The purpose of this study was to investigate how the British tourists move through a decision process in choosing Malaysia as a long-haul holiday destination. The purchase of a long-haul holiday is thought to be complex with high involvement and deliberation as well as being more expensive and bought less frequently (may be once a year). As such, a five-stage decision process is used: i) problem recognition, ii) information search, iii) evaluation of alternatives, iv) purchase decision and v) postpurchase behaviour. The research was conducted at two levels. The first level was self-administered tourists' survey questionnaire carried-out over a three-month period in Malaysia. The second level involved a British tour operators' survey which was supplemented by personal interview in order to get a better insight into the problems and potentials of Malaysia as a long-haul destination. "In search of new experience," "rest and relaxation",and "cultural attraction" were ranked as the three most important motivational factors influencing the decision to travel long-haul. Personal sources of information seemed to dominate in every stage of the decision process. Tourists evaluated Malaysia very favourably only on two tourist-attracting attributes - entertainment and shopping facilities; but these attributes were less important to them when selecting their holiday destinations. Husbands and wives were found to be in agreement on nine of the eleven subdecisions. Generally, tourists expressed high satisfaction with their holiday experience in Malaysia. Nevertheless some significant differences were found between independent and packaged tourists. Independent tourists were more satisfied with all the "product and service superiority" factors compared to the packaged tourists. With local services, independent tourists were significantly more satisfied than the packaged tourists with pleasant attitudes of the people and the personal security aspects of the "health and safety" factor. With regards to overall value for money and overall satisfaction, the independent tourists were significantly more satisfied than the packaged tourists. Comparison between destinations within the region also revealed different satisfaction levels across various dimensions. The study provides useful empirical support which enable tourism planners in making specific improvements in order to maintain and/or increase tourist satisfaction. For tourism marketers, creation of unrealistic tourist expectation through excessive promotional exaggeration should be avoided to circumvent tourist dissatisfaction.

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Given the scarcity of research ascertaining the relationship between tourists' foodservice experiences and holiday satisfaction and its implications for destinations, this study primarily set out to provide guidelines on ways in which tourists' foodservice experiences and holiday satisfaction can be assessed and enhanced. The present study consisted of three interdependent phases, and questionnaire-based surveys were employed to test the research hypotheses. A combination of different qualitative techniques was utilised in order to shortlist the relevant attributes to be included in each research instrument. These instruments were then subjected to further tests in order to ensure their adequacy and appropriateness. The first research phase ascertained the relative validity and reliability of the existing satisfaction measurement frameworks and was implemented in a chain restaurant in Sheffield. This phase aimed to identify the most reliable and valid operational framework to be utilised in the subsequent phases of the research. The second phase explored tourist satisfaction dimensions and ascertained the relative contribution of each dimension, particularly that of the foodservice experience, to holiday satisfaction and future behavioural intentions among visitors to South West Turkey. The final phase specifically examined what matters most in tourists' foodservice evaluations, and explored whether different dining segments developed their satisfaction and behavioural intention judgements based on different service attributes in non-fast-food restaurants situated in South West Turkey. The results of the first phase indicated that a more direct measure of perceived performance might be a better predictor of customer satisfaction than more complex composite measures of disconfirmation of expectations. The perceived-performance only model, out-performed the disparity models, which involved a comparison between a predetermined standard and the perceived performance (the Expectancy Disconfirmation Paradigm), and the multiplication models, where performance was weighted by the attribute importance, in predicting customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The results of the second phase revealed that tourist satisfaction was multidimensional. Among the identified holiday components, tourists' impressions of foodservice experiences were found to be an important factor in tourists' holiday satisfaction and behavioural intention judgements. While positive tourists' impressions of foodservice experiences were found to enhance holiday satisfaction, the negative impressions were found to have potential to override well-executed quality in other areas. The results of the final phase demonstrated that there were numerous factors affecting tourist foodservice experiences and that the manner in which the restaurant product is delivered was found to account for the greatest impact on tourist dining satisfaction and return intentions. Analysing the benefits sought from non-fast food resort restaurants by tourists, the research identified five distinct dining segments, including: the Value-Seekers, the Service-Seekers, the Adventurous Food-Seekers, the Healthy Food- Seekers, and the Atmosphere-Seekers. These segments were found to develop their satisfaction and return intention judgements based on different restaurant attributes. Overall, the study findings provided strong support for the research hypotheses and showed that tourist foodservice experiences may lay the foundation for, and shape the nature of tourist holiday experience. Marketing and management implications of the study findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.

This thesis is focused on the e-commerce in tourism, current trends associated with the development of technologies used in e-commerce in tourism and the application of new technologies in online selling of packages holiday. The first chapter is focused on e-commerce in tourism in general. The second chapter is focused on 6 most used B2B and B2C systems for travel agencies and on their comparison. The third chapter is focused on the phenomenon of german packages being sold by czech travel agencies in Czech republic.

This study aims to investigate the changes and trend for the official policies, celebration activities, and ceremonies of national holidays¡¦ in Taiwan over the period of 1950 to 2004. The interactions and confrontations among competing authorities in defining the time and space for national holidays, and the process by which they influence Taiwanese people¡¦s collective memory are further studied. The method applied is literature review and historical analysis. The findings show that the formation and development of Taiwanese national holidays¡¦ are the outcomes of a love story and sometime struggles between political and other social powers. Utilizing the uniqueness and the special sphere of time and space, politicians and other groups co-construct a collective memory that serves their own interests. There are affinities between national holidays and religions, as the legitimacy of their existence, activities and ceremonies both come from the ¡§sacred canopy¡¨ provided by the belief system. The later grants the national holidays with sacred values, and thus made the existence, activities and ceremonies of the former possible. However, while the making of national holiday¡¦s collective memory is dominated by political authorities, they have their limitations. As we shall present in the study, there are competing forces in the pursuit of legitimacy. These interventional and balancing factors include economic factors, ideologies of confronting political parties as well as leisure culture. They are actually the most important factors in the changes and development of national holidays. They come from and also reflect on the social change. It is also clear that the ¡§the holiday overset phenomenon¡¨ has started since the Lee Deng Huei period.

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Taking as its starting point the anti-monumental stance of much Post-minimalist sculpture, my research investigates alternative paradigms for sculptural practice, drawing on the decorative traditions of provisional and temporary objects made for ceremonies and celebrations (including bunting, balloons, tablecloths, banners etc.) / In order to find a way of creating sculptural works that are formally flexible and mutable, but that also connect with the symbolism emanating from such vernacular celebrations; I have turned to studying objects that are separate to, yet which 'surround', those located within the 'fine art' sculptural tradition. The pageant, feast, religious occasion and personal celebration are examples of symbolic events which necessitate the manufacture of decorations, costumes and props. Often these objects are ephemeral, in being made from materials such as flowers, textiles, or food, and are meant to be discarded or consumed. Sometimes they have a cyclical or 'seasonal' aspect - in terms of their temporality - in being able to be repeatedly used and then packed away. The characteristics of such deployment, and the emphasis on the manner in which these objects transform an environment tie them to many key aspects within both modernist and postmodernist visual art practice (whether within Minimalism, Arte Povera, for Neo-concretism). / Special occasions have a shared symbolic language that is intimately understood by most people across a wide diversity of cultures; while in requiring the production of objects as 'accessories', decorations or props, they also share many basic elements of what might be called a 'formal vocabulary' or language. / This research focuses on the formal conventions and structures of the material culture of special occasions; the sculptural language of the streamer, pageant float, tinsel, birthday cake, and balloon. With the 'expansion of the sculptural field' and the loss of confidence in the signifying capacity of the tradition of the monumental within public art, artists have increasingly turned to exploring other forms and types of symbolic language, as a way of engaging anew with communal commemoration and celebration - whether on large or domestic scale (illustrated ephemeral, performative and domestic materials and processes in contemporary art. / Also of interest is the tradition of display and spectacle inherent in protest marches and rallies. Very often the formal elements of trade union parades, suffragette marches and mass demonstrations utilise a similar formal language to parties and pageants. The ability of such festive structures to carry and even advance an ideological cause is intriguing, and provides a point from which to begin to speculate on how 'personal ideologies', obsessions, and intense psychological and emotional affects might be drawn upon to create a visual language (or formal system) that can operate in non-literal, highly associative ways - whilst providing a meaningful point of reference for viewers. / A selection of artists included in this research: Thomas Hirschhorn, Eva Hesse, Robert Morris, Matthew Barney, Jeff Koons, Helio Oticica, Polly Apfelbaum, Lygia Clark and Tracy Emin. / The research has been conducted within several overlapping fields - art history, contemporary cultural theory, visual art practice and literature, and cultural anthropology - which have provided useful points of critical reference, source material and interpretive paradigms. Nevertheless, the focus has been upon 'special occasion objects' within the western tradition (with Australia viewed as a post-colonial European nation), with particular reference to positions within the Minimalist and Post-minimalist contemporary visual art practice. / This research utilises an Action Research methodology which provides a useful paradigm for understanding and developing the relation between artistic experimentation and production, critical analysis and personal reflection characteristic of studio-based research. The thesis will take the form of an exhibition of art work and an accompanying ten thousand work exegesis. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2006.

I aim to explain significantly different industry abnormal returns and changes in risk as a result of the 1933 Bank Holiday imposed by President D. Franklin Roosevelt from March 3, 1933 to March 15, 1933. I identify no strong relationship between unregulated industry leverage and abnormal returns following the Bank Holiday, but find regulated industries, the most highly levered at the time, experienced the most statistically significant negative abnormal returns. I find a strong correlation between abnormal returns and leverage when including regulated and unregulated industries. Thus, the evidence is consistent with the story that highly regulated industries who experienced negative abnormal returns were not able to take advantage of the benefits brought on by the Bank Holiday. The addition of historically accurate leverage data fails to fully account for a lack of significant results from Ingram (2016), who analyzed industry specific returns and risk surrounding the Bank Holiday and attempted to explain industry differences by including measures of industry leverage by using a proxy for leverage. I find that industries related to manufacturing experience positive abnormal returns following the Bank Holiday, most likely due to the ability to borrow money and finance capital, brought on by newly established financial stability.

This thesis concerns banking and financial systems in the United States of America during the time of the Great Depression. In the first stage, I will focus on the Federal Reserve System's monetary policy and its expansive character. Then I will emphasize on the events taking place in American banking system during the 20's, the linkage between these events and the great contradiction of American economy, which took place at the end of the decade. The key part of my thesis will be devoted to the analysis of the most important state interventions, which were supposed to save the banking and financial system from collapsing between 1930 -- 1933, and make the economy prosperous again. I will devote to the steps taken by Hervert Hoover; the president between years 1929 -- 1933, as well as the steps from the first year of F. D. Roosevelt's presidency. F. D. Roosevelt's era started in March 1933, and it was the time when the American banking system found itself in the most critical situation ever. During this era, the crucial measures were taken, and I will examine the hypothesis in which there were close connections between the political and the big business representatives standing behind their enactment. I will attempt to demonstrate that the officially proclaimed goals of those measures were unlike the real content, and the consequences of the new legislatives being enacted during these times.

I have created a modular concept for holiday homes that is shared by hundred families. The concept uses simple means - to improve the quality of life for many people. My aim has been to create a system for maximizing the use of the buildings and efficiently use the benefits of sharing. To keep cost down in order to make the concept as accessible as possible for the average consumer.Therefore the materials and construction have been carefully planned in order to minimize cost at initial building process and maintenance in the long term.  Hundred Holiday Homes- is a concept that - • Makes living in nature available to people of all         economic means - Increases availability • Bring people together – Increased social exposure • Uses buildings more efficiently – Maximizes utilization  • Modular building blocks - Easier adaptation for future neeads • All this whilst reducing the environmental impact         by 71%  - Reduced footprint