<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att utvidga kunskapen om generella resmotiv hos äldre turister på besök i Stockholm. Detta för att bidra med kunskap som kan förbättra produkterna för och marknadsföringen mot denna målgrupp.</p><p>Äldre turister är en intressant grupp att undersöka då de ofta behandlas utifrån stereotypa uppfattningar och antaganden om likhet. Gruppen är dock på inget sätt homogen. För att förstå gruppen bättre är det nödvändigt att använda sig av undersegment. Undersökningen intresserar sig för om det är fruktbart att göra undersegmenteringar med hjälp av variablerna resvana och livssituation. Variablerna baseras på Pearces teori och modell travel career patterns approach. Från denna modell hämtar undersökningen också de behovsfaktorer som i olika utsträckning är avgörande för varför människor reser. Empirin samlades in genom enkäter och bearbetades i SPSS. Genom att jämföra de förväntade resultaten som teorin pekar på med resultatet från enkäterna vi samlade in kan vi konstatera att modellen inte har varit fruktbar för att indela gruppen äldre turister i undersegment. Vi menar därför att teorin inte går att tillämpa när vi befinner oss inom en och samma livsfasgrupp.</p><p>Undersökningen resulterade även i en rangordning av de behovsfaktorer/resmotiv som de äldre turisterna i studien ansåg viktigast. De högst rankade behovsfaktorerna var omväxling, relation/säkerhet, nostalgi, natur, samt självutveckling kopplad till destinationen.</p>

The Svealand line opened in 1997 and the services areoperated with regional high speed trains. While the Svealandline was being built, the slow trains that had been inoperation on the old railway between Eskilstuna and Stockholm(a distance of 115 km) were replaced by buses with a highfrequency of service. In a case study of the effects of regional high speed trainservices, field surveys were made of residents and publictransport passengers along the line, and in a reference centreof population, before and after the Svealand line opened.Changes in knowledge, valuations and travel behaviour have beenanalysed, as have changes in accessibility. The supply and thedemand for regional journeys by car, bus and train have alsobeen examined. The results show that the Svealand line has meant anincrease of up to seven times in regional travel by railcompared to the old railway between Eskilstuna and Stockholm,and the market share has risen from 6% to 30%. Those who travelmost are people who have access to a car at times. Habitualmotorists, on the other hand, account for the largest increasein travel by public transport. In areas close to the railwaystations in Strängnäs and Eskilstuna new patterns ofcar ownership, travel behaviour, choice of transport mode andchoice of destination have been found since the regional highspeed trains began operating on the Svealand line. Commuting towork has also shown a marked increase. Travelling times arevalued highly and especially motorists value the high speedtrain mode of transport highly. Poorer train services and busservices are not attractive to motorists other than as areserve alternative to their own cars. A general conclusion is that the regional high speed trainservices have had a major impact on the travel market, travelbehaviour and accessibility. The improved accessibility toStockholm in particular is especially noticeable amongresidents close to the railway stations. Keywords:The Svealand line, high speed trains, regionaltravel, travel behaviour, choice of transport mode,accessibility / QC 20100608

Syftet med uppsatsen är att utvidga kunskapen om generella resmotiv hos äldre turister på besök i Stockholm. Detta för att bidra med kunskap som kan förbättra produkterna för och marknadsföringen mot denna målgrupp. Äldre turister är en intressant grupp att undersöka då de ofta behandlas utifrån stereotypa uppfattningar och antaganden om likhet. Gruppen är dock på inget sätt homogen. För att förstå gruppen bättre är det nödvändigt att använda sig av undersegment. Undersökningen intresserar sig för om det är fruktbart att göra undersegmenteringar med hjälp av variablerna resvana och livssituation. Variablerna baseras på Pearces teori och modell travel career patterns approach. Från denna modell hämtar undersökningen också de behovsfaktorer som i olika utsträckning är avgörande för varför människor reser. Empirin samlades in genom enkäter och bearbetades i SPSS. Genom att jämföra de förväntade resultaten som teorin pekar på med resultatet från enkäterna vi samlade in kan vi konstatera att modellen inte har varit fruktbar för att indela gruppen äldre turister i undersegment. Vi menar därför att teorin inte går att tillämpa när vi befinner oss inom en och samma livsfasgrupp. Undersökningen resulterade även i en rangordning av de behovsfaktorer/resmotiv som de äldre turisterna i studien ansåg viktigast. De högst rankade behovsfaktorerna var omväxling, relation/säkerhet, nostalgi, natur, samt självutveckling kopplad till destinationen.

In recent years the Internet has greatly changed the travel industry and the emergence of social media has driven this change further. In the past travel companies have been natural links between customers and suppliers but today customers can buy travel directly from the supplier, making it difficult for travel companies to attract new customers and retain existing customers. As social media is revolutionizing the way people communicate, the trend suggests that it is becoming increasingly important for firms to take part in this technological development to interact with customers. Although Internet and social media has a major impact on firm-to-customer and customer-to-customer conversations, there is little guidance in academic literature and organizational contexts on how to use social media in an effective way. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to describe and explain how social media has transformed the relationships between selected Swedish travel companies and their customers, and how these firms create and sustain value and relationships through social media. Furthermore, we will give implications for management on how to utilize social media to create and sustain value and relationships. The results of our research confirm that social media is transforming the relationships between firms and customers. From our findings we conclude that the customer has become more empowered, that interaction now occurs through a two-way communication and that social media has made industries and relationships more transparent. The results also indicate that firms do not realize the value that can be created through social media for the customer as well as for the firm. The use of social media among the interviewed firms varies with some firms using social media through many tools and some firms not using social media at all. Our findings implicate that being aware of what value is created and why the firm is involved in a certain social media tool increases the likelihood of success. The firm should further not be afraid to experiment with social media. However, social media also presents challenges. As social media is characterized by rapidly changing trends, it is difficult to predict what will happen not only in a distant future, but even so just a few years ahead.

The travel agencies exist on a market that is distinguished by increasing competition. A majority of the travel agencies offer different services that all satisfie the same customer need. However, one major difference in the market aspect is the service quality, this making it an important mean of competition. There are several acknowledged methods of measurement when it comes to service quality and it is important to use an instrument that takes into consideration the fact that charter tours is a complex merger of several services. The purpose of this essay is to establish if the SERVQUAL method is a suitable instrument for measuring service quality in the travel industry. This study is a thorough analysis and evaluation of what Apollo’s customers think about the service quality of Apollo as well as how they perceive that Apollo fulfils their travelling expectations. Moreover, the essay will examine which factors affect travellers’ experiences of the service quality on charter tours. The study has an objective outlook and the authors have applied a deductive approach. The authors have performed a quantitative study on 70 of Apollo’s customers. The aforementioned study was carried out using a questionnaire that was based on the SERVQUAL method and the theories that were used in the theoretical part of that study. The result show that the SERVQUAL method only considered the aspects that involve the travel agency and did not consider the other aspects that affect the traveller’s overall experience of the service quality. In conclusion this study determines that the SERVQUAL method is not a suitable instrument for measuring service quality on charter tours in the travel industry. / Researrangörer verkar på en marknad som kännetecknas av en ökad konkurrens, där ett flertal researrangörer erbjuder olika tjänster som tillfredställer samma behov. Något som särskiljer researrangörerna åt är kvaliteten, vilket medför att den blir ett viktigt konkurrensmedel. Då det finns flera erkända metoder för att mäta upplevd tjänstekvalitet är det viktigt att använda ett mätinstrument som tar hänsyn till att charterresor är en komplex uppsättning av deltjänster. Syftet med denna uppsats är att klargöra om SERVQUAL metoden är ett lämpligt mätinstrument inom reseindustrin genom att analysera och utvärdera vad kunderna anser om Apollos tjänstekvalitet samt om Apollo uppfyller kundernas förväntningar. Detta med hjälp av att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar resenärers upplevda tjänstekvalitet på charterresor. Uppsatsen utgår från ett objektivistiskt synsätt där författarna har tillämpat en deduktiv ansats. En kvantitativ enkätundersökning har utförts på 70 stycken av Apollos kunder där enkätundersökningen är baserad på SERVQUAL samt de teorier som behandlas i studiens teorikapitel. Resultatet visar att SERVQUAL metoden endast tar upp de aspekter som rör researrangören, och inte alla de aspekter som påverkar kundernas upplevda tjänstekvalitet. Med detta som utgångspunkt anser författarna att SERVQUAL metoden är bristande som mätinstrument när det gäller att mäta resenärers uppfattning av tjänstekvalitet på charterresor.

This dissertation examines the theme of travel in the work of Karel Čapek (1890-1938), both in his travelogues and fiction. Instead of assuming travel as a conventional departure to another destination, journey and return home, Čapek experimented with the topic, popular in interwar literatures and arts, as an example of the avant-garde interconnectedness between different genres and arts. Čapek used three approaches to express his experiences of traveling. First, he founded his own aesthetics of the so called “marginal forms” or “low-brow genres” which he simultaneously interpolated in his prose. Their use, which greatly changes the perspective on travel writing, is visible in comparison between Čapek’s and previous travelogues (chapter 1). Secondly, he introduced skaz as stylized spoken language to Czech literature, and changed the traditional roles of the narrator and his addressees in travelogues (chapter 2). Thirdly, he used visual elements of language, combined verbal and visual arts (illustrations and drawings) in the narrative (chapter 3). Finally, all these elements he interpolated to his prose (chapter 4) through the intertextual links with travelogues. On the example of the theme of travel in Karel Čapek’s work, my dissertation revisits some current definitions of the historical avant-garde. It shows that the recent theories, predominantly developed on the examples from Western European and Russian arts, cannot be fully applied to local artistic movements. First, it shows that the notion of the avant-garde cannot be just confined to the writers who called themselves “avant-garde” (such as Karel Teige or Vladislav Vančura). Instead, it should be also expanded to other writers, such as Karel Čapek, marginal to the avant-garde mainstream. Second, the analysis of the theme of travel in Karel Čapek’s opus shows that the Czech avant-garde was not destructive towards its literary heritage. Instead, it offered an alternative reading of tradition through artistic experiments. In extension, it also provided a new understanding of the cultural and literary identity.

This dissertation examines the theme of travel in the work of Karel Čapek (1890-1938), both in his travelogues and fiction. Instead of assuming travel as a conventional departure to another destination, journey and return home, Čapek experimented with the topic, popular in interwar literatures and arts, as an example of the avant-garde interconnectedness between different genres and arts. Čapek used three approaches to express his experiences of traveling. First, he founded his own aesthetics of the so called “marginal forms” or “low-brow genres” which he simultaneously interpolated in his prose. Their use, which greatly changes the perspective on travel writing, is visible in comparison between Čapek’s and previous travelogues (chapter 1). Secondly, he introduced skaz as stylized spoken language to Czech literature, and changed the traditional roles of the narrator and his addressees in travelogues (chapter 2). Thirdly, he used visual elements of language, combined verbal and visual arts (illustrations and drawings) in the narrative (chapter 3). Finally, all these elements he interpolated to his prose (chapter 4) through the intertextual links with travelogues. On the example of the theme of travel in Karel Čapek’s work, my dissertation revisits some current definitions of the historical avant-garde. It shows that the recent theories, predominantly developed on the examples from Western European and Russian arts, cannot be fully applied to local artistic movements. First, it shows that the notion of the avant-garde cannot be just confined to the writers who called themselves “avant-garde” (such as Karel Teige or Vladislav Vančura). Instead, it should be also expanded to other writers, such as Karel Čapek, marginal to the avant-garde mainstream. Second, the analysis of the theme of travel in Karel Čapek’s opus shows that the Czech avant-garde was not destructive towards its literary heritage. Instead, it offered an alternative reading of tradition through artistic experiments. In extension, it also provided a new understanding of the cultural and literary identity.

In the first chapter, we develop a dynamic model of collusion in city-pair routes for selected US airlines and specify the first order conditions using a state-space representation that is estimated by Kalman-filtering techniques using the Databank 1A (DB1A) Department of Transportation (DOT) data during the period 1979I-1988IV. We consider two airlines, American (AA) and United (UA) and four city pairs. Our measure of market power is based on the shadow value of long-run profits in a two person strategic dynamic game and we find evidence of relative market power of UA in three of the four city pairs we analyze. The second chapter explores three models of forecasting airline energy demand: Trend line, ARIMA and Structural Model based on results from Chapter 1 and find that none of them is a dominant winner in American (AA) and United (UA) between Chicago and Salt Lake City. In the third chapter, we use Model Averaging and Forecast Combination Techniques to provide a decisive conclusion focusing on discussing Equal Weighted Averaging, Mean Square Weighted Averaging and Optimized Weighted Averaging on UA and AA in City-Pairs Chicago -Seattle and Chicago-San Diego.

Our society is becoming more restless and mobile, a symbol for this mobility are the backpackers. Backpackers are found everywhere in the world and represent a form of low-cost independent travellers. To experience as much as possible, seems to be a very important issue for backpackers and they have that as a motivation during their travels. Backpackers have been described as ”experiences hungry”. The term experiences, is today being used a lot in the tourism industry. To be able to predict what an experience is, can be hard and the term is hard to define. Mobile technologies are also becoming a permanent part of the our society. Communication technology are something that backpackers use more and more during their travels. This thesis identifies knowledge and design implications for a mobile application to support backpacker´s need when travelling and how backpackers define the notion of travel experiences. The result of the thesis have calumniated in a mobile application prototype that coul contribute in letting backpackers get more out of there journey. This in an interactive and social way, by giving backpackers the opportunity to be social towards each-other share information through a social medium. As the thesis have shown that backpackers wants to meet others on there journey and experience the world.

Aim The commercial success of some low cost airlines presents the low cost model as very attractive. Until now their main focus has been on short-haul routes, but it is no surprise that they show an interest in entering the long-haul routes market as recent trends are very promising. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the low cost business model is applicable for long-haul routes, which parts of the model are transferable to long-haul services, what competitors responses might be and whether there is potential for low cost airlines operating in Scandinavia to gain frequent, well paying and demanding business travelers on their future long-haul routes. Method In this study a survey method with structured questionnaire distributed by e-mail has been used to collect the primary data. The main source of secondary data has been airline industry literature, newspapers, magazines and data provided by aviation statistical organizations. The empirical part of this study is conducted as a quantitative and qualitative study. Intention of empirical part is to find detailed information and describe business travelers’ behavior, corporate travel policies, business trips pattern and attitude towards low cost airlines. Conclusions The cost savings that low cost airlines achieved in the short-haul market will be much more difficult to achieve to long-haul services. In terms of areas where airlines can achieve cost leadership labor costs is certainly the best area to attack. To be successful, low cost airlines would have to adopt some elements of the traditional business model. But the success of long-haul low cost airlines will not only depend on achieving cost advantages. Availability of leisure time for long-haul trips and response of competitors will be other factors. Suggestions for future research A deeper analysis of low cost long-haul airlines potential could be possible with survey among leisure travelers and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) segment. Contribution of the Study This study has arrived at the conclusion that in order to be successful on long-haul routes low cost airlines would have to keep most of the features of traditional airlines. Low cost long-haul airlines would most probably be successful in pure leisure routes, ethnic markets, during peak season and on dense point to point destinations.