This research explores the dynamic interplay between self-organised tourism planning and formal, linear and institutionalised tourism governance structures in the Santa Elena province, Ecuador. Complexity theory provides a framework and a language to understand actor-led, non-linear, bottom-up, and highly contextualised self-organised planning efforts that can change the future of tourism destinations amidst unstable and changing tourism governance conditions.

Summary This research is to discuss the change of the operating performance after the company experiences the spin-off. An international tourism hotel is chosen as the research case. There are 10 items, relating the operating performance objective of the international tourism hotel, as the metric of the company before and after experiencing the company¡¦s spin-off. The purpose of this research is to discuss how the company¡¦s spin-off impacts the operating performance of the international tourism hotel and the example research is a real spin-off case. The findings of this research are as followings: 1. The operation performance is improved after this international tourism hotel spits the Room Division and the Food & Beverage Division off. 2. Focusing operations can improve the operating performance. 3. Through the spin-off process, the reduction of the organization dimension can decrease the management cost. 4. The company¡¦s spin-off can improve the management information quality, and also enhance the resource allocation to increase the corporation value. 5. After the spin-off, the company provides the superior reward strategy which also improves the operating performance. 6. The performance of internal control system and the cost control cannot have the improvement through the company¡¦s spin-off. 7. The performance is more explicitly measured after the company¡¦s spin-off. Key words: International Tourism Hotel, Spin-off, Operating Performance

Tourism destinations need to continuously improve in quality to succeed, if not to survive. To improve quality, current levels need to be measured to identify areas requiring improvement. However, no adequate technique for measuring the quality of a tourism destination has yet been developed. More importantly, tourists' understanding of the meaning of the term 'quality of a tourism destination' has not been investigated; a pre-requisite step for developing a technique for measuring the quality of a tourism destination. This thesis aims to ascertain the attributes and dimensions of quality of a tourism destination and to specify implications for the development of a technique for measuring its quality. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach is employed in the first stage of the thesis. The findings from this stage are used to inform the ensuing, mainly quantitative phase. The main results are summarised here. Firstly, seventy-five attributes and twelve dimensions of quality of a tourism destination were revealed in the qualitative phase of the study. Secondly, in the quantitative stage, an analysis of mean score values revealed that tourists strongly associated all seventy-five attributes and twelve dimensions with the quality of a tourism destination. Thirdly, it was established that the twelve dimensions of quality of a tourism destination differ in either breadth or scope from both service quality dimensions widely used in tourism and product quality dimensions from the quality management field. This thesis suggests that the quality of a tourism destination can best be defined as 'conformance to tourist requirements'. The main hypothesis; that there are significant differences in interpretations of the meaning of 'quality of a tourism destination' within groups oftourists, is rejected. Finally, the thesis ascertains that a tool for measuring the quality of a tourism destination can be developed based on the findings of the thesis. Such a tool, though predominantly quantitative, should include open-ended questions. This would allow changing tourist needs to be captured periodically and the results used to update the tool for measuring the quality of a tourism destination.

The term 'empowerment' is used with greater frequency in tourism for development, particularly in the context of community-based tourism (CBT), which is often referred to as a tool to 'empower' communities in the initiation, implementation and management of tourism. Still, critical and empirically grounded research on empowerment remains limited, particularly as emerging from social relationships in CBT. These are in many cases regarded as disempowering for community members, such as the tourism encounter and community relationships in cases where they lead to conflicts and jealousy, rather than collaboration. This research analyses these social relationships prevalent in CBT to take them as a potential starting point for social empowerment. Its aim is to locate social spaces of empowerment in CBT by unravelling power relations between the actors involved at local level. In these social spaces of empowerment, the basis of empowerment is generative power, defined as collective power with and power within, based on self-respect, to achieve power to generate positive change and to overcome power over (i.e. dominating power). The fieldwork was conducted in three rural villages in Bali, which engage in CBT and are supported by a local NGO that aims at empowering communities. The methodology draws upon ethnographic traditions alongside semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Symbolic interactionism provides the methodological position, regarding meaning as constructed through interaction. A reflexive chapter discusses the intersubjectivities between the researcher and participants and links the methodology with the intellectual argument and the findings of the study. Empirical evidence reveals that empowerment opportunities are unequal in the studied villages, with obstacles such as language, a lack in skills and caste hindering villagers' empowerment. The village tourism committees (VTCs), a local and trained elite, take control over the space of CBT and the tourism encounter, by employing notions of 'authenticity' to sell the CBT product. Although CBT creates hope for change and empowerment for community members, it currently remains empowering for a few, while others generally experience tokenistic pseudo-participation and a silent involvement. At the same time, this study reveals first signs of empowerment based on power with and power within, generated in the tourism encounter and through villagers' social ties, which are visualised in a 'CBT power diagram'.

International tourism is one of the most dynamic growth sectors of the global economy. It employs 11% of the world’s workforce (over 200 million people) and forms 11.5% of the global GDP. Besides, tourism is nowadays three times bigger than world expenditures on defense. It has been described by Louis Turner as ‘the most promising, complex and under studied industry impinging on the third world’. It is often appointed as an important tool for achievement of millennium development goals and, ultimately, for the realization of the right to development (‘RTD’) of the local communities in developing countries, since it has contributed largely for development of infrastructure, including transport and communications, water supply, energy and health services. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2010. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Mrs. Shivani Georgijevic of the Faculty of Law & Management, University of Mauritius, Mauritius. 2010. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The aim of this research was to compare the distribution channel relationships in two different tourism markets: the mature market of Britain and the evolving market in Poland, with a view to assessing likely courses of tourism development in Poland. Relationships in channels of distribution can be understood as all the interactions, processes and flows taking place between companies involved in exchange of products and services. The focus of the research was an investigation of channel relationships between travel agents and tour operators. The evolution of tourism channel relationships in Britain and Poland was investigated in three stages: initiation, implementation and review, following the Kale and McIntyre (1991) and Crotts et al. (1998) models. Analysis of existing literature established that historical, political and economic backgrounds, as well as demand and supply, impact in different ways upon the structure of such channels in each country. Following that recognition two phases of empirical research were conducted using a mixed methods approach. The exploratory phase was based on interviews with British and Polish travel agents and tour operators, and from this phase a set of propositions was developed regarding travel agents' and tour operators' attitudes towards channel relationships. These propositions were explored using data collected from a detailed questionnaire survey distributed to a sample of British and Polish tour operators and travel agents. The results from this quantitative research were qualitatively augmented by outcomes from indepth interviews. The key findings from the research were that the Polish distribution system resembled to some extent the old British tourism structure. It was, however, unable to directly follow the development route undertaken by British companies. The pattern of operation was different in both countries due to four factors. Firstly, the distortions in operations in Poland originated from the post-socialist business structure; secondly, the diversity of business in Poland was much greater than in Britain, whilst, thirdly, the level of vertical integration between companies and the level of the development of information technology was more extensive in Britain. Finally, although the relationship development process consisted of similar stages in both countries, the field investigations showed differences in partners' selection, monitoring and support. The Polish companies relied heavily on social bonding and social ties in the selection stage, while in Britain the transparency and higher stability in the market reduced the necessity of close social bonding between employees and companies. The overall conclusion from the research is that the Polish travel companies are likely to follow many aspects of the British route, though with some specifically Polish characteristics. The initial evaluation of channel partners and the evaluation of the relationship between agents and tour operators would be strengthened in Poland, if there were a strong, regulatory and advisory association in the Polish market such as ABTA in Britain. Further research is recommended in terms of the impact of information technology on channel relationships in tourism and the role of tourism associations in the organisation of the tourism market.

Globally, the tourism industry is recognised as one of the fastest growing industries, generating high revenues and creating a vast number of job opportunities. In South Africa, this is no different and, in recent years, the tourism industry has outshone the country's gold exports therefore claiming its position as the fourth highest earner of foreign exchange to date. Yet the industry is still to receive the attention it deserves from conventional economics. This research aimed to fill this gap in South Africa by providing an understanding on the determinants of international tourism demand for South Africa. The first objective of the study was to provide a broad overview of the tourism industry of South Africa. The discussion focused on the supply and demand sides of tourism which, in turn, are divided into the domestic and international tourism markets. There has been a high growth, especially in the international market since 1994 and, while domestic and international markets continue to grow, seasonality remains an issue. Tourism has a significant impact on economic activity, employment, and the balance of payments and therefore the industry has great potential. The second objective was to create a theoretical understanding on the different factors that could determine the international demand for the tourism product. From this discussion it was found that there are various economic and non-economic factors that are believed to have an influence on tourism demand. Income, prices, transport cost, and the exchange rate are amongst the favourite economic variables with travel time, population, marketing expenditure, climate, and capacity being the more popular noneconomic factors. Among these, certain threats were also identified that could have harmful impacts on tourism growth. The third objective and main aim of the study was to determine which of the factors identified earlier determine the demand for international tourism to South Africa. This was done through an empirical investigation. Data from all the continents were used to attain an international perspective on tourist arrivals (tourism demand). The results indicated that capacity and climate factors determine tourism demand in the short term with income and transport cost influencing South Africa as a tourism destination in the long term. The last objective was to determine whether certain events or disasters that take place globally have a negative influence on tourism demand to South Africa. The event that was looked as was the terror attacks on the United States in September 2001. It was found that although the overall tourism activity of the world became stagnant during this period, the effect was not that considerable in South Africa's tourism arrivals. Tourism in countries such as the United Sates, on the other hand, has still not recovered fully after this event. / Thesis (M.Com. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Theory: The literature on volume of tourism in developing nations, does not provide empirical measures necessary for rigorous hypotheses testing. While there have been ample studies on volume of tourism among developed nations, very little has been done regarding developing nations. Several theories from the dependency school, world systems and modernization offer theoretical explanations, but these explanations have not been adequately translated into empirical models, for studying the volume of tourism. Hypotheses: To improve the ability to explain volume of tourism and to identify the factors that affect the volume of tourism in developing countries, the study tests four hypotheses based on the theories of Modernization, World System and Push- Pull. Methodology: The study uses Confirmatory Factor Analysis to examine the factors that are likely to influence the volume of tourism. Shift Share analysis is also used to study regional variations in volume of tourism. Findings: The study found support for the fact that aspects of modernization are some of the most important determinants of volume of tourism. This finding has policy implications for developing nations trying to encourage tourism as an important economic sector. Shift Share analysis revealed that in the last decade Sub - Saharan Africa, East Asia Pacific and the Middle East have seen an increase in the volume of tourism compared to other developing regions of the world.

Today, Cambodia has gained entrée into the world via international tourism. The ingression of tourism has also been accompanied by the prowess over the projection of aspects of culture and heritage. The purpose of this emergent, soft-science inquiry into the projection and representation of Cambodia is to sift through aspects of the culture gene bank (after Horne) of the nation to corroborate testimonies associated with the industrially/institutionally-scripted representation via international tourism. The inquiry henceforth gyrates around the projective ―discourse‖ (after Foucault) of peoples, cultures and places. The study is philosophically inspired by ―perspectivism‖ of Nietzsche and ―pluralism‖ of Berlin and Connolly and methodologically actuated by constructivism of Lincoln and Guba. The study of the discursive representation is approached vis-à-vis bricoleurship and cultural/critical pedagogies of Kincheloe and multi-sitedness of Marcus. The study identifies prevailing ramifications of the Angkorean discursivity or Angkorcentrism from constitutionality to ―banality‖ (after Baudrillard) and from public to private agents. The Angkorcentricity is nestled in the mainstream politics of projection of the nation by the state, as attested in the landscaping of public places/spaces, where the state attains its primacy in the projective authority. On the one hand, the finding anent Angkorcentric representation of the nation is generally congruent with that by Winter. On the other, the study accentuates the symbolic/projective prowess of the state in harnessing the selection, production and projection of places and spaces. Another feature which sets this emergent inquiry apart from the others about Cambodia is that it delved into the performative aspects of cultures and identities, particularly in the portrayal and characterisation of ethnicities. Otherisation has been deployed (un)consciously in the performance industry and in the official projection of peoples and places. The nucleus of this inquiry is to fathom the scripting of the dominance, subjugation and silencing in representation of facets of culture gene banks of Cambodia. The dominant aspects of cultures were manifest in the cultural dressing of places and hypostatised in the form of monumental statues, pastiches of sculptures and performances. Facets of the marginalised peoples/cultures were materialised in the projection of otherness via dances, stereotypic utterance and so forth. The museumisation of places testified the discourse of ―phantasmatic Indochina‖ (in Norindr‘s word) in the framing and the normalisation of Cambodia. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in tourism studies both conceptually and methodologically. The conceptual contributions are associated with culture gene bank, performativity and normalisation. The methodological contributions are linked with the emergent study and (critical) cultural pedagogy. This emergent, soft-science study of the projective discourse of Cambodia culminated in the Foucauldian normalisation, the Bhabhan fantasmatics and the Edensorian performativity of aspects of the Hornean culture gene bank via tourism. Further studies may crescendo along these aspects (i.e. normalisation, framing, fantasmatic, performativity and so forth) to advance particularistic understanding in the respective areas.

The main goal of the final thesis is to evaluate the position of makroregion Europe on the international tourism market. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with methodological framework, important notions of tourism and main factors, which contribute to tourism development. The practical part is focused on makroregion Europe itself, where tourism has experienced continued expansion and is a long-term leader on the international tourism market. The theoretical knowledge is applied and european subregions are analysed considering main development trends. Under the impact of the worldwide financial crisis, unfavourable demographic trend and competiton of Asia-Pacific destinations, European union exerts an effort by means of New political framework for tourism to retain position as a world's top destination on the international tourism market.