During the 1930s a large number of cultural artifacts presented rural Iowa to national audiences as an ideal place where the "real" America still flourished despite the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Artist Grant Wood's lush landscapes, novelist Phil Stong's trustworthy farmers, and cartoonist "Ding" Darling's pragmatic Iowans, are among the creations that comforted Americans from 1930-1936. These texts gained attention from audiences not only because they invoked peaceful pastoral imagery, but also because they frequently presented a monolithic patriarchal society without ethnic and racial diversity or social class distinctions. This presentation of Caucasian normativity was a tonic for many Americans who felt unnerved by the floundering economy and still recognized the deep divisions of the previous decade, which had resulted in race riots, immigration restrictions, and labor unrest. These splits were still present in the 1930s, even though that decade has come to be remembered primarily for the economic crisis and dust storms which spawned famous representations of Dust Bowl migrants. Those conditions were real, but the cultural importance of productive, honest (white) Iowa farmers during the first half of the Depression has, by comparison, been largely forgotten. In four chapters which respectively analyze journalism, art and literature, films, and political speeches from the period, I seek to rectify this historical oversight and offer a glimpse into how Americans, when faced with an ongoing crisis, may be encouraged to embrace a "simpler" way of life belonging to an imagined past.

As an information intensive industry and as one of the most progressive industries in information technology adoption, travel and tourism provides an ideal context in which to investigate how new technologies such as interactive television challenge our understanding of media and media use. This research looks at how interactive television can be used by consumers and how it may be best applied by marketers in international holiday travel. Using the UK international traveller market to Western Australia as case in point, this research had three main research goals: 1) to understand how travellers use information sources with a focus on interactive television; 2) how an individual’s previous interactive media and travel experiences may pre-dispose them to using interactive television; and 3) to better understand why individuals interact and what impact the interaction has on the promotional effort. A travel ad and a travel show segment were used to explore these with impulse (brochure request) and telescopic (destination video) interactive opportunities. The treatments were deployed over a video-on-demand platform in greater London and participants took part in their homes via their televisions and a self administered questionnaire. This research has furthered the use of the multi-dimensional grid in understanding information sources in relationship to one another and updated the landscape with modern information sources such as television, teletext, the Internet and interactive television. Findings from this area of investigation suggest that current interactive television offerings cater better to short-haul destinations and although it currently plays a minor role, interactive television has the potential to significantly contribute to travellers’ long-haul holiday planning process. The finding that individuals understand interactive television through their experience with teletext rather than the Internet and are more likely to use interactive television if they are thorough and experienced planners supports the theory of knowledge transference. However, most importantly, if an individual has a positive experience with interactive television they will interact again in the future. Contributions were also made to a better understanding of the interactive television user and the use of interactive television applications to the travel and tourism industry in particular. Exploration of the differences between the Impulse and Telescopic approaches to interactivity highlighted that while interactivity generally enhances the promotional effort each approach has its own strategic applications.

Both tourism destination marketing and the characteristics of holiday travellers have recently undergone radical changes driven by the rapid progress of computer technology. In particular, the advent of the Internet has had a great impact on holiday travellers as well as on the development of tourism promotion and distribution channel strategies. While holiday travellers benefit from the characteristics of Internet use, for example, unlimited information retrieval, flexible accessibility, and direct interactivity with destination marketing organizations (DMOs), the Internet provides DMOs with the critical factor of an increase in operational costs incurred by running all possible online promotional activities and online distribution channels. This paper attempted to discover which Internet functions are popularly used by existing/potential online travellers or which ones are not by testing the Canberra Tourism & Event Corporation (CTEC) web site. As a result, this research intends to provide CTEC with a way to operate its website cost-effectively, which can also lead to increasing the usage satisfaction of CTEC web visitors. Online travellers visiting the CTEC website were surveyed through non-probability self-selected web survey by using segmentation procedure; two key online travel groups: direct and indirect online access groups. Based on the research methodology, this study has discovered several findings. Firstly, CTEC web visitors preferred to use the CTEC website for the purpose of gathering travel information rather than that of online booking or reservations for travel products on the CTEC website. Secondly, comprehensive travel information tailor-made to online individuals was found to be desirable through interactive online activities, while the multimedia, booking, and comparability function were not significant in helping the CTEC online visitors choose the travel destination. Based on their preferences for particular Internet functions, it is evident that web visitors wish to have comprehensive and tailormade online travel information and interaction with the CTEC. Finally, it was revealed that the demographics of the CTEC web visitors were very similar to Internet users identified by previous researchers. Therefore, this study provides insights into website development strategies.

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Date:                          </strong>May 28^th, 2010<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Course:                      </strong>EFO705 Master Thesis International Marketing<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Supervisor:                </strong>Konstantin Lampou</p><p><strong>Authors:                     </strong>Chantharat Suwanpimon csn09002@student.mdh.se</p><p>                             Narukod Theerabanchorn ntn09001@student.mdh.se</p><p><strong>Title:                             </strong>Analysis of factors influencing Swedish consumer               </p><p>                             to decisions buy holiday home in Thailand.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Strategic Question:    </strong>How do factors such as price, risks and cultural factors </p><p>                               influence the Swedish consumer decision to buy holiday</p><p>                               home?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Research Questions:</strong>   This study aims at finding answers to the following    </p><p>                                 questions:</p><ul><li>What is the impact of different factors such as risks, price of real estate houses, and cultural factors on holiday home investment decisions of Swedish consumers? </li><li>Do these factors facilitate or impede buying decision of Swedish consumers? </li></ul><p>                  </p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong>            The data sources used in this research are both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through quantitative survey from 112 respondents about the Swedish’s behavior on buying holiday home Closed-end questions were used to limit the choices of answers; however, an open-ended question was used in the last question to allow the respondents to share ideas or comments. The respondents were divided into two groups: Swedish consumers who have already had a holiday home, and Swedish consumers who are interested to have a holiday home. The secondary data used in this research are obtained from online journals and textbooks.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusions:              </strong>The result of this survey reveals that there are 4 factors that influence Swedish consumers, both those who have already had a holiday in Thailand and those who are interested to have a holiday home in Thailand. These factors are internal political stability, levels of corruption, price of real estate houses and cultural differences.</p><p><strong></strong> </p><p><strong>Keywords:                  </strong>Real Estate investment, Holiday Home in Thailand, Swedish Consumers.</p>

<p>Resande har blivit en stor del av vårt samhälle och livsstilen för många unga människor idag. Min studie är ett försök att belysa vad som får oss att söka vår identitet i kulturer långt från våra egna, och hur dessa kulturer uttrycker sig själva. Hösten 2001 gick Sverige med i ett arrangemang som runt tio länder har med Australien, nämligen working/holiday-visumet. Detta och en rad andra aspekter har ökat resandet till denna del av världen. Den antropologiska metoden av fältobservationer och intervjuer med resenärer inbjuder till kunskap om hur denna arena av backpckers ser sig själva och vad som skapar denna kultur från ett inifrån-perspektiv.</p>

ABSTRACT   Date:                          May 28th, 2010 Course:                      EFO705 Master Thesis International Marketing Supervisor:                Konstantin Lampou Authors:                     Chantharat Suwanpimon csn09002@student.mdh.se                              Narukod Theerabanchorn ntn09001@student.mdh.se Title:                             Analysis of factors influencing Swedish consumer                                             to decisions buy holiday home in Thailand.   Strategic Question:    How do factors such as price, risks and cultural factors                                 influence the Swedish consumer decision to buy holiday                                home?   Research Questions:   This study aims at finding answers to the following                                      questions: What is the impact of different factors such as risks, price of real estate houses, and cultural factors on holiday home investment decisions of Swedish consumers? Do these factors facilitate or impede buying decision of Swedish consumers?                    Methodology:            The data sources used in this research are both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through quantitative survey from 112 respondents about the Swedish’s behavior on buying holiday home Closed-end questions were used to limit the choices of answers; however, an open-ended question was used in the last question to allow the respondents to share ideas or comments. The respondents were divided into two groups: Swedish consumers who have already had a holiday home, and Swedish consumers who are interested to have a holiday home. The secondary data used in this research are obtained from online journals and textbooks.     Conclusions:              The result of this survey reveals that there are 4 factors that influence Swedish consumers, both those who have already had a holiday in Thailand and those who are interested to have a holiday home in Thailand. These factors are internal political stability, levels of corruption, price of real estate houses and cultural differences.   Keywords:                  Real Estate investment, Holiday Home in Thailand, Swedish Consumers.

Tourism is one of the largest economic sectors globally. It is a climate sensitive sector, with climate being one of the most important attributes for a destination. The Tourism Climate Index (TCI), developed by Mieczkowski (1985), is the most widely used index for assessing a destination’s climatic suitability for general tourist activities. Major deficiencies such as the subjectivity of its rating system and component weightings have been identified in the literature, and the need to develop a new index has been identified by researchers for almost a decade. This study aims to fill the research gap by developing a new index, the Holiday Climate Index (HCI), for the purpose of overcoming the deficiencies of the TCI. The HCI was compared with the TCI in rating both current (1961-1990) and future (2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099) climatic suitability for tourism of the 15 most visited European city destinations (London, Paris, Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm, Warsaw, Munich, Athens and Venice). The results were also compared with monthly visitation data available for Paris to assess whether the HCI ratings more accurately represent visitation demand than the TCI. The results show that there are key differences between the HCI and TCI in rating the tourism climate suitability of the selected European city destinations, in particular in the winter months of the northern, western and eastern European city destinations where the performance of the TCI had been questioned in the literature. The comparison with leisure tourist visitation data in Paris also revealed that the ratings of the HCI were more reflective of seasonal pattern of tourist arrivals than the TCI ratings. Because the TCI has been widely applied (15 studies), these findings hold important implications for future research in assessing current and future climatic suitability for tourism.

Nowadays, GIS techniques have been widely used in every walk of life. Owing to the rapid urban growth, it is of importance to plan and develop the cities in a reasonable and scientific way. As a result, optimum sites of different constructions should be considered to make full use of land resources and optimize urban structure. Although the traditional field-survey method is important, GIS-based multi-criteria analysis (MCA) provides a more reasonable and scientific way in site selection issue. Weihai, our study area, is one of the fastest developing coastal cities in China. Owing to the rapid urban expansion, Weihai government municipality planned to develop the Poyu town into a new district with multifunctions. In consideration of its advantages in natural resources and geographic position, a holiday resort is proposed. In the aim of applying GIS-based MCA in site selection, this thesis would present an experiment to select the optimal site for a holiday resort with the help of GIS techniques. The data used in this project is a satellite image and digital elevation data of Poyu town. The satellite image has been digitized to obtain the current land use map, based on which constraint maps and factor maps have been made to make preparation of multi-criteria analysis. Finally, the multi-criteria analysis model has been made. The weights for multi-criteria analysis are obtained from the advice of experienced people in Weihai Planning Bureau and also earlier studies on the site selection. There are three sets of weights based on three themes that have been used in this project. The three themes which were fruit-picking theme, seascape and seafood theme as well as leisure and recreation theme were decided based on the results of the questionnaire. Through the discussions of the results, a final selected site for the holiday resort was determined. It includes the optimal site for the main part focusing on both fruit picking theme and leisure and recreation theme and also the optimal site for an accessory part focusing on seascape and seafood theme. The final section concludes the general project work, its perspectives and the function of GIS-based MCA in site selection.

Holiday in Reality is a five-movement suite for jazz chamber ensemble utilizing strings, brass, woodwinds and jazz rhythm section that provide a context for interplay with the tenor saxophone. The intent was to compose a series of musical vignettes exploring some of the possibilities of integrating jazz and classical idioms, with the goal of fusing these genres into a unified whole. The title Holiday in Reality is the name of a poem written by American poet Wallace Stevens. In this poem, Stevens depicts the interaction between the mind and imagination as a series of spontaneous events. When viewed within a creative context, his viewpoint of mind and imagination are well suited to inspire music composition and improvisation. The analysis of this suite provides a general descriptive overview of the form, harmony, and thematic development in each movement, offering a look into the rationale behind the music's architecture. / text

Literature indicates that pharmacists of South Africa experience high levels of stress as a result of their working conditions. Seeing that the definition of subjective well–being (SWB) entails that a person feels positive affect (positive moods) and experience infrequent feelings of negative affect (such as stress), pharmacists have low SWB since they experience high levels of stress. It is thus vital to lessen the stress seeing as this low SWB may entail a danger to the profession as well as the patients' safety. Based on this leisure proves to enhance well–being by producing positive affect (such as happiness) and reducing negative affect (such as stress or depression). Leisure (taking a holiday) is furthermore a means of buffering stress and therefore the perfect solution to pharmacists' stress. Hence the purpose of this research was to determine the role of holiday taking on South African pharmacists' overall well–being. To achieve this goal a database was obtained from The South African Pharmacy Council. This database consisted out of 8000 e–mail addresses of pharmacists registered at the Pharmacy Council. From the 1500 e–mails that were send out 207 completed questionnaires were obtained. A thorough literature analysis on socio–demographic characteristics, travel motives, independent choices and preferred activities when taking a holiday was done in Chapter 2. This chapter gives a detailed understanding of how the afore–mentioned factors influence the decision to take a holiday and the effect of taking a holiday on subjective well–being. Article 1 (Chapter 3) and Article 2 (Chapter 4) was based on this chapter's literature. Chapter 3 (Article 1) of this study determined whether holidays lead to positive SWB of pharmacists. In order to achieve this aim, the chapter made use of the Affectomer 2 and Satisfaction with life Scale to determine the pharmacists' subjective well–being before and after taking a holiday. Dependent t–tests were then applied to compare the A distinction on the other hand can be made amongst pharmacists that imply different working conditions and working hours. Therefore Chapter 4 (Article 2) of this study determined all the factors that influence the different groups of pharmacists' holiday taking which ultimately could lead to the enhancement of the profession's well–being. To achieve this, the chapter made use of factor analysis, ANOVAs and chi–square tests to find differences between different pharmacists. The results showed that the three groups of pharmacists (private, government, and industry), differ based on sociodemographic characteristics. These socio–demographic characteristics furthermore influence the different groups of pharmacists' decisions to take holidays which leads to higher subjective well–being. The results of Chapters 3 and 4 indicate that pharmacists experience enhanced wellbeing after taking a holiday and which have implications for different role players. This study is the first to determine the profile of pharmacists and give an indication of their travel behaviour that will assist destinations to alter their product/services to better suit the profile or travel behaviour of pharmacists. Employing companies on the other hand can have financial benefits in the form of low staff turnover and satisfied patients. Although pharmacists are seen as a homogeneous group, pharmacists differ based on socio–demographic characteristics and therefore the Pharmacy Council may enforce the design of different policies for the different groups of pharmacists to reduce the pharmaceutical profession's stress. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.