in both villages examined partly originates from the residents change of attitude towards their village. In fact, this change is engendered by the influence that is exercised on permanent residents by those not living in Tsepelovo on a permanent basis heterodimotes, external investors, visitors and tourists, even new inhabitants. Through this distanced look, they become aware of and appreciate the natural, cultural, and touristic potential of their village. Furthermore, we can make another distinction between villagers. On the one hand are those who, having lived away from the village for years, perceive its advantages especially in relation to the needs expressed by modern society about taking up rural space and thus try to exploit and offer its amenities to the tourist market. On the other hand, are the villagers who, having lived all their life in the village, have a hard time accepting the forthcoming changes and the new order and thus understand the new circumstances belatedly. However, from the moment that the local society becomes conscious and takes action, it claims its independence and stands up for the right to exploit Tsepelovos resources and determine its development on its own. From that perspective, the external users of the countryside, including heterodimotes, appear to villagers as rivals with regard to the exploitation of the newly-discovered resources. Although the interference of heterodimotes in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the Greek village has been extensively studied in the past, we would like to point out for one more time this important dimension of the Greek or even Mediterranean society. It seems very important to study more extensively and understand the role heterodimotes play, or could potentially play, in the development of the modern village, the evolution of the collective local life and the arrangement of the communitys natural environment and residential space. As we can see, the development of the two villages presented is directly and essentially connected to the development of tourism. Their boom reflects the continuously growing need for utilisation of the rural space that modern society considers authentic. This tendency goes along with the search for traditions, local architecture, customs, history and generally the resurrection of a glorified past. These exact elements are used commercially and are being properly promoted in order to satisfy the urban demand for rural qualities. However, being presented in this way is 126
more about a trendy exhibition of these customs and local traditions rather than a preservation and functional revival, aesthetically and culturally, of their essence. In creating this rosy picture, a vital role is played by the media TV, radio and the press. They reveal an uncorrupted, folkloric image of rural society, trimmed by the values of a healthy and wellbalanced life, as an antidote to hasty and anxiety-filled city life. It is the same image of a glorified past, which villagers often use, either to advertise and promote their village or to defend it against the changes brought by tourist development. The flourishing of cultural associations in both villages also reflects the new interest in investing in and using the rural countryside. Furthermore, these cultural associations have been proved to be an ideal ground for rallying, taking action and expressing conflicts with regard to the use of rural space. Finally, although the new social reality that is being formed in the villages appears to represent the loss of the once powerful and coherent rural community for most of the elders, it is gradually discovering a new balance. The revival of the long inactive cultural associations is evidence of this new type of village that is being formed, as people with different origins and aspirations unite under a mutual goal: the pursuit of the same vision for the use and development of rural space.
REFERENCES Burgel, G. (2001). Organisation de lespace et nouvelles tendances de la ruralit en Grce. STRATES : matriaux pour la recherche en sciences sociales, No.10, May, pp.19-50. Chamboderon, J. C. (1980). Les usages urbains de lespace rural : du moyen de production au lieu de rcration. Revue franaise de sociologie, Vol. 21, No.1, pp.97-119. Jollivet, . & Eizner, . (dir.) (1996). LEurope et ses Campagnes. Ed.Presses de Sciences Po. Kassimis, Ch. & Louloudis, L. (dir.) (1999). . Ed. . Kayser, B. (1993). Naissance de nouvelles campagnes. Marseille, Editions de lAube/DATAR. Mormont, M. (1978). Lespace rural comme enjeu social. Recherches Sociologiques, Vol. 9, No.1, pp.9-26. Mormont, M. (1989). Vers une redfinition du rural. Recherches Sociologiques, Vol. XX, No.3. Sotiropoulou, E. (2002) Development and socio-economic changes in Tsepelovo: The consumption of mountainous areas. Proceedings of the ISDEMA
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Conference in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki: 8-9 November 2002, pp. 217221. Sotiropoulou, E. (2003). La Grce rurale contemporaine. Monographies de trois villages. Ph.D, LADYSS, Universit Paris X Nanterre.
SUBMITTED: MARCH 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: MAY 2007 ACCEPTED: JUNE 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Eleni-Christina Sotiropoulou (eleni_hs@hotmail.com) is a Lecturer at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete (ATEI), 13 Capetan Yiorgi Str., 74100, Rethymno, Crete, Greece.
This paper was presented in Greek during the Vth Mediterranean Conference entitled Tourism beyond the coastline: New Trends in Tourism and Social Organisation of Space, Thessaloniki, 22-24 September 2005. ii The administrative division of Rural Community has changed into Municipal Department since the application of the Kapodistrias law, in 1999, concerning the merging of rural communities into wider Municipalities. iii Heterodimotes are migrants, originating from the same village, who live elsewhere but often visit their native village, especially during summertime and holidays. Throughout Greek history, heterodimotes have always maintained a strong relation with their native land and in many occasions have favoured their village. This attachment to the homeland is expressed in several forms: massive donations, returning during vacations and summers thus reviving local life, participation in the local elections, etc. Associations of heterodimotes, massively founded all over Greece and abroad, symbolise until our days this strong feeling of local attachment to the community of origin. On the other hand, the villagers always sought to maintain these bonds with heterodimotes who, inhabiting big towns, have sought to secure their native villages promotion.
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THE EFFECTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTMENT OF CHANGES IN TOURISM DEMAND*

Elvio Accinelli1 Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana Juan Gabriel Brida Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Edgar J.S. Carrera Universidad Autnoma de Coahuila Juan S. Pereyra Universidad de la Republica
In this short paper we analyze the impact of tourist demand in hotel rooms on the investment of hotels on environmental quality. We show that when income of the tourists increases, then to maintain the demand for rooms, the hotels must increase the investment on the environmental quality of the region where there is an increment of the tourist activity. In the particular case where we have three different hotel chains located in three different tourist regions, we show that the incentive of hotel chains to invest in environmental quality depends on the demand for days of rest on the part of tourists and on the level of aggregate income. We also show that if total income increase, then the incentive to invest in environmental quality increases in the region where the price of a hotel room is lower. Keywords: environmental investment, hotelling competition, service quality, sustainable tourism
INTRODUCTION The conservation of the environment constitutes a main concern of tourism operators. As a service industry, tourism affects directly the environment and then the tourist sector and policy makers are interested in
* This research was supported by Conacyt-Mexico, project 42609, by the Free University of Bolzano, project: Dynamical Regimens in Economics modelling and statistical tools and by the Italian Ministry of Education and University, as a PRIN, Project of national interest: Local sustainable development and tourism, Prot. N. 2004139578.
129
Elvio Accinelli, Juan Gabriel Brida, Edgar J.S. Carrera & Juan S. Pereyra
investing in environmental quality and in a sustainable utilization of the local natural and man made resources. An important characteristic of the tourist industry is that the activities of a specific tourist firm (for example, a hotel, a resort, a bar located in a beach, etc) affect directly the environment and the quality of the region in which it is located. And conversely, the environmental quality of a zone in part determines the demand for tourist services. Then there are externalities across tourist firms owners in a specific region. Obviously the impact of one hotel on the environment has consequences for the perceived quality of all the hotels in the area. Thus externalities across hotel establishments constitute a key factor in understanding the industry. The presence of these externalities creates a commons problem: quality is jointly produced by all hotels in the region. The tourist industry involves two main activities, namely: accomodation and transportation. In this paper we focus on the accommodation sector to study its impact on the environment. The tourist sector has an increasing economic importance and in particular, the hotel industry is in increasing international expansion. In addition to safety, hygiene, relaxation and comfort, one of the most important qualities that a good hotel must offer to the tourist to have a successful holiday is environmental quality. In particular, one of the main objectives shared by the biggests hotel chains is the maintenance of bathing water and beach quality, animal protection in the vicinity of hotels, and the phased reduction of environmental impact through small systematic steps such as improvements in eco-efficiency (energy consumption, water consumption, waste avoidance, reductions in land use, etc.) in thousands of holiday hotels. A very interesting (and recent) example of accommodation firms whose managers are eager to institute programs that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste--while saving money--to help the environment is the "Green" Hotels Association that involve from B&Bs to military installations in Usa, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and all around the world. This association encourages, promotes and supports the "greening" of the lodging industry. Hotels that have implemented programmes of environmental quality have experienced an increase of the demand that results in direct financial gains and also, there is empirical evidence which proves a growing demand for governments and private industry to take a proactive stance to solve environmental problems (Gustin, M. and Weaver, P. 1996). One of
There are many studies about the investment in environmental quality (for instance: Alvarez, M.J., Burgos, J.J., and Cespedes, J.J., 2001; Burgos, J., Cano, G., and Cspedes, L., 2002; Calveras, A. 2003; Gonzalez, M., and Len, C.J., 2001; Gustin, M. and Weaver, P. 1996; Hornemann, L., Beeton, R. and Huie, J., 1997; Hunter, C., 1997).
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the long term aims of environment friendly hotels chains is the introduction of realistic environmental standards for water, noise and air to make environmental quality quantifiable and to be used as part of the advertaising campaign. The aim of this paper is to show that the incentive of hotel chains to invest in environmental quality directly depends on the demand for days of rest on the part of tourists and on the level of aggregate income. The framework is based on a theoretical model of horizontal differentiation la Hotelling introduced in (Calveras, A. 2003). We modify this model by introducing a demand function for tourism commodities and our framework model includes three tourist regions, several hotel establishments and three tour operators. We show that an increase on total income induces hotels in the regions whit highest price to invest in environmental quality. This implies also that if a chain has hotels only in the most expensive region then an increase on total income is an incentive to move to the other regions. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we introduce and analyze the model. Conclusions and future developments are summarized in the last section.
THE MODEL We present a model that includes three tourist regions (A, B C), several hotel establishments and 3 tour operators. Each tourist has to choose the region where to sojourn. Following (Salop, S. 1979), we suppose that each region is located in an infinite line or the unit circle (Figure 1). Figure 1. The distribution curve of tourist and the regions position
x* AB
A
* x BC
* xCA
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We adopt this unrealistic assumption to ignore the corner difficulties of the original Hotelling model. The tourists are uniformly distributed along the circle and the regions are positioned at equal intervals. There are n R hotels with k units of capacity in each region, where k is taken as exogenous and R is an element of {A, B, C}. Given that the transportation cost is per unit of distance, then a tourist located at point x in the circle that goes to region R for vacation has a transportation cost of times the distance between x and R. We will denote by Q Ri 0 the investment in environmental quality of hotel Ri and R represents the region idiosyncratic parameter, that is, for example, the nature attractions. With this we define the quality of region R by:
qR = R
nR
Q Ri
nR
(1)
Note that, in words, this means that the quality of a region is the average of the investment in environmental quality of each hotel, corrected by the idiosyncratic parameter. In addition we suppose the existence of a tour operator in each region (TOR), that regulates the number of tourists according to the hotels capacity and the carrying capacity of the environment. This agent is an intermediary that acts as conduit for services offered by hotels to the tourists, and fixes the price pR of the unit of the hotel capacity. Since all hotels are identicals, prices at each region are the same for all hotels. When each tour operator fix the price to maximize its profits, he takes as given the prices of the others two operators and then a Nash equilibrium will be derived from prices. We suppose that the tour operator receives a percentage 1 of the net operating profits of tourism accommodations . Suppose that the utility function of a representative tourist is given by
u (c, d R ) = d R c1
where 0 <
(2)
ers good (c 0 ) . 132
unit of hotel in region R (1 d R D ) and c is the consumption of oth-
< 1 , dR is the number of days that a tourist occupies a
We also assume that the consumer distributes his income following the linear restriction:
y = c +r R d R
(3)
where r R is the price to rent an hotel room in region R, and the price of c is normalized at 1. If we maximize theconsumer utility function (2) subject to the restriction (3), we find the demand function of occupation of hotel rooms in each region:
dR =
Note that
y rR
(4)
U ( x, R ) = d R + vq R p R x R
(5)
is a measure of welfare of an average tourist that is located at point x in the circle with a demand d R days of hotel room in region R with quality qR and price pR (where v is a positive parameter). Let consider a tourist who is indifferent between going to regions J or I {A, B, C}, J I , and is located at point x of the circle. Then we must have:
U (x , J ) = U (x , I )
for J , I
{A,B,C} and J I
(6)
Additionally, we suppose that transportation costs are so high such that a tourist that is indifferent between going to I and J must be located at the smaller arc of the circle determined by I and J for J , I {A,B,C} and
J I . This is a technical assumption.

which the tourist is indifferent between going to J or I: From equation (6) we can obtain x JI , the position in the circle at
133
x* = ( pA , pB ) = AB
1 1 + v(qA qB ) ( pA pB ) rA rB + 2 3
(7)
1 1 + v(qB qC ) ( pB pC ) * rB rC xBC = ( pB , pC ) = + (8) 2 1 1 y + v(qC qA ) ( pC pA ) r r 5 * + (9) xCA = ( pA , pC ) = C A 2 3
These results are coherent with those on (Accinelli,E., Brida, J.G. and Carrera, E., 2006) in the following sense: if rA > rB, > rC, then by (7), (8)
*
produces a clockwise movement of the indifferent points x AB and

*
positively. That is, when rA > rB, > rC an increase in the income level
and (9) x AB and xBC depends negatively on the income y, xCA depends
* *
* * xBC and a counterclockwise movement of xCA . This implies an increment
in the demands of hotel rooms in region C and a decrease in the demand in region A. Note that in region B the demand for hotel rooms can increase or decrease, depending on the parameters. (See Figure 2) Figure 2. Movements of the indifference point when rA>rB >rC and the total income increases from y1 to y2.
B
x * ( y2 ) BC
x*AB ( y1 ) x*AB ( y2 )
A
x* ( y1 ) BC x * ( y2 ) CA
C
134
x* ( y1 ) CA
Then an increase in the income level produces an increase on the demand of the cheapest hotel rooms and a decrease on the demand of expensive rooms. The next step is that each tour operator has to maximize their benefits, subject to capacity of the region. We know that the demand faced by the hotels of region A is x AB xCA + 2 (see Figure 1), for hotels of
* *
region B is xBC x AB , and, finally for region C we have that

* * * * xCA xBC . Then the problem that faces the TOR is:
For R = A
* max(1 ) p A .( x* xCA + 2 ) AB
pA
(10) (11)
* s.t. n A k x* xCA + 2 AB
* max(1 ) pB .( xBC x* ) AB
For R = B
pB
(12) (13)
* s.t. nB k xBC x* AB
max(1 ) pC .( x
pC
* CA
x )
* BC
(14) (15)
For R = C
* * s.t. nC k xCA xBC
To solve the respective system, each tour operator take as given the prices of the other regions. Under this assumption we find that the prices of equilibrium are:
135
p (qA, qB , qC ) = A
y + v(2qA qB qC ) r r r 2 A B c
5 2 1 1 + 3
1 1
(16)
+ 5 3 2 1 1 y + v(2qC qA qB ) r r r 2 pC (qA, qB, qC ) = C A B + 5 3
pB (qA, qB , qC ) =
y + v(2qB qA qC ) r r r 2 B A c
(17)
(18)
Note that if the price of hotels in region A is too high in relation to the others prices (for instance, when 2 1 1 < 0 ) then an
rA
rB
rC
increase in the income produces a decrease in the price of the tourist operator in region A (the region with expensive rooms) and, with high probability, an increase in the others two prices (supousse that region C is the cheapest). These prices can be substituted in (7) (9) to obtain:
x* ( q A , qB ) = AB
1 1 + v ( q A qB ) rA rB + 5 3 1 1 + v(qB qC ) rB rC + 5
(19)
* xBC (qB , qC ) =
(20)
* xCA (q A , qC ) =
1 1 + v(qC q A ) 5 rC rA + 5 3
(21)
These are the values of the indifferent point as a function of the environmental quality of the regions. Note that an increase in income produce
136
effects on the indifference points as those produced for prices. That is: if income increases, then the price of the most expensive region falls, implying that hotels in region A must increment the investment in environmental quality in order to maintain their demand. Suppose now that there is a chain that has hotels in the three regions. Let also suppose that investment in environmental quality of the hotel i in region R, has a cost of c(Q Ri ) , where c (Q Ri ) > 0 , c (Q Ri ) > 0 and
c (0) = 0 . In the first step we analyze the problem that faces a hotel i
(for i = 1K n A ) , established only in the region A; i.e.,
max i (QAi ) = max . p* . A

Q Ai Q Ai
* ( x* xCA + 2 ) AB c(QAi ) nA
(22)
The FOC of this problem are:
* v A (x* xCA+2) p 2v A AB + A c(Qi ) =0 A nA nA 5 nA 5 nA
(fori =1K A) (23) n
Note that, by the equation (23), an increase in the investment on environmental quality implies an increase in the price received by the hotel and in the total demand of hotel services in region A. Equation (23) can be written as:
v A * * ( xAB xCA + 2 ) = c(QAi ) 2 5nA
(fori = 1KnA )
(24)
From (24) we can deduced that an increasse on the demand for hotels in region A, estimulates the investment on envoirment quality in this region. Let now considered a hotel chain formed by n hotels: n A in region chain is:
(x* x* +2) (x* x* ) (x* x* ) n A +nB pB BC AB +nC pC CA BC c(Qi ) max nA p AB CA ~ nA nB nC i=1 Q
A, nB in region B, and nC in the C region. Then the problem faced by the
(25)
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Then, in order to decide how much to invest in hotel i in the region A the first order condition with respect to Q Ai is:
nA p A
* (x* xCA + 2 ) + AB nA QAi

nC pC
x* AB (xAB xCA + 2 ) nB pB * pA + (xBC x* ) pB AB QAi QAi nB QAi
x * CA * * ( xCA x BC ) + pC = c(Q Ai ) nC Q Ai Q Ai
(26)
This equation (21) indicates how much to invest in hotel i located in region A. Being that the second term of (26) is multiplied by nB nB (the participation of the chain in the total of hotels in region B) and that the factor multiplying nB nB is negative, then if nB increases, the incentive to invest in environmental quality of hotels located in region A decreases. A similar remark is valid for the third term. Given the total income y, let x ( y ) = x AB ( y ), xBC ( y ), xCA ( y )
*
given by (7) (9) and p A ( y ), pB ( y ), pC ( y ) given by (16) (18). If we assume that there is a marginal change in the income y1 < y 2 and that rA > rB > rC, then the indifference point x ( y1 ) changes to x ( y2 ) following the movements decribed above in this paper and
p ( y1 ) > p ( y 2 ) and pC ( y1 ) < pC ( y2 ) . A A AB
This
means
that
equation (26) it follows that an increase in total income y produces a decrease in investment on environmental quality in the region where prices of rooms is higher. That is, if total income increases then the incentive to invest in environmental quality increases in the region whit lowest price and it diminishes in the region with highest price. Nothing can be inferred for the third region.
x and p are decreasing functions of the total income y. Then, from A
CONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH In this paper we analyze the impact of tourist demand in hotel rooms on the investment of hotel chains on environmental quality. In particular
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we show that when income of the agents increases, then the hotel chain must increase the investment on the environmental quality of the region where there is an increment of the tourist activity. This paper can be generalized in different ways. For istance, we can suppose that instead of three tourist regions we have n > 3. We can improve our model by introducing different types of hotel rooms in the different regions and introducing utility functions for the tourists where preference for rooms depends on non homogeneous goods.
REFERENCES Accinelli, E., Brida, J. G. & Carrera, E. (2006), Preservation of Environmental Quality and Tourist Investments. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Economics of Tourism, Academy of Tourism Research & Studies. Athens, Greece, 3-4 July 2006. To be published in the conference proceedings. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=908274. Alvarez, M. J., Burgos, J. J. & Cespedes, J. J. (2001). An analysis of environmental management, organizational context and performance of Spanish hotels. Omega, Vol. 29, pp.457471. Burgos, J., Cano, G. & Cspedes, L. (2002). Planning and control analysis of environmental performance in hotels. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 10, No.3, pp.207-220. Calveras, A. (2003). Incentives of international and local hotel chains to invest in environmental quality. Tourism Economics, Vol. 9, No.3, pp.297-306. Gonzalez, M. & Len, C. J. (2001), The adoption of environmental innovations in the hotel industry of Gran Canaria. Tourism Economics, Vol. 7, No.2, pp.177-190. Gustin, M. & Weaver, P. (1996). Are hotels prepared for the environmental consumer? Hospitality Research Journal, Vol. 20, No.2, pp.1-14. Hornemann, L., Beeton, R. & Huie, J. (1997). Environmental quality assurance: Are consumers of hospitality and tourism services willing to pay? The Hospitality Industry in an Age of Environmental Concern. Brisbane: International Association of Hotel Management Schools (IAHMS), University of Queensland, Centre for Hospitality and Tourism. Hunter, C. (1997). Sustainable tourism as an adaptive paradigm. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 24, No.4, pp.850-867. Salop, S. (1979). Monopolistic competition with outside goods. Bell Journal of Economics, Vol. 10, pp.141-56.
SUBMITTED: FEBRUARY 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: APRIL 2007 139
ACCEPTED: MAY 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Elvio Accinelli (elvio@correo.xoc.uam.mx), Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana, Posgrado en Ciencias Econmicas, Mxico. Juan Gabriel Brida (JuanGabriel.Brida@unibz.it), Free University of Bolzano, School of Economics and Management, Italy. Edgar J.S. Carrera (carrera.edgar@gmail.com), Universidad Autnoma de Coahuila, Facultad de Economa, Mxico. Juan S. Pereyra (jpereyra@ccee.edu.uy), Universidad de la Republica, Facultad de Ciencias Econmicas y Administracin, Uruguay.
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ENVIRONMENTALISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF TOURISM

Zoltan Baros1 Kroly Rbert College Lorant Denes Dvid Kroly Rbert College
As a consequence of the rapid growth of the tourism sector, special emphasis is placed on destinations and tourism products connected to or based on certain physical and environmental factors. However, the negative environmental consequences of tourism are, in many cases, overemphasised to the social and/or economic elements of sustainable development. Thus, it is important to find an adequate balance of the elements mentioned above within tourism development in order to achieve an optimal way of fulfilling all requirements of sustainable development. In order to this, a potential method is introduced by applying the Sustainability Value Map, developed originally for buildings and urban development projects, to the evaluation of sustainable tourism products. This method implies further questions arisen concerning the selection of the right set of indicators and the importance of local or regional issues. Using it as a tool, it may promote the process of holistic tourism planning and development. Keywords: environmentalism, sustainable tourism, environmental impacts, sustainability value map
INTRODUCTION SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM AND ITS ASPECTS The term sustainable development, in the last decade of the 20th century, became widely used by governments, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and academia. Although, sustainable development is associated by many with issues like energy use, pollution and waste, they are now recognised as certain elements of sustainability, and the concept addresses three equally important issues: environment, economy and society (Holden, 2000). The concept has been applied in the tourism sector in various ways of which one gives the following definition of sustainable tourism: meeting
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the needs of present tourists and hosts while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. Thus, sustainability in the context of tourism means regulating the use of tourist resources so that they are not consumed, depleted or polluted in such a way as to be unavailable for the use by future generations of tourists (Burton, 1995). This form of sustainable tourism, oriented toward the viability of tourism industry, is referred to as the economic sustainability of tourism or tourism imperative (Holden, 2000). In order to achieve this, the primary aim of tourism development is satisfying the needs of tourists and other players in the industry. As the public has become aware of the extent of human impact on natural systems, environmental issues began to gain more ascendancy by the late 1960s and also with the rapid growth in tourism experienced in the second half of the 20th century, concerns grew about the physical environments of destinations used for tourism. The reliance of tourism upon the natural resources of the environment and the fact that its development induces changes which can be negative were realised. Accompanying the heightened awareness of environmental problems was also a realisation that the environment and development are inexorably linked. Development cannot take place upon a deteriorating environmental resource base neither can environment be protected when development excludes the costs of its destruction. In some cases, the environmental resources of tourism receive consideration, but are secondary to the growth of the tourism sector (product-led tourism). A third concept called environmentally led tourism can also be mentioned where types of tourism would be promoted that are reliant upon a highquality environment (Holden, 2000). Several forms of tourism were assumed to be appropriate/responsible causing the least change to the tourist resource and the most likely to be sustainable, e.g. natural area tourism including a number of activities such as hiking, mountain-climbing, fishing, hunting, camping, etc. However, there is wide scepticism about the long-term sustainability of these. DESTINATION AND THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT The role of place The attractiveness of a given tourist destination implies the state of the physical environment, thus the variety of activities and the resultant 142
cognition as shown in figure 1. Most tourism products and destinations are connected to certain physical and environmental factors therefore any changes in these may lead to a decrease in the popularity of and the demand for the given product as well as maintaining the quality of the product may be a special challenge for the tourism sector (Rtz, 2006). In, some cases, such as the case for outdoor tourism activities based on the attractions of the physical environment, the basis for the product itself (the system of physical environment) can be degraded and destructed to an extremely high degree. Figure 1. The main factors of selection of destinations, modified after Dvid et al. (2006)
The most popular locations for (activity-based) tourism are usually the most susceptible (coastal and mountain areas) ones, too. Sustainability has become a focal point of interest especially in areas which, in the future, will become more susceptible or more popular destinations and as such, the increasing number of visitors (i.e. the higher level of crowdedness) will result in more serious of environmental impacts. The development of tourism requires physical resources to facilitate its expansion. Maintaining the quality of the environment, however, is usually also among the main goals of sustainable tourism as set up by various authors. Despite the confusion about what is meant to be an environmentally responsible approach to tourism development, it is apparent that the protection of the natural resources upon which tourism is based is essential for the sustainable development of a location (Hall et 143
al., 1998). It is also important to realise that sustainable development is not concerned with the preservation of the physical environment but with its development based on sustainable principles of which environment is only one. The relevance of environmental impacts of tourism With increasing numbers of people visiting a spatially diminishing and continually degraded natural world there is much scope for negative impact (Newsome et al., 2002). The negative environmental consequences of tourism include resource usage (land, water, etc.), human behaviour towards the destination environment and pollution (water, noise, air and aesthetic). The impacts of tourism and recreation on the physical environment (interaction of humans with their environment) are important because of the sheer significance of the physical environment for the recreation and tourism industry. In the absence of an attractive environment, there would be little tourism (Mathieson et al., 1982). Tourism in natural areas impacts upon the natural environment in either positive or negative ways; it also has many social and economic consequences. Clearly, there are also social and economic impacts associated with recreational activity and tourism development (Newsome et al., 2002). It is often disregarded, however, that impact significance can depend on the type and source of impact (diversity, intensity and duration of the activities), environmental sensitivity (location), other cumulative pressures and the effectiveness of any management that is in place. Mountain environments are susceptible to disturbance due to steep slopes and thin soils and this is especially so in the high rainfall environments that span the tropics (Ahmad, 1993). It is important to detect the effects of tourism on all aspects of an ecosystem as well as to distinguish between perceptions and actual impacts of tourism. FINDING A BALANCE VISUALLY Finding a balance The goal of any kind of sustainable development project is finding an optimal way of fulfilling all requirements of the concept. The
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maximisation of one or two leads to an unbalanced way of development which might be sustainable regarding these parameters but not the rest. However, ecological aspects often gain priority within the concept. When the susceptibility of the physical environment represents an obstacle to the development of a viable tourism sector, sustainable tourism development can not be the case. Environmental issues are continuous focal points of activity at resort and hotel developments, particularly when the development is situated entirely or partly in a natural setting. The impact of these either they are found at the edge of a natural area/national park or at areas of particularly hard risks tends to be more significant. A major study of resident perceptions on the impact of tourism on natural environments in Hawaii, North Wales and Turkey carried out by Liu et al. (1987) showed the highest priority given to the protection of the environment for planning purposes. It was ranked higher than cultural benefits, social cots and even economic benefits. Thus, regarding environmental impacts, there is usually an obvious imbalance observed in many respects. First of all, negative impacts of tourism on the environment have been discussed in more details than positive. Also, social and economic aspects of tourism development projects are often disregarded to environmental ones (Newsome et al., 2002). Taken environment as whole, appreciation of the complexity of the environment as a system is often lacking. Local circumstances may support that certain environmental aspects gain higher priority of importance. Moreover, what is a well-recognised and significant impact in one region or type of environment may not be a problem elsewhere. For destination management to be sustainable it needs to address all the economic, social and environmental issues of that particular area. A number of methodologies have been put forward in an attempt to ensure that tourism activity is carried out in a sustainable way. Briefly, tourism development is sustainable only when none of the core components are neglected to others. Theories and management methods of sustainable tourism development and life-quality improvement must be applied to all types of tourism and destinations. In order to secure long-term sustainability, the accordance amongst these is indispensable. Monitoring survey and analysis of various indicators assumes the existence of a complex, longterm approach, of which primary aim is the establishment of sustainable welfare as shown in figure 2.
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Figure 2. The system of sustainable development, tourism indicators and life quality
Adding visualisation Applying the Sustainability Value Map In order to select an adequate method of integrated approach of planning, a useful tool would be the Sustainability Value Map (SVM), developed by Chris Butters, originally for buildings and urban development projects, although it can also be applied to the evaluation of any other sustainable products. The SVM visualises the three core elements of sustainability and the degree of what any product fulfils its goal. A summary of the main features of SVM (Urban Ecology) is as follows. For each of the three main areas, eight parameters are defined, 146
thus a product is benchmarked by 24 parameters in a complex way. The scale is set from 0 to 5 where 5 means what is seen as fully sustainable today. The values are scaled so that the outer rim, corresponding to a horizon of full sustainability, is clearly shown to be off. The selection of parameters is, though provisional, systematic. Considering that sustainability is a dynamic process, the model can be used in relation to time, to assess how the sustainability of the product develops from year to year. Also, by applying the same indicators, it can be a tool for comparing different projects. However, as pointed out earlier in this paper, impacts my vary locally, it is important to bear it in mind that the indicators used can and should vary to some extent depending on local conditions and on project scale. Also, as some of the components are rather complex, for a full assessment most will need a more detailed breakdown. Applying the Value Map for tourism development projects may be relevant from the point of view of key elements often associated with sustainable tourism, i.e. preservation of the current resource basis for future generations, maintaining the productivity of the resource basis, maintaining biodiversity and avoiding irreversible environmental changes. In its simplified form, it provides a checklist and framework for designers, and for discussion amongst participants in a planning process. In its detailed form, ideally, it gives a complete qualitative and quantitative picture of the condition of a project (Urban Ecology). Visualisation is further promoted by having the mean value of indicators all three areas calculated, and also added to the original version of SVM. Selecting the right set of indicators As pointed out by Newsome and Moore (2002), the degree and extent of any negative impacts, however, will depend on where the development is located, building design and adaptation to existing natural conditions, waste treatment systems, recycling and pattern of resource consumption as well as approaches to the recreational activities that take place in association with the development. Due to both the great variety of tourism activities and that of the local endowments, questions may be raised on the relevance and general applicability of a given indicator. One might be used restricted only for certain local or regional issues. Furthermore, there is a necessity to distinguish qualitative and quantitative parameters; and finally two more 147
questions are raised as (a) whether the selected indicator can be quantified, and (b) selecting the right set of indicators is possible at all (Puczk, 2002). For the latter one, an integrated approach of planning is required that takes the project scale and local endowments and the variables created on the basis of these into consideration. In a full assessment most variables also need a more detailed breakdown. Examples As a first step, the SVM is used to evaluate the environmental aspects of tourism development. Taken as an example, environmental impacts of a fictitious hotel development are discussed hereby and the SVM is applied in figure 3. Figure 3. Environmental impacts of infrastructure and support facilities in the development of tourism
The average conditions of the receiving environment are wellindicated in the figure and can be marked as average (with a sustainability value of 3.125). It can also be seen, however, that waste management, being a major issue elsewhere too, is the main problem source. Due to the large amount of volumes proceeded (average tourists 148
tend to produce more waste than local people), the low application level of recycling, waste prevention strategies and the nature of the receiving environment here, it is an unsolved problem. Thus, the value given is well below that of other indicators as shown in table 1. On the other hand, demands for further development in fields such as noise prevention or soil prevention can now be held back as probably adequate measures have already been to taken to fulfil these goals. For the evaluation, the most determinant environmental factors applied are indicated in table 1. Table 1. Environmental impacts of infrastructure and support facilities in the development of tourism, derived from Newsome and Moore (2002)
Activity Land clearing Noise Light pollution at night Removal of vegetation Possible impact Disturbance to wildlife Disturbance to wildlife Loss of habitats Shift in species composition of area Smaller population of plants and animals Weed invasion Increased fragmentation of habitats Soil loss Stream sedimentation and reduced water quality Noise from generators Pollution from fumes and oil/reduced air quality Disturbance corridors Disturbance corridors Ground water abstraction/reduced water tables Construction of dams/disrupted stream flow Need for solid landfill or removal of waste offsite Liquid treatment facilities/odour, litter Nutrient, fertiliser, pesticide and oil run-off Road corridor impacts and noise from vehicles Barriers to animal movement Sust. value 4 4 3
Soil erosion Energy supply Water supply Waste disposal Transportation infrastructure Roads
4 3 3 1
As a next step, the relationship of the three core elements is shown in figure 4. Here, a development project is visualised where environment seems to be managed in a more or less sustainable way thus is in a generally good conditions indicated by its average sustainability value of 4. 149
Key issues of discussing sustainable development projects are about this average. Renewable energy sources (RES) seem to be one of the keystones of discussion. A survey carried out among tourist operators in Queensland, Australia (Dalton, 2007) indicated positive interest in installing RES for their operation, and this is of fundamental importance to the viability of future strategies for increasing RES uptake. It is especially large hotels that tend to be affirmative on this issue may be due to their perceived market pressure to be Green. Also, according to Edgars (Yielding, 1999) observation, they are more likely to consider marketing of environmental initiative as an important component for overall business strategy. However, opinions on the marketing value of RES within the tourism industry are rather mixed. Figure 4. An example of the Sustainability Value Map applied for tourism development projects
In cases, when the goals of sustainability are neither accomplishable from the point of view of the society nor reasonable from the point of 150
view of the economy, these issues must receive more attention. At this stage, this development does not meet the demand of the local population at all. Without public involvement and the support of the local economy by fundamental financing for infrastructure among others, the outcome of this project is rather doubtful. From the point of view of tourists, it can be considered to be on a somewhat average level. In the one hand, certain aspects (accessibility) indicate a higher level of development whereas on the other, most of the components (aesthetics, security, variety) are just average. Conclusions The topic of sustainable tourism is still an evolutionary paradigm that is seen as a goal to be achieved for small-scale development in the supply environment and research enhancement on the niche characteristics in the demand and supply sides of the tourism system. A sustainable planning approach includes the integration of economic, environmental and socio-cultural values (i.e. holistic planning), also having it integrated to other planning processes as well as preservation of essential ecological processes. With its complexity, Sustainable Value Map provides a possibility to the advancement of sustainable tourism development. However, in order to achieve this, it has to undergo further research with several case studies of all branches of the tourism sector. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge Chris Butters for permitting the use of the Sustainability Value Map for this research purpose. For further details, please contact chris@butters.no or the authors.
REFERENCES
Holden, A. (2000). Environment and Tourism, Routledge Introduction to Environment Series. Routledge, London and New York, pp.225. Burton, R. (1995). Travel Geography. Longman, pp.514. Rtz, T. (2006). The role of climatic and weather factors in influencing travel behaviour (in Hungarian). Turizmus Bulletin, Vol. 10, Special Edition, pp.42-53.
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Dvid, L., Baros, Z., Szilgyi, Zs. (2006) Dimensions and environmental problems of sport tourism (in Hungarian). Tjkolgiai Lapok, Vol. 4, No.2, pp.395-405. Hall, C. M. & Lew, A. A. (1998) (eds.) Sustainable Tourism: A Geographical Perspective. Essex: Addison Wesley Longman. Newsome, D. & Moore, S. A. (2002). Natural Area Tourism, Aspects of Tourism 4. Clevedon, England, Channel View Publications, pp.340. Mathieson, A. & Wall, G. (1982). Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts. London, Longman. Ahmad, A. (1993). Environmental impact assessment in the Himalayas: An ecosystem approach. Ambio, Vol. 22, No.1, pp.4-9. Liu, J. C., Sheldon, P. J. & Var, T. (1987). Resident perception of the environmental impacts of tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 14, No.1, pp.17-37. Urban Ecology: Projects in Europe - visions for Oslo?; Oslo kommune Havnevesenet. Http://www.arkitektur.no/files/file46226_urban_ecology.pdf Puczk, L. & Rtz, T. (2002). Impacts of Tourism (An Introduction). Finland, Hme Polytechnic: pp.408. Dalton, G. J., Lockington, D. A. & Baldock, T. E. (2007). A survey of tourist operator attitudes to renewable energy supply in Queensland, Australia. Renewable Energy, Vol. 32, pp.567-586. Yielding, E. D. (1999). Giants versus minnows, is there a difference? Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 4, No.3, pp.255265. SUBMITTED: MARCH 2007 REVISION SUBMITTED: MAY 2007 ACCEPTED: JULY 2007 REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY Zoltan Baros, Kroly Rbert College, Department of Regional and Rural Development, Mtrai u. 36, 3200 Gyngys, Hungary. Lorant Denes Dvid (davidlo@karolyrobert.hu), Kroly Rbert College, Department of Regional and Rural Development, Mtrai u. 36, 3200 Gyngys, Hungary.
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CONFERENCE REPORT
2007 International CHRIE Conference1 25-29 July 2007, Dallas, Texas, USA The annual conference of the International Council for Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Education (International CHRIE) was held at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., the 25-29 of July 2007. The majority of the delegates were affiliated with universities, though an important number of industry practitioners and tourism and hospitality policy makers were also represented. The conference aimed to bring together all relevant stakeholders to discuss a wide portfolio of issues related to the hospitality and tourism industry and education. The mixed audience of more than 400 participants included representatives from all over the U.S.A., many European countries as well as from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This combination ensured the exchange of diversified ideas, and guaranteed lively and interesting discussions during the several academic and industry workshops, refereed paper presentations, posters, symposia, joint panels, and special industry group sector presentations. Without doubt, this year's International CHRIE Conference proved to be a really big, interested, varied and excellently organised and administered event. Refereed papers were of high quality while the presentations and meetings events were grouped in the following categories: club management, culinary arts, education and curriculum, finance and accounting, hospitality management, food service, gaming, human resources, legal and government relations, leisure and recreation, lodging, marketing, meeting planning and convention management, technology and information systems, and travel and tourism. During the five days of the convention, a very large number of events took place. In total there were presented: 70 refereed papers, 57 posters, 18 academic workshops, 12 industry workshops, 30 symposia, 6 panels, 3 round tables, and 27 special industry group sector meetings. All refereed papers were published in the Conference Proceedings, edited by the co-Chairs of the Refereed program Committee (Evangelos Christou and Marianna Sigala, both from the University of the Aegean in Greece). Last, 37 companies and organisations were represented in the exposition trade show.
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A large number of papers focusing on marketing issues related to tourism, travel and hospitality formed a significant part of the refereed papers presentations. Information Technology and specifically Web based applications were the major focus of many of the presentations. Papers on Web page design and functionality, on e-commerce applications management and evaluation attracted the attention of the conference attendants. The impact of Internet on education was another major theme of the conference. Participants had the opportunity to learn how to best harness technology for distance/online education or training purposes as well as to get a first hand insight on how educational institutions are changing and adopting their educational methods and curriculum to address developments driven by technological forces. Furthermore, a respectable attention was also paid to issues regarding customer satisfaction and customer service. It should be noted that this years conference program was well-balanced on presentations focusing on hospitality as well as on travel and tourism topics. In the general session opening ceremony Peter Jones (University of Surrey), president of International CHRIE introduced the conference program and explained its aims and objectives while stressing the significance of the changes that are due to take place in the hospitality and tourism industries in the 21st century. Bringing closer together, from all over the world, the different stakeholders (and views) of the academia and the professionals of the hospitality and tourism industries, as did this conference, is certainly a significant achievement. The next International CHRIE Conference will be held at Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the 30th of July 2008 to 3rd August 2008. The conference theme will be Welcoming a New Era to Hospitality Education. The deadline for the submission of refereed papers is January 20th 2008. All papers should be submitted electronically by using a designated online submission system; for more information please visit the International CHRIE's http site at www.chrie.org. Panagiotis Kassianidis Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki Panagiotis Kassianidis (kassianp@tour.teithe.gr) is Professor of Applications in Tourism Management at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Department of Tourism Management, P.O. Box 141, GR-57400, Thessaloniki, Greece.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
ENTER 2008, Information Technology in Travel & Tourism, Innsbruck, Austria, January 23-25, 2008. For more information visit http://www.ifitt.org/enter. Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) 2008 Conference, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia, February 11-14, 2008. For mote information please visit http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/cauthe2008/. 2nd International Conference of the e-Business Forum in Tourism, EBusiness in Travel, Tourism & Hospitality, Athens, Greece, March 14, 2008. Co-organised by the University of the Aegean, the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, and the Greek Research & Technology Network, endorsed by IFITT (international Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism). For more information visit http://www.ebusinessforum.gr/news/events/showevent/index.php?ctn=70 &language=el 19th Biennial International Congress, New Trends in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Opatija, Croatia, May 7-9, 2008. Organised by the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija. For more information visit www.fthm.hr/thi2008. CHME Research Conference 2008, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, May 14-16, 2008. Hosted and organised by the Business School of the University of Strathclyde. For more information visit http://www.strath.ac.uk/htm/chme2008. 6th Asia-Pacific CHRIE Conference and THE-ICE International Panel of Experts Forum, Developing and Delivering Industry-Relevant Education and Research, Perth, Western Australia, May 21-25, 2008. For more information visit http://www.apacchrieconference.com. 39th TTRA International Conference, Freedom to Travel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, June 15-17, 2008. For more information contact admin@ttra.com or visit http://www.ttra.com.
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ATLAS Annual Conference 2008, Selling or Telling? Paradoxes in Tourism Culture and Heritage, University of Brighton, United Kingdom, July 2-4, 2008. For more information contact Leontine Onderwater at leontine.onderwater@atlas-euro.org or visit http://www.atlas-euro.org. 2008 World Conference of the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS), Athens, Greece, July 6-10 2008. Co-hosted by the University of the Aegean and the Hellenic Aviation Society. For more information visit http://www.atrs2008.org. 2008 I-CHRIE Conference, Welcoming a New Era to Hospitality Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, July 30 August 3, 2008. For more information visit http://www.chrie.org. 58th AIEST Conference, Real Estate Market: Impacts on tourism destinations, Whistler, Canada, September 7-11, 2008. For more information contact Zvjezdana Vujkovic at zvjezdana.vujkovic@unisg.ch or visit http://www.aiest.org. 2008 Annual Conference of the International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators (ISTTE), The Future Success of Tourism: New Directions, Challenges and Opportunities, Dublin, Ireland, September 30 to October 2, 2008. For further details please visit the conference website at http://www.istte.org. World Leisure Congress, Quebec City, Canada, October 6-10, 2008. For more information please visit http://www.worldleisure.org. 26th EuroCHRIE Congress, Building a Legacy, Living the Dream: 2020 Vision for Hospitality and Tourism, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 11-14, 2008. Hosted and organised by Emirates Academy, U.A.E. For more information visit http://wwweurochrie.org or http://www.emiratesacademy.edu/eurochrie_dubai_2008/. 4th International Scientific Conference on Tourism of the University of the Aegean, Planning for the Future Learning from the Past: Contemporary Developments in Tourism, Travel & Hospitality, Rhodes island, Greece, November 13-16, 2008. Organised by the University of the Aegean, Interdepartmental Program of Postgraduate Studies in Tourism Planning, Management & Police. For more information please contact mstath@aegean.gr 156
AIMS & SCOPE TOURISMOS is an international, multi-disciplinary, refereed (peerreviewed) journal aiming to promote and enhance research in all fields of tourism, including travel, hospitality and leisure. The journal is published by the University of the Aegean (in Greece), and is intended for readers in the scholarly community who deal with different tourism sectors, both at macro and at micro level, as well as professionals in the industry. TOURISMOS provides a platform for debate and dissemination of research findings, new research areas and techniques, conceptual developments, and articles with practical application to any tourism segment. Besides research papers, the journal welcomes book reviews, conference reports, case studies, research notes and commentaries. TOURISMOS aims at: Disseminating and promoting research, good practice and innovation in all aspects of tourism to its prime audience including educators, researchers, post-graduate students, policy makers, and industry practitioners. Encouraging international scientific cooperation and understanding, and enhancing multi-disciplinary research across all tourism sectors.
The scope of the journal is international and all papers submitted are subject to strict blind peer review by its Editorial Board and by other anonymous international reviewers. The journal features conceptual and empirical papers, and editorial policy is to invite the submission of manuscripts from academics, researchers, post-graduate students, policymakers and industry practitioners. The Editorial Board will be looking particularly for articles about new trends and developments within different sectors of tourism, and the application of new ideas and developments that are likely to affect tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure in the future. TOURISMOS also welcomes submission of manuscripts in areas that may not be directly tourism-related but cover a
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topic that is of interest to researchers, educators, policy-makers and practitioners in various fields of tourism. The material published in TOURISMOS covers all scientific, conceptual and applied disciplines related to tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure, including: economics, management, planning and development, marketing, human resources, sociology, psychology, geography, information and communication technologies, transportation, service quality, finance, food and beverage, and education. Manuscripts published in TOURISMOS should not have been published previously in any copyright form (print or electronic/online). The general criteria for the acceptance of articles are: Contribution to the promotion of scientific knowledge in the greater multi-disciplinary field of tourism. Adequate and relevant literature review. Scientifically valid and reliable methodology. Clarity of writing. Acceptable quality of English language. TOURISMOS is published twice per year (in Spring and in Autumn). Each issue includes the following sections: editorial, research papers, research notes, case studies, book reviews, conference reports, industry viewpoints, and forthcoming events.
JOURNAL SECTIONS Editorial The Editorial addresses issues of contemporary interest and provides a detailed introduction and commentary to the articles in the current issue. The editorial may be written by the Editor, or by any other member(s) of the Editorial Board. When appropriate, a Guest Editorial may be presented. However, TOURISMOS does not accept unsolicited editorials. Research Papers For the Research Papers section, TOURISMOS invites full-length manuscripts (not longer than 6000 words and not shorter than 4000 words) from a variety of disciplines; these papers may be either empirical or conceptual, and will be subject to strict blind peer review (by at least three anonymous referees). The decision for the final acceptance of the paper will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Associate 158
Editors. The manuscripts submitted should provide original and/or innovative ideas or approaches or findings that eventually push the frontiers of knowledge. Purely descriptive accounts are not considered suitable for this section. Each paper should have the following structure: a) abstract, b) introduction (including an overall presentation of the issue to be examined and the aims and objectives of the paper), c) main body (including, where appropriate, the review of literature, the development of hypotheses and/or models, research methodology, presentation of findings, and analysis and discussion), d) conclusions (including also, where appropriate, recommendations, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research), e) bibliography, f) acknowledgements, and g) appendices. Case Studies Case Studies should be not longer than 3500 words and not shorter than 2500; these articles should be focusing on the detailed and critical presentation/review of real-life cases from the greater tourism sector, and must include - where appropriate - relevant references and bibliography. Case Studies should aim at disseminating information and/or good practices, combined with critical analysis of real examples. Purely descriptive accounts may be considered suitable for this section, provided that are well-justified and of interest to the readers of TOURISMOS. Each article should have the following structure: a) abstract, b) introduction (including an overall presentation of the case to be examined and the aims and objectives of the article), c) main body (including, where appropriate, the review of literature, the presentation of the case study, the critical review of the case and relevant discussion), d) conclusions (including also, where appropriate, recommendations, practical implications, and suggestions for further study), e) bibliography, f) acknowledgements, and g) appendices. All Case Studies are subject to blind peer review (by at least one anonymous referee). The decision for the final acceptance of the article will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Associate Editor. Research Notes Research Notes should be not longer than 2000 words and not shorter than 1000; these papers may be either empirical or conceptual, and will be subject to blind peer review (by at least two anonymous referees). The decision for the final acceptance of the paper will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Associate Editors. The manuscripts submitted may present research-in-progress or my focus on the conceptual 159
development of models and approaches that have not been proven yet through primary research. In all cases, the papers should provide original ideas, approaches or preliminary findings that are open to discussion. Purely descriptive accounts may be considered suitable for this section, provided that are well-justified and of interest to the readers of TOURISMOS. Each paper should have the following structure: a) abstract, b) introduction (including an overall presentation of the issue to be examined and the aims and objectives of the paper), c) main body (including, where appropriate, the review of literature, the development of hypotheses and/or models, research methodology, presentation of findings, and analysis and discussion), d) conclusions (including also, where appropriate, recommendations, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research), e) bibliography, f) acknowledgements, and g) appendices. Book Reviews Book Reviews should be not longer than 1500 words and not shorter than 1000; these articles aim at presenting and critically reviewing books from the greater field of tourism. Most reviews should focus on new publications, but older books are also welcome for presentation. Book Reviews are not subject to blind peer review; the decision for the final acceptance of the article will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Book Reviews Editor. Where appropriate, these articles may include references and bibliography. Books to be reviewed may be assigned to potential authors by the Book Reviews Editor, though TOURISMOS is also open to unsolicited suggestions for book reviews from interested parties. Conference Reports Conference Reports should be not longer than 2000 words and not shorter than 1000; these articles aim at presenting and critically reviewing conferences from the greater field of tourism. Most reports should focus on recent conferences (i.e., conferences that took place not before than three months from the date of manuscript submission), but older conferences are also welcome for presentation if appropriate. Conference Reports are not subject to blind peer review; the decision for the final acceptance of the article will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Conference Reports Editor. Where appropriate, these articles may include references and bibliography. Conference reports may be assigned to potential authors by the Conference Reports Editor, though
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TOURISMOS is also open to unsolicited suggestions for reports from interested parties. Industry Viewpoints Industry Viewpoints should be not longer than 1500 words and not shorter than 500; these articles may have a commentary form, and aim at presenting and discussing ideas, views and suggestions by practitioners (industry professionals, tourism planners, policy makers, other tourism stakeholders, etc.). Through these articles, TOURISMOS provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and for developing closer links between academics and practitioners. Most viewpoints should focus on contemporary issues, but other issues are also welcome for presentation if appropriate. Industry Viewpoints are not subject to blind peer review; the decision for the final acceptance of the article will be taken unanimously by the Editor and by the Associate Editors. These articles may be assigned to potential authors by the editor, though TOURISMOS is also open to unsolicited contributions from interested parties. Forthcoming Events Forthcoming Events should be not longer than 500 words; these articles may have the form of a call of papers, related to a forthcoming conference or a special issue of a journal. Alternatively, forthcoming events may have the form of a press release informing readers of TOURISMOS about an event (conference or other) related to the tourism, travel, hospitality or leisure sectors. These articles should not aim at promoting sales of any products or services. The decision for the final acceptance of the article will be taken by the Editor.
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NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS Manuscript Submission Procedure Manuscripts should be written as understandably and concisely as possible with clarity and meaningfulness. Submission of a manuscript to TOURISMOS represents a certification on the part of the author(s) that it is an original work and has not been copyrighted elsewhere; manuscripts that are eventually published may not be reproduced in any other publication (print or electronic), as their copyright has been transferred to TOURISMOS. Submissions are accepted only in electronic form; authors are requested to submit one copy of each manuscript by email attachment. All manuscripts should be emailed to the Editor-in-Chief (Prof. Paris Tsartas, at ptsar@aegean.gr), and depending on the nature of the manuscript submissions should also be emailed as follows: Conference reports should be emailed directly to the Conference Reports Editor (Dr. Vasiliki Galani-Moutafi), at v.moutafi@sa.aegean.gr. Book reviews should be emailed directly to the Book Reviews Editor (Dr. Marianna Sigala), at m.sigala@aegean.gr. Full papers and all other types of manuscripts should be emailed directly to the Managing Editor (Dr. Evangelos Christou), at e.christou@aegean.gr. Feedback regarding the submission of a manuscript (including the reviewers comments) will be provided to the author(s) within six weeks of the receipt of the manuscript. Submission of a manuscript will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work not being considered for publication elsewhere at the same time. Each author of a manuscript accepted for publication will receive three complimentary copies of the issue, and will also have to sign a transfer of copyright form. If appropriate, author(s) can correct first proofs. Manuscripts submitted to TOURISMOS, accepted for publication or not, cannot be returned to the author(s).
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Manuscript Length Research Papers should be not longer than 6000 words and not shorter than 4000. Research Notes should be not longer than 2000 words and not shorter than 1000. Case Studies should be not longer than 3500 words and not shorter than 2500. Book Reviews should be not longer than 1500 words and not shorter than 1000. Conference Reports should be not longer than 2000 words and not shorter than 1000. Industry Viewpoints should be not longer than 1500 words and not shorter than 500. Forthcoming Events should be not longer than 500 words. Manuscripts that do not fully conform to the above word limits (according to the type of the article) will be automatically rejected and should not be entered into the reviewing process. Manuscript Style & Preparation All submissions (research papers, research notes, case studies, book reviews, conference reports, industry viewpoints, and forthcoming events) must have a title of no more than 12 words. Manuscripts should be double-line spaced, and have at least 2,5 cm (one-inch) margin on all four sides. Pages should be numbered consecutively. The use of footnotes within the text is discouraged use endnotes instead. Endnotes should be kept to a minimum, be used to provide additional comments and discussion, and should be numbered consecutively in the text and typed on a separate page at the end of the article. Quotations must be taken accurately from the original source. Alterations to the quotations must be noted. Quotation marks ( ) are to be used to denote direct quotes. Inverted commas ( ) should denote a quote within a quotation. If the quotation is less than 3 lines, then it should be included in the main text enclosed in quotation marks. If the quotation is more than 3 lines, then it should be separated from the main text and indented. The name(s) of any sponsor(s) of the research contained in the manuscript, or any other acknowledgements, should appear at the very end of the manuscript. Tables, figures and illustrations are to be included in the text and to be numbered consecutively (in Arabic numbers). Each table, figure or illustration must have a title. 163
The text should be organized under appropriate section headings, which, ideally, should not be more than 500-700 words apart. The main body of the text should be written in Times New Roman letters, font size 12. Section headings should be written in Arial letters, font size 12, and should be marked as follows: primary headings should be centred and typed in bold capitals and underlined; secondary headings should be typed with italic bold capital letters; other headings should be typed in capital letters. Authors are urged to write as concisely as possible, but not at the expense of clarity. The preferred software for submission is Microsoft Word. Authors submitting papers for publication should specify which section of the journal they wish their paper to be considered for: research papers, research notes, case studies, book reviews, conference reports, industry viewpoints, and forthcoming events. Author(s) are responsible for preparing manuscripts which are clearly written in acceptable, scholarly English, and which contain no errors of spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Neither the Editorial Board nor the Publisher is responsible for correcting errors of spelling or grammar. Where acronyms are used, their full expression should be given initially. Authors are asked to ensure that there are no libellous implications in their work.
Manuscript Presentation For submission, manuscripts of research papers, research notes and case studies should be arranged in the following order of presentation: First page: title, subtitle (if required), authors name and surname, affiliation, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address. Respective names, affiliations and addresses of co-author(s) should be clearly indicated. Also, include an abstract of not more than 150 words and up to 6 keywords that identify article content. Also include a short biography of the author (about 50 words); in the case of co-author(s), the same details should also be included. All correspondence will be sent to the first named author, unless otherwise indicated. Second page: title, an abstract of not more than 150 words and up to 6 keywords that identify article content. Do not include the author(s) details, affiliation(s), and biographies in this page. 164
Subsequent pages: the paper should begin on the third page and should not subsequently reveal the title or authors. In these pages should be included the main body of text (including tables, figures and illustrations); list of references; appendixes; and endnotes (numbered consecutively). The author(s) should ensure that their names cannot be identified anywhere in the text.
Referencing Style In the text, references should be cited with parentheses using the author, date style - for example for single citations (Ford, 2004), or for multiple citations (Isaac, 1998; Jackson, 2003). Page numbers for specific points or direct quotations must be given (i.e., Ford, 2004: 312-313). The Reference list, placed at the end of the manuscript, must be typed in alphabetical order of authors. The specific format is: For journal papers: Tribe, J. (2002). The philosophic practitioner. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.29, No.2, pp.338-357. For books and monographs: Teare, R. & Ingram, H. (1993). Strategic Management: A Resource-Based Approach for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries. London, Cassell. For chapters in edited books: Sigala, M. and Christou, E. (2002). Use of Internet for enhancing tourism and hospitality education: lessons from Europe. In K.W. Wober, A.J. Frew and M. Hitz (Eds.) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, Wien: Springer-Verlag. For papers presented in conferences: Ford, B. (2004). Adoption of innovations on hospitality. Paper presented at the 22nd EuroCHRIE Conference. Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey: 3-7 November 2004. For unpublished works: Gregoriades, M. (2004). The impact of trust in brand loyalty, Unpublished PhD Tourismos. Chios, Greece: University of the Aegean. For Internet sources (if you know the author): Johns, D. (2003) The power of branding in tourism. ttp://www.tourismabstracts.org/marketing/papers-authors/id3456. Accessed the 12th of January 2005, at 14:55. (note: always state clearly the full URL of your source). For Internet sources (if you do not know the author): Tourism supply and demand. ttp://www.tourismabstracts.org/marketing/papers165
authors/id3456. Accessed the 30th of January 2004, at 12:35. (note: always state clearly the full URL of your source). For reports: Edelstein, L. G. & Benini, C. (1994). Meetings and Conventions. Meetings market report (August), 60-82.
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TOURISMOS An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism

TOURISMOS An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism

Observed Linear Logarithmic Inverse Quadratic Cubic Compound

Quadratic .709 69.306 Compoun .000

The independent variable is parti_as_trainee.

CURRY CUISINE: PERCEPTIONS OF INDIAN RESTAURANTS IN MALAYSIA

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

Table 3. Mean Scores of Importance of Various Influences on Respondents

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

Note. F is significant if p < .05

Table 5. Analysis Of Variance Of Food Attributes By Ethnic Origin

Note. F is significant if p < .05

Chi-Square = 27.853, p< .000

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

Bharath M. Josiam, Sadiq M. Sohail & Prema A. Monteiro

COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Normal costing Actual costing Total

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Table 13. Relation between number of activities and cost drivers

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Mann Whitney U 455 Mean difference -9.77 103.44 -6.38

Wilcox n 2600 t value -5.907 1.219 -0.65

0.001 0.226 0.525

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

Odysseas Pavlatos & Ioannis Paggaios

CULTURAL TOURISM IN A GREEK INSULAR COMMUNITY: THE RESIDENTS PERSPECTIVE

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Monthly family income ()

Economically dependency on tourism Type of residence

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Despina Sdrali & Katerina Chazapi

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Table 1. Numbers of Tourist Guides in Egypt 1983-2005.

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Table 2. Evaluation of the importance of the Areas of study for TGs

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Table3. Evaluation of the importance of the Knowledge background for TGs

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Table 4. Evaluation of the importance of the personal skills for TGs

Average score 81 4.7

4.6 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.5

Table 5. Challenges preventing a tour guide from professionalism

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

Omneya Khairy El-Sharkawy

* p<0.01, p<0.05, * p<0.1