M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology) / There is ample evidence to suggest that optimal experience (flow), happiness and life satisfaction are related to one another in the creative culinary training environment. In this study, the effect of time management behaviour on these relationships was investigated within the hospitality training environment. Furthermore, the mediating role of perceived control of time on flow was explored, as well as the direct effect of happiness and life satisfaction on flow, among the different demographic groups. A quantitative research design was used and data were gathered with the use of an online questionnaire (cross-sectional survey). The sample consisted of n=229 students within the culinary training environment, in a tertiary institution spanning across different gender, age, racial groups and educational levels. Significant results were found for mechanics of time management that mediated fully through the perceived control of time on flow; goals and priorities mediated partially through the perceived control of time on flow. Happiness, however, had a direct link on flow. The practical implications of this study are that time management behaviour training should become more prominent in the culinary studies practical training for hospitality students. Successful time management behaviour skills may be beneficial in increasing the flow, happiness and life satisfaction outcomes of the students. This research further contributes to the body of knowledge of positive psychology, particularly within a South African vocational training context.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / In this information age, the Internet has found a role in various industries such as transportation, advertising, etc. The travel industry, in which communication between travellers and travel service providers is a very important component, has as much potential as any other industry to make full use of this new medium. Already, most travel agencies and travel service providers promote their products and services using web sites. Searching for information online is now seen by many people as a way to save time and cost, especially in their travel activities. In order to fully deploy the Internet within the travel industry, understanding the use of the Internet in tourism is critical. This research sets out initially to examine the role and the impact of the Internet in the whole of the travel industry. But in order to define an achievable scope of work and because of its importance in South Africa at this time, tourism within the travel industry was chosen as the focus of the work. / South Africa

Guesthouse accommodation plays an important role in Ghana’s hospitality industry and was therefore the focus of this study as little research dealing with guesthouses in Ghana could be found. The number of guesthouses in Ghana continues to grow and they thus represent an important alternative to hotels. However, these establishments seem to perform poorly and face several challenges such as lack of managerial knowledge, insufficiently skilled employees, poor interaction with customers, and criticisms of the provision of low quality service. The main reason for undertaking this research was to provide guesthouse managers in Ghana with information that might assist them in making decisions about the experience they offer. Such knowledge could make this type of accommodation more competitive and eventually help the hospitality sector in Ghana attract tourists and grow. It is imperative that guesthouses focus on the experience they offer, because contemporary tourism and hospitality literature suggest that successful businesses require a shift from functional and financial interests to a more profound focus on total experiences which embody emotional aspects. It is thus argued that, if guesthouse managers in Ghana do not know how their guests perceive their guesthouse experience, they might make costly mistakes and allocate resources to aspects that already provide quality and value in a functional sense, instead of those elements perceived as providing quality and value in the total experience. Two dominating concepts, namely experience quality and experience value, formed the basis of the examination of guests’ experience with the guesthouses in Ghana. In addition, the relationships between the experience and satisfaction were also investigated. Four experience quality dimensions, namely hedonics, peace of mind, involvement, and recognition, and seven value dimensions were examined. The experience value dimensions included atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, efficiency, excellence, escape, and economic value. A proportional stratified random sampling procedure was followed to select the guesthouses for the study. Thereafter, a structured questionnaire was distributed to the guesthouse guests selected by means of convenience sampling. Five hundred and forty one useable questionnaires were received. The guesthouse guests formed the primary sampling unit for this study. The results of the empirical study showed a strong positive correlation between all the dimensions of experience quality and experience value, while the factor analysis confirmed that all these dimensions loaded on a single factor. Therefore, experience quality and experience value cannot be separated, and the resulting single multi-dimensional factor was subsequently renamed, overall experience. The results also indicated a positive relationship between hedonics, peace of mind, involvement, recognition, atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, efficiency, excellence, escape, economic value, and overall satisfaction. The inferentially established rank-order of the dimensions contributing to satisfaction can guide managers when allocating resources. Overall, atmospherics was ranked first, followed by economic value. Escape was the lowest ranked dimension. In addition, it was found that, except for escape, all the experience dimensions were perceived as basic satisfiers. This implies that guests will be dissatisfied when provision of these dimensions is inadequate. With regard to escape, listed as a performance factor, guests will be satisfied when performance is improved and dissatisfied when performance is low. A positive relationship was also found between overall experience and overall satisfaction. The latter include the likelihood of return and recommending the guesthouse to others. Finally, structural equation modelling confirmed a model representing the 11 experience dimensions (hedonics, peace of mind, involvement, recognition, atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence, and economic value) and the relationships between overall experience and overall satisfaction pertaining to guesthouses in Ghana.

Over the past few decades, customer satisfaction, customer retention and policies and procedures to sustain the above mentioned, have earned great amount of lip service. The importance of satisfied customer percentage have been emphasized by theories even longer before the best advised companies have done so. It is only recently, on the eve of the Soccer World cup 2010 that the issue has been narrowed down to truly hard relationships and one hard question: “Will the guest visiting the hospitality establishment frequent the hotel?” Two vital financial catalysts were used as basis for customer retention. The first is that of old customer’s costs much less than acquisition of new ones and the profit generated from the retained customer must therefore handsomely exceed the harvest reaped from the new clientele. Retaining customers have become an intangible asset in the sense that their value demonstrates the return that is won by successful efforts to satisfy the customers so greatly that they and their custom literally and figuratively stays with you. South Africa has lured even the loneliest traveller to the scenic beauty that is cradled by the country and its surroundings. When taking the former into consideration, South African businesses have enjoyed an increased appreciation and application of Business Management and its accompanying principles. The hospitality industry should therefore embrace the business management principles with specific emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM); providing managers with the capacity to think strategically about the organisation, its business position, how it can gain sustainable competitive advantage and how its business management strategy can be implemented and executed successfully. The latter forms the basis for ensuring the smooth running of operations and ultimately, ensuring guests have a wonderful experience at the particular establishment. There is a strong belief that lodging facilities in the Garden Route area has experienced low customer retention due to a lack of comprehensive implementation of Total Quality Management principles which impedes on the establishments to reach their optimum profit levels. It is for this reason that this thesis will argue the importance of the systematic client retention as a strategic mandate in today’s service markets. Commercial reality demand long and lasting relationships that are beneficial to both the hospitality related establishment and their customers. The hypothesis used is the application of Total Quality Management as a Business Management Strategy which will facilitate customer retention in hospitality related industries such as hotels situated in the Garden Route area. Research shows that service expectations of customers and potential customers have escalated. Hospitality businesses found that implementation of quality processes to be a vital competitive component. However, many hotels are still struggling to reach a real understanding of what is meant by TQM. The research data indicates that 93 percent of hotels in the Garden Route do not follow a TQM program although all the hotels were familiar with the concept. This might be the reason why most hotels neglect customer retention activities. The literature reviewed in chapter two considers the customer retention activities evaluated in the questionnaire as important to retain guests. Hotels in the Garden Route do not perform these activities to the extent of success. Hotel managers thus know what to do in order to retain guests but the problem is quite simple, they do not always implement the necessary strategies.

Magister Legum - LLM / The hospitality industry is one of the largest economic sectors in the world.1 As a result, it is one of the top employment contributors, with its Travel and Tourism sector accounting for an estimated 10.3% of global GDP, translating to a US$8.9 trillion contribution to the world’s GDP and 330 million jobs in 2019.2 In the context of South Africa, the tourism industry also plays a crucial role in economic growth and job creation. Tourism in South Africa accounted for 2.8% of GDP in 2019,3 and employed an estimated 709 000 individuals.4 Therefore, the importance of this colossal industry in economic growth and development, coupled with its potential in poverty reduction cannot be overemphasised.

The primary objective of this research effort was to examine the relationships between successful lodging yield management systems and controllable independent variables in the form of critical success factors (CSFs). The identification of variables consequential to system success is considered to be an important step towards improving system design, implementation, and operation. Twenty-three system success constructs, 27 potential CSFs, and three confounding variables were identified through an extensive literature review, discussions with system vendors, developers, and users, and through data analysis. Eleven different lodging yield management systems (LYMSs) were identified, and three of them were sampled. The dependent variables were converted into a single weighted regression factor score using a principal components model. The respondent's position, size of property, and type of property were found to be confounding variables. The dependent and independent variables were correlated to identifY the CSFs. Every independent variable was identified as a CSF for at least one of the three systems, and the strength of the correlations were generally high. System, user, and task factors were found to be highly correlated to system success. Support and environmental factors were found to be moderately to weakly correlated to system success. / Ph. D.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, 2000. / As the world's tourism and hospitality industry sees the dawn of the new millennium, the twenty-first century, tourism and hospitality managers will begin to face many pragmatic challenges and opportunities. The fundamental issue which is identified in this study is the maintenance of high standard of quality of service in order to remain a competitive advantage within South Africa as well as the global tourism and hospitality market as a whole. The main areas of concentration this study is expecting to see tourism management changes in the new millennium include: the role played by new technologies, the business practices and general consumer demands. This research seeks to investigate the nature of managerial work in tourism and hospitality industries, specifically in hotels, travel agency, tour operators and tourism authorities. In a given situation, the begging question is whether this work fundamentally similar or different from that which is done in other industries? Furthermore, this study endeavours to find out what determines the nature of that work and, in so doing, puts forward approaches to the management process in the tourism and hospitality industry, specifically those which have to be adopted in the new millennium. As such, the main objectives of the study include the following: (a) To discover how managers intend to cope with the various changes that they will be exposed to in the new millennium, xm (b) To look at the present profile of managers and their expected profile changes in the new millennium, (c) To examine the evolving strategies that are being put in place to cope with challenges and strategies for the new millennium, (d) To examine and put forward a responsible approach to planning and development of the tourism and hospitality industry, (e) To resolve the conflict between the front-office managers who perceive their section of the hotel as separate from the rest of the establishment, (f) To establish a balance between the various components of the tourism product in terms of both quality and capacity. For example, infrastructure and the environment, accommodation and transportation, attractions and services, (g) To understand the need and development of appropriate training facilities and programmes, which are intended to both maximise employment opportunities and achieve the desired standards of quality. To achieve these objectives the study uses two fields of management studies available and relevant to changes in tourism and hospitality. These are: (a) current management functions in the tourism and hospitality business, and (b) the wider field of management, which focuses on managerial work as a whole. The methodology that used for this study are a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies utilising techniques such as focus groups, observation, in-depth interviews, telephone interviews, mail questionnaires and the non-participant observation technique. The latter technique was the most preferred method of data collection, because it offered the best alternatives, such as allowing for the simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data. The breakdown of the final sample included four (4) tour operators, five (5) travel agents, two (2) provincial tourism authorities and 250 tourism and hospitality customers. A quantitative approach using statistical techniques was used for the 250 customers, whereas the case study approach was used to analyse the rest of the sample. In these cases the meanings and interpretations of the researcher were used as the main interpretative approach for the views and actions of the managers. However, this was balanced with the managers' interpretations of events. The main and general conclusions that were arrived at, with the help of the above methodologies, were that the tourism industry in the new millennium should move with the customer and therefore planning should be flexible in order to accommodate the customer at all times. Future growth strategies for tourism and hospitality management designed to keep customers satisfied, are those that use a combination of advertising, product innovation, service improvement changes in product and service, with more emphasis on direct selling, entailing personal contact with the customer. It is also evident from the findings that business travelers in the Durban area would prefer branded tourism and hospitality products rather than their counterparts in Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay would. On the whole, the preference for both business and leisure customers is for branded products. Travel agents believe that the bulk of their business comes from business customers and in the future, the emphasis is expected to be on the business traveler market. Tour operators are looking at buying smaller travel agents that they can use as retail outlets and heavy concentration on the domestic tourism and hospitality market. Tourism authorities are expected to concentrate on supporting community projects as a means of creating employment in the provinces. The intimidation of tourists in the provinces is because the community believes that tourists are the reason for increased crime, high prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases and an increase in the price of basic food and rent. The customer in the new millennium is expected to be very different, and rate standard requirements higher than the willingness to pay. The reality of the situation creates a desperate need for tourism and hospitality managers to search actors and forces in the business environment that may be utilised to the advantage of managers. One element that needs to be introduced urgently in all tourism and hospitality organisations is training in customer care. The study points to a very advanced technological environment, with emphasis on product design and the size of the capital of the organisation. The pages that follow will answer these questions and look at other issues in the study in greater detail.

In an increasingly global world, the competition to attract visitors to a destination is hard. The hospitality industry is for many destinations an important factor for employment and economic growth. The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how the hospitality industry is represented in Swedish municipalities' policy documents. The study was conducted through a critical discourse analysis of four municipalities' planning documents. The discourse analysis was followed by a thematic analysis to link the results to previous research and literature in the hospitality industry and municipal planning.  The results of the study showed that the selected municipalities included the hospitality industry in their planning to varying degrees. For some municipalities the hospitality industry was included in the business sector, while for other municipalities it was part of the leisure and recreation sector. The study also showed that the regional strategies have a certain impact on the municipality's strategies in the hospitality industry. Even though the municipalities included in this study are part of the same region, the strategies are expressed in different ways. Finally, the discourse analysis showed that the hospitality industry is to a large extent included in the plan proposals but is not always followed up in the plan for implementation.

No description available.

Yes / Contact tracing involves collecting people’s information to track the spread of COVID-19 and to warn people who have been in the proximity of infected individuals. This measure is important to public health and safety during the pandemic. However, customers’ concerns about the violation of their privacy might inhibit their cooperation in the contact tracing process, which poses a risk to public safety. This research investigates how to facilitate customers’ cooperative behavior in contact tracing based on cognitive trust and affective trust. The findings show that cognitive trust increases people’s willingness to disclose information and reduces their willingness to falsify it, whereas affective trust increases the willingness for both disclosure and falsification. This research contributes to the literature on customer data privacy by illuminating how cognitive and affective trust distinctly influence cooperative behavior, which has important implications for hospitality businesses.