The main aim of the theoretical part of this diploma thesis is to describe importance of writing the business plan and charecterize its main features. In the second part, the detailed and comprehensive business plan is created in the way it could be used for a bank institution to obtain loan to start own enterprise in the accommodation and hospitality industry. The plan should also help enter the market successfully, obtain certain market share and consolidate position and ensure growth of the pension in the future.

Millennials are estimated to compose half of the workforce by 2020. Many hospitality researchers have studied Millennial employee engagement, but less is known about how to apply strategies that are authentically engaging for Millennials. The purpose of this study was to explore Millennial employee engagement strategies. The research questions for this study were used to examine the engagement strategies of luxury resort leaders and how Millennial employees perceived engagement. A single case study design was used to gather interview, questionnaire, and company document data from employees of a luxury resort in Hawai`i. Kahn's employee engagement theory served as the basis for the conceptual framework. Six non-Millennial department heads participated in semistructured interviews by purposeful sampling and 11 Millennial employees completed an online, anonymous questionnaire. Saldana's 2-cycle coding analysis was used to determine themes based upon the conceptual framework, participant descriptions of engagement, and commonalities among effective strategies. The 3 most significant themes were the importance of (a) interpersonal respect, (b) interpersonal trust, and (c) meaningful relationships. Another worthwhile finding was the difference in perceptions of engagement aspects between Millennials and other generations. To fully engage Millennial employees, luxury resort leaders should focus on thoughtful communication, empathy, and relationship-building strategies. The implications for social change include the potential to foster happy, productive Millennial employees who contribute to the performance of their organizations. When resort leaders increase their skills to build respect, trust, and meaningful relationships, they improve workplace culture for all employees.

Hotell ser i dagens samhälle i regel likadana ut och konkurrerar om samma utbud och kunder. Det är således betydelsefullt att i dagens konkurrensinriktade samhälle skilja sig från andra företag som verkar i samma bransch. Nya tjänster hjälper företag att attrahera nya kunder och samtidigt behålla redan befintliga vilket har gjort tjänsteutveckling till en viktig konkurrensfaktor. Det är således viktigt för hotell att känna till vad kunderna efterfrågar för att kartlägga potentiell tjänsteutveckling. Avsaknad av konkret forskning på ämnet kan leda till att ledningen för ett hotell genomför förändringar utan att se till kundernas egentliga behov, vilket kan medföra ett stort risktagande och stora ekonomiska kostnader. En positiv förändring sker först när hotell utvecklas i den riktning som deras kunder begär. Studien syftar till att kartlägga potentialen till tjänsteutveckling inom hotellbranschen i Umeå ur ett företags- och kundperspektiv. Detta för att se om det finns behov till förändring och om branschen tillmötesgår marknadens krav. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer kartläggs utbudet och efterfrågan av tjänster och service i hotellbranschen. Dessa analyseras sedan mot den teoretiska referensramen. Studien avser även att som delsyfte analysera och beskriva om tjänsteutveckling ger ett högre kundvärde samt vilken typ av tjänsteutveckling inom hotellbranschen som skulle underlätta för kunderna samt öka kundvärdet. En ökad förståelse i ämnet kan öka hotellens marknadsposition, lönsamhet och kundvärde. Studiens resultat uppvisar att det finns potential till utveckling av tjänster och service bland hotellen som var föremål i studien. Främst gäller det personalutveckling och utveckling av processen vid in- och utcheckning samt möjligheten till att göra beställningar på mat under alla tider på dygnet. Resultatet visar skillnader mellan vad affärsresenärer och privatresenärer efterfrågar. Affärsresenärer efterfrågar effektivisering och tjänster som underlättar i deras vardag och bidrar till att hotellet fungerar som ett stationärt hem. Privatresenärer å andra sidan efterfrågar främst personlig service och har inte samma krav som affärsresenärerna har över boendet och utbudet av tjänster. Slutligen har vi funnit att hotellen som önskar att öka kundvärdet gentemot sina kunder måste välja en tydlig strategi. Här har vi kommit underfund med två starka koncept, antingen ett lite dyrare koncept där allt ingår eller så ett billigare alternativ där kunderna får köpa tilläggstjänster efter önskemål. En tydlig strategi minskar risken för besvikelse och missförstånd.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

Since North Africa is considered as one of the future hot spots for tourism development, western hotel chains increasingly expand to this region. Especially in the opening phase, these hotel groups tend to fill leading positions with male and female western managers. However, we assume that since the Arab culture is very male-dominated, the employment of women managers might cause cultural conflicts. Thus, our thesis aims to identify possible barriers for women to succeed in hotels in North Africa as well as to elaborate critical success factors for future female western leaders to overcome these barriers and to manage effectively. In order to find out about underlying attitudes towards foreigners and female superiors, we conducted a survey among Arabic hotel employees at an international five star hotel in Egypt. The results of our survey were topped up with insights from the literature and the remaining knowledge gaps were filled by holding conversations with industry experts. The findings of our study indicate a trend towards a more liberal Arabic society as well as certain openness towards foreigners and women, which could be ascribed to driving forces, such as globalization and a rise in information technology. However, there are still cases of gender inequality and religious intolerance, which shows that social practices have not yet completely changed. It is thus suggested that female western leaders still face barriers, such as chauvinistic behavior as well as suggestiveness. In order to be able to deal with these barriers, we developed critical success factors for future women managers, such as being cultural intelligent, being interested in the employees, being a coach and a team player, and trusting yourself. In addition, we provided general implications for women operating in other seemingly hostile environments, such as male-dominated industries or women-aversive surroundings.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This Extended Research Assignment discusses the information systems found in HBR Personnel. The discussion, based on the research problems, proposes steps in which the systems of HBR can be integrated so that they add the most value. Furthermore, a review of Corporate Portals is undertaken to show the potential impact it may have on organisational efficiencies and knowledge. The Assignment, according to the methodologies given, analyses the HBR information system for system incompatibilities and bottlenecks and proposes solutions for these problems. The solutions include changing core system databases and computer systems, together with a portal to fully integrate HBR Personnel’s information systems. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie Uitgebreide Navorsingsopdrag bespreek die informasiestelsels gevind in HBR Personnel. Die bespreking, gebaseer op die navorsingsprobleme, stel stappe voor waardeur die stelsels van HBR geïntegreer kan word om die meeste waarde toe te voeg. Verder word ‘n oorsig gedoen van Korporatiewe Portale om te wys watter potensiële impak dit kan hê op organisatoriese doeltreffendheid en kennis. Na aanleiding van die gegewe metodologieë analiseer die opdrag HBR se informasiestelsel vir sistemiese probleme en bottelnekke en stel oplossings voor vir hierdie probleme. Die oplossings sluit in ‘n verandering van kern-sisteem databasisse en rekenaarstelsels, tesame met ‘n portaal om HBR Personnel se informasiestelsels ten volle te integreer.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:53:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MaxwellSC.pdf: 709809 bytes, checksum: 9bac64e003c92f533d7eb02ced5632a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-10-24 / This study presents the results of a research on the use of financial and non-financial performance indicators used by medium and large hotels. The research was conducted in Rio Grande do Norte, a Brazilian State. The objective is to identify the usage of performance measures by these companies. Hotel industry is one of the most important sectors in the Rio Grande do Norte economy. The research takes the Balanced Scorecard as a conceptual framework, since it represents an original contribution to the literature of managerial accounting, for rethinking old issues, pointing out themes that were forgotten or badly interpreted, to discuss the requirements imposed by the economy environment, dominated by competitive companies, and increasing the understanding of the relationship between strategy and operation. The objective of the research is to investigate if the hotel managers make use of a managerial information system or not, when evaluating the performance of their business unit. The research reveals the usage of performance evaluation using a large variety of measures. Among them is worth mention: the usage of accounting profit altogether with the EVA/MVA, the process cycle time, total quality management, process transformation, strategic mission, vision, strategic measures, measures related to feedback, risk, costs, productivity, incomes, customers retention, customer satisfaction and profitability, measures using time as a component, quality of the process, cost of the processes, employees capabilities, information systems, motivation, empowerment and alignment. The research leads to the conclusion that the usage of the deriving concepts of Balanced Scorecard can improve the performance measurement systems used by hotels / Esta Pesquisa ? resultado de uma investiga??o relacionada aos aspectos que devem ser abordados na utiliza??o de indicadores financeiros e n?o-financeiros para fins de avalia??o do desempenho dos hot?is de m?dio e grande porte do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, buscando oferecer uma contribui??o ao estudo in loco de tais pr?ticas de avalia??o. Destacando o segmento hoteleiro como um dos mais importantes no cen?rio econ?mico atual. Utiliza como referencial conceitual o Balanced Scorecard, enfatizando, esta teoria como uma contribui??o original ? literatura de contabilidade gerencial, por repensar temas antigos, mostrando os pontos que estavam esquecidos ou mal interpretados, mostrando como podem ser aplicados aos tempos modernos, para atender ?s exig?ncias impostas pelo ambiente mais competitivo para as empresas, aumentando a compreens?o do tema vincula??o entre estrat?gia e opera??o . O Objetivo da pesquisa ? investigar se a gest?o hoteleira disp?e de um sistema estruturado ou n?o de informa??es sobre a avalia??o de desempenho. Como resultado da pesquisa ? revelada a exist?ncia de avalia??o de desempenho utilizando indicadores variados como: lucro cont?bil utilizado juntamente com o EVA/MVA, redu??o do tempo de ciclo, gest?o da qualidade total, reengenharia, miss?o, vis?o, medidas estrat?gicas, feedback, risco, redu??o de custos/melhoria de produtividade, crescimento e mix de receitas, reten??o/capta??o/satisfa??o e lucratividade de clientes, medidas de tempo e espera, qualidade do processo, custo dos processos, capacidades dos funcion?rios, sistemas de informa??o, motiva??o, empowerment e alinhamento. Conclui que a utiliza??o dos conceitos oriundos do Balanced Scorecard pode contribuir com informa??es mais relevantes para o gerenciamento dos hot?is

Introduction The National Department of Tourism (NDT) identified the underutilisation of tourist attractions as a challenge facing South Africa’s tourism. According to eThekwini Municipality (2014) and Gauteng Provincial Government (2001), domestic business tourists, amongst others, visit tourist attractions. The likelihood of business tourists requesting that hotel front office staff arrange visits to tourist attractions is acknowledged in the literature. There is, however, a dearth of research investigating the relationship between hotel front office staff and business tourists’ intentions to visit tourist attractions (hereafter mostly referred to as business tourists’ visiting intentions). The conceptualisation of this relationship is discussed in the context of hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. The proposed mediating role of Interest in tourist attractions is highlighted, which was tested statistically, while evidence is provided that Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions can serve in a causal Model of Business Tourist’s Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The inclusion of these constructs in a causal model will enable hotel and tourist attractions managers develop strategies to attract business tourists. Main research question Against the background of Frazier, Tix and Barron’s (2004) and Ro’s (2012) Mediation Model, see section 1.3, the following main research question was proposed for the present study: Is the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions mediated by Interest in tourist attractions in a Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions? Literature review Based on the main research question, this study resulted in the proposal of a theoretical causal model for the mediating role of tourist attractions and a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The likelihood of the newly conceptualised Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between the Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions is evident in tourism literature. As far as could be determined, the influence of interest in tourist attractions in the relationship between hotel front office staff and business tourists’ visiting intentions has not been established to date. An extensive literature review was conducted to conceptualise hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions as constructs to include in the theoretical model from which the causal model was developed. Business tourists’ demographic details were investigated in the context of gender, age, and province. Research design A research design comprises the research approach and research method of a study. In the present research, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to generate the study’s primary data. A statistical study design was adopted for the purpose of conducting factor analysis (FA) and validating the causal model by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through structural equation modelling (SEM). Furthermore, this study was causal-explanatory, as it explored the mediating role of Interest in tourist attractions. International Business Machines (IBM) software SPSS 22.0 was used to conduct this study’s FA, and IBM SPSS AMOS 22.00 was used for this study’s CFA through SEM. Research method Convenience sampling, which is a non-probability sampling method, was used to select the respondents. The target population was domestic business tourists who stayed at the selected three-star hotel between 15 July 2014 and 15 April 2015. A new measuring instrument was developed to comprehensively investigate hotel front office staff, interest in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, and in tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, andin tourist attractions, and business tourists’ visiting intentions. A seven-point intensity Likert scale was used for all items in the questionnaire. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire issued to domestic business tourists upon hotel check-in. The sample comprised 282 respondents. Results and discussion Data sets for all constructs were inspected for central tendency, distribution, and missing values. Missing values were replaced by the respective items’ mean score. Once inspected, PCA was conducted to explore the uni-dimensionality of items, and to reduce constructs. All constructs were retained by the PCA, and the achievement of Cronbach alpha scores exceeding .70 confirmed the validity and reliability of constructs (Hotel front office staff, Interest in tourist attractions, and Business tourists’ visiting intentions). PCA was not conducted on Business Tourists’ Visiting Intentions, due to a significant Cronbach’s alpha and the presence of only four items measuring the construct. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed positive inter-correlations between dimensions of the constructs Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. CFA was conducted to establish the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions. The establishment of a causal model was followed by exploring the mediating effect of Interest in tourist attractions on the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. This successfully answered this study’s main research question. This study makes a unique contribution by establishing a causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions, confirming Interest in tourist attractions as a mediator in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. The causal model proves that there is no relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions without the indirect connection with Interest in tourist attractions. In support of this study’s results, Yang, Jou, and Cheng (2011) asserted that business tourists expect hotels to arrange their visits to tourist attractions. According to Kasavana and Brooks (2009), it is a duty of the hotel front office staff to arrange visits to tourist attractions. Limitations This study was limited to domestic business tourists only, thereby excluding international business tourists. A non-probability sampling method was used to select respondents; this study’s results can therefore not be generalised to the population of domestic business tourists who stay at the selected three-star hotel in Pretoria. This study’s sample was uneven in the context of gender, age, and province of residence. Future research Future studies could explore the established causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions at a different hotel, to verify the validity of the model. Future studies could also explore the moderating effect of domestic business tourists with regard to age, gender, and province of residence in the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Interest in tourist attractions. Future studies could further explore the causal Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions using a different biographical segment, e.g., leisure tourists. Conclusion This study aimed to determine whether scores for Hotel front office staff related to scores for Business tourists’ visiting intentions, and how this relationship is mediated by scores on Tourist attractions scores. The Model of Business Tourists’ Intentions of Visiting Tourist Attractions confirmed that Interest in tourist attractions fully mediates the relationship between Hotel front office staff and Business tourists’ visiting intentions. Based on these results, this study’s main research objective has been achieved. / Business Management / M. Com. (Tourism Management)

Thesis (MTech (Quality (Faculty of Engineering)))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / Customer satisfaction is one of the most important strategic mechanisms of best practice hotel organisations. Daily, managers and employees are continuously faced with the challenges of establishing and maintaining customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to seek and identify measures that can be used in the hospitality industry for purposes of assessing and evaluating customer satisfaction and customer service effectiveness. The results from the research will enable hotel owners, managers and decision makers to identify the best practices in customer service design, culminating in customer value. The primary objective of this study is to assess customer expectations and perceptions of service quality in Cape Town based hotels, and to identify the gaps between client expectations and perceptions. This will be used as a basis to investigate the challenges that Cape Town hotels experience pertaining to internal and external customer strategy development and satisfaction. These identified challenges will be used as learning opportunities for improvement in aspects of quality and to establish a usable model for the organisation (hotels) from which strategies can be developed for the effective management of customer relations, and to ensure that customer expectations of service quality are met. The researcher will use SERVQUAL and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) scoring method to rate the customer’s level of satisfaction with each service attribute into an overall service performance of each hotel. The researcher will recommend an appropriate quality improvement mechanism to measure, analyse and improve processes in the hospitality industry.

Thesis (MTech (Cost and Management Accounting))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in the hotel industry in South Africa are perceived to be failing/underperforming partly due to their reluctance to use Non-Financial Performance Measures (NFPMs). The main purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which SMEs in the hotel industry use three categories of NFPMs, namely; customer oriented, internal business process as well as learning and innovation, for running their businesses. This objective requires quantitative data to determine the percentage of SMEs in the hotel sector that make use of NFPMS. Specifically, the study aimed to determine the types of NFPMs used by the SMEs, the purposes for which these measures are used, the perceived effectiveness of the NFPMs currently used, as well as the factors that inhibit SMEs from using NFPMs. To this end, a questionnaire survey was administered on owners/managers of 100 hotels operating in the Cape Metropole. Purposeful sampling method was employed. Test of reliability of questionnaire was done during the experimental stage to ensure the stability, consistence, repeatability, or reproduction of the same results if questionnaires were to be administered to the same population using the same methodology at different times. The results of the study revealed that customer oriented measures were the most frequently used NFPMs, while learning and innovation related measures were the least frequently used NFPMs by the sampled SMEs. Concerning the purpose for which SMEs use NFPMs, the results revealed that SMEs used the NFPMs mainly for: improving the profitability of their business, improving productivity and effectiveness, as well as for improving decision–making. As far as the perceived effectiveness of the NFPMs currently used by SMEs, the results revealed that customer oriented measures were perceived by the sampled respondents to be the most effective of the three NFPMs. With respect to the factors inhibiting SMEs’ use of NFPMs, the results revealed that the main factors were high cost of implementing these measures, incomparability of the measures to those of other SMEs due to their entity specific nature, difficulty in quantifying the NFPMs measures, as well as employee resistance. This study fills a gap in the literature by making a significant contribution on the usage of NFPMs by SMEs. The study provides useful information on the usage of NFPMs that the Department of Small Business Development and Small Enterprise Development agency(SEDA) can use to inform the development of interventions aimed at reducing SMEs’ failure. These findings may also help SMEs to improve their usage of NFPMs in order to capitalise on the benefits gained from using these measures. Furthermore, these findings may help SMEs to overcome the factors that inhibit them from using NFPMs.