Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

The nature of the leisure profession and the leisure professional has been recharacterised by a series of government policies first implemented by the Conservative government during the period 1979-97. Whilst the re-characterisation has been acknowledged by leisure professional bodies and also in an emerging body of literature, no systematic analysis of this process has been undertaken in the Scottish context. This thesis addresses this through an ideological analysis of New Right Conservatism and the impact of New Right policies in Scotland and on the Scottish Leisure profession. Scottish political and cultural traditions together with the notion of credentialism provide original dimensions to this critical analysis. Using a multimethodological research approach, this thesis examines the link between New Right government policies and the Scottish leisure profession. It establishes whether or not the process of professionalisation is a coherent one that will underpin a collective legitimacy for the Scottish leisure profession. It is concluded that the New Right undermined the professionalisation of leisure management in Scotland. Leisure management has been restructured and generalised and the resulting professional anticollectivism within the industry has left the standing of the profession in doubt. This original theoretically and empirically informed study of the leisure profession in Scotland makes a small contribution to the growing body of work on professionalism and professionalisation.

ABSTRACT As the life expectancy in Taiwan has gradually increased, and more and more people retire at a young age, even below 50, the duration of retired life for Taiwanese may be prolonged to nearly 30 years. Most of the retirees are in very good health conditions and full of energy during the first 25 years or even longer. Hence, an early plan for arrangements for the 25-year retired life is indeed essential to creating a cozy, healthy living environment, allowing one to live happily after retirement while having a place for leisure activities. Finding an excellent environment for a resort for leisure and health purposes for retirees is thus an important tip. In recent years, the area of fallow and abandoned farms has rapidly increased, as a result of cheap produce since Taiwan joined WTO. The government has thus encouraged the use of idle farms in the leisure industry, as it may not only stimulate development of rural villages, but also facilitate the emergence of resorts for leisure and health purposes due to the excellent environment in rural villages. Consequently, many farm resorts for leisure and health purposes run by retirees sprouted. The purpose of this study is to figure out the development trend of farm resorts for leisure and health purposes, and to gain a further understanding of the key decision factors for retirees in selecting a farm resort for leisure and health purposes. ¡@¡@In this study, three individual health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group, are selected to perform an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis of five possible key decision factors in selecting farm resorts for leisure and health purposes, such as prices, health care, geographic environment, hardware facilities, and leisure activities, in order to understand the factors that retirees have taken into consideration when choosing a favorable farm resort for leisure and health purposes. Interviewees comprise the following: 3 personnel from the industry, including Mr. Bai, Yao-Ren, President of Baofa Retirement Village, Mr. Chu, Tai-An, Director of Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House, and Mr. Song, Ru-Kuei, responsible person of He-nong Health & Life Accommodation; 3 personnel from government agencies, including Mr. Su, Jhong-Yuan, Deputy Director-general of the Tourism and Traffic Bureau of Kaohsiung County Government, Mr. Yang, Siao-Jhih, Chief of the Agriculture Section of Meinong Township Office, and Ms. Jhang, Ting-Siou from the Social Affairs Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government; 3 scholars from the academia, including Dr. Chen, Wei-Ren, Chairman of the Department of Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Management of Shu-Te University, Dr. Hsieh, Ching-Hsiang, Ex-Chairman of the Department of Plant Industry of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and Dr. Luo, Rong-Heng, Chairman of the Department of Finance of Nan Kai University of Technology; and 3 customers living in each of the three health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group, a total of 18 participants from 4 different categories. In-depth interviews are then conducted with all of the interviewees to collect qualified and quantified data from AHP questionnaires for further analysis, in order to better understand the key decision factors in selecting farm resorts for leisure and health purposes. Through simultaneous collection and analysis of qualified and quantified data from AHP questionnaires, five key decision factors highly regarded by the government agencies, scholars, business owners, and customers in terms of health and culture villages are gained. The hierarchy of these five key decision factors, such as prices, health care, geographic environment, hardware facilities, and leisure activities, determined by their respective relative weights, is as follows: geographic environment (0.287) > hardware facilities (0.286) > prices (0.218) > health care (0.186) > leisure activities (0.176). The key decision factors in these three health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group with top five average weights are: 1. hardware facilities in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village (0.105); 2. geographic environment in Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House (0.095); 3. geographic environment in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village (0.092); 4. hardware facilities in Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House (0.090); and 5. geographic environment in Baofa Retirement Village (0.087). The above results roughly correspond to the results obtained through AHP analysis of qualified and quantified data. Key words: Leisure industry, Retiree, Farm resort, Analytic Hierarchy Process

Diss. Växjö : Växjö universitet, 2009.

D.Com. (Sports Management) / Sport as a phenomenon has been part of different cultures throughout the ages, and in literature various authors emphasise the significant role it played and still plays in people's lives. From a cultural-historical perspective, sport as a time-filling activity therefore forms an important foundation for the development of sport as an industry. The possibilities of using leisure as an industry have been considered from early times. Participants in sport, magnates and the public sector made an important contribution to the development of sport, although everybody also benefited indirectly from this. In the examination of sport as a business, sport is measured against the standards set for a business, and from this it is evident that sport meets these requirements in all instances. In the light of these facts, it is necessary for sport to be managed like a business. Management and managerial behaviour are defined in a theoretical foundation, but particular attention is devoted to concepts in sport with a view to providing an own point of view. As a result of this theoretical foundation, a base is created for drafting a curriculum for a course in Sport Management. Various models and points of view are discussed and suggestions on the ideal contents of such a curriculum are made. The B.Comm. degree and certificate courses in Sport Management at the Rand Afrikaans University are used as a model. The fundamental personal traits of sport officials and students of Sport Management are examined in the empirical study. Various psychometric tests and questionnaires are employed, enabling the creation of an instrument in future research to screen students and sport officials. As a result of this research, certain recommendations are made with regard to further research, drawing up a curriculum for Sport Management and measuring personal traits of sport officials.

The key aim of this thesis was to explore the range of emotions in the spa industry in Thailand and how emotions impact spa employees and customer service. This was achieved by identifying how emotions were performed and managed during service encounters within the spa industry. The thesis confirmed that the performance of emotion management influenced customer service delivery. To help understanding this, the thesis developed a conceptual framework based on three theoretical perspectives: Goffman’s theoretical concept, Hochschild’s acting strategy, and Bolton’s four typology of workplace emotion. Each perspective focused on different viewpoints which provided a more comprehensive and holistic view of emotion management. This research followed an interpretivist perspective to study the performance of emotion management and customer service delivery. The researcher adopted a phenomenological research strategy to understand in-depth information on emotion management. The main empirical element of the research was in-depth interviews with 48 spa employees in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. Interviews were undertaken with multiple key informants with various job roles: managers, receptionists, and therapists. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview data. Empirical findings indicated that emotional expressions from the spa employees influenced customer service behaviour. The spa employees performed ‘pecuniary’ emotion management category the most, followed by ‘prescriptive’ category, ‘presentational’ category and ‘philanthropic’ category. The characteristics of the spa industry in performing ‘pecuniary’ emotion management is ‘monetary servitude’, in performing ‘prescriptive’ emotion management is ‘showing a therapeutic professional face’, in ‘presentational’ emotion management is ‘Thai social reality’, and in ‘philanthropic’ emotion management is ‘emotion as a gift’.

Although much research has been conducted on sustainable tourism and the education thereof internationally, a limited number of studies have focussed on education of sustainable tourism in South African secondary schools. A literature overview identified various approaches to the education of sustainability on the international front. Despite South Africa’s reliance on the tourism industry, the concept of sustainability has received little focus in classrooms where this pertinent issue should be receiving attention in order to ensure that future sustainability is ensured in the South African tourism industry. From the literature overview it was possible to identify topics pertaining to sustainability in the Tourism Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement implemented in the Further Education and Training Phase (FET) in South African secondary schools. These assisted in the development of the research tool for this study. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), an instrument used to establish the level of environmental concerns of groups of people, also provided guidance in the development of the research tool. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions of Tourism educators in secondary schools towards sustainability. A framework to investigate this was developed and three hypotheses formulated. To give effect to this, an empirical investigation was conducted. Tourism educators who were successful in their application to mark 2014 National Senior Certificate Tourism examinations were included in the sample of this study. The result of the descriptive statistics performed on the data showed that the level of education of the respondents was the main contributing demographic that impacted on their perceptions of sustainable tourism. It is, however, of concern to note that a very low percentage of the respondents (6.2%) have received formal training in Tourism. This situation should be cause for concern for Tourism education in the Eastern Cape. Two of the three hypotheses were accepted. The researcher believes that specialised subject relevant training is required to empower educators to teach sustainable tourism in the South African secondary school classrooms in order to ensure future sustainability in the tourism industry of South Africa.

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.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bochum, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M Reg & Urb Plan)--University of South Australia, 1997