High-speed passenger rail is seen by many in the U.S. transportation policy and planning communities as an ideal solution for fast, safe, and resource-efficient mobility in high-demand intercity corridors. To expand the body of knowledge for high-speed intercity passenger rail in the U.S., the overall goal of this dissertation was to better understand the demand for high-speed intercity passenger rail services in small- or medium-sized intermediate communities and improve planners' ability to estimate such demand through traveler surveys; specifically, the use of different experimental designs for stated preference questions and the use of images to describe hypothetical travel alternatives in traveler surveys. In pursuit of this goal, an Internet-based survey was distributed to residents of Waco and Temple, two communities located along the federally-designated South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor in Central Texas. A total of 1,160 surveys were obtained from residents of the two communities. Mixed logit travel mode choice models developed from the survey data revealed valuable findings that can inform demand estimates and the design of traveler surveys for high-speed intercity passenger rail planning activities. Based on the analysis presented in this dissertation, ridership estimates for new high-speed intercity passenger rail lines that are planned to serve intermediate communities should not assume that residents of these communities have similar characteristics and values. The d-efficient stated preference experimental design was found to provide a mode choice model with a better fit and greater significance on key policy variables than the adaptive design and therefore is recommended for use in future surveys. Finally, it is recommended that surveys should consider the use of images of proposed train services to aid respondent decision-making for stated preference questions, but only if the images used in the survey depict equipment that could be realistically deployed in the corridor.

The purpose of this research paper is to provide an understanding for organizational factors effect on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the hotel business and then investigate CRM activities effect on loyalty among business travelers. An analysis of 163 questionnaires gathered from hotels in Sweden resulted in two main findings. (1) Organizational factors such as: size, strategy, and maturity of information system affect CRM activities where the development of a customer loyalty strategy affects CRM activities the most. (2) CRM activities as: bonus cards, service customization, free-gifts, and convenient check in/check outs affect loyalty where service customization affects loyalty the most. Hence, different organizational preferences and certain CRM activities are preferable as hotels strive to create loyalty among business travelers.

In terms of the ¡§basic principles¡¨ of the Free Independent Travelers program(FIT), we need to notice that it is the very first and fresh contact in the cross-straits with the friendliest cooperation. With the change that given by FIT to rebuild the mutual trust between two nations, instead of labeling the ¡§evil nature¡¨ on the people from mainland, the government should remove the discriminative norms and regulations from FIT immediately. In the perspectives of the Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of UN, the right for people to have the freedom of mobility should be safeguarded. Internally, the authority should be delegated to local governments to enhance the potential benefit from few private and affluent enterprises and Taiwan-based business in China to the local economy with a greater profit. From the aspect of ¡§organization,¡¨ shortening the administrative process is the priority to reduce unnecessary red tape. Ma¡¦s administration attempts to establish offices in different fields in the cross-straits by ¡§building blocks¡¨; however, a more ¡§comprehensive¡¨ service organization is more needed based due to the reality. If this kind of organization can be set up in the important cities in China, FIT applicants can apply the grogram, including ¡§application, submission and receiving certifications¡¨ by a single window. It can not only reduce the cost and the possibility to be exploited for applicants, but it also can force the government to eliminate transferring the unnecessary risk of the possibility for Chinese travelers¡¦ staying illegally to the tourism industry in Taiwan. In relation to ¡§authority,¡¨ the policy should incline to ¡§soft law¡¨ for promoting FIT with ¡§management¡¨ rather than ¡§protecting with strictness.¡¨ If there is a conflict between authority and basic principles, related administrative problems may be even harder to be processed, let alone putting effectiveness of organizations into full play. Regarding to ¡§remedy,¡¨ a comprehensive arbitration mechanism, or an integrated system of mediation for dispute and remedy, is a must for FIT. From the premise of a mutual consensus to make it work effectively, instead of post-incident remedy, pursuing the quality of travelling by ¡§risk management¡¨ is more important. After all, the remedy in current society is so limited that it only covers the mediation for the dispute of product consumption and purchasing. In terms of ¡§supervision,¡¨ related source of law should be made by ¡§legislative sector,¡¨ so that an ¡§internal controlling¡¨ mechanism can be set up while part of the legal system is unable to be intervened by non-executive power, including president¡¦s power. Moreover, the set up of this mechanism should imitate the evaluation for universities. Professional scholars should be invited to do the evaluation, and by way of selecting random case or lot drawing, the power of the president can be redressed. Based on the divisions of responsibilities between administrative and legislative sectors, the ¡§interior controlling¡¨ role that the Congress plays, still, should not infringe the executive power of legislative sector. Nevertheless, it should reinforce practical supervision and identify what the object should be. From the aspect of ¡§exterior controlling,¡¨ an unofficial and professional organization should be established, so as to assist the integration of a comprehensive plan and supervision assessment. The pressure that media puts on the government is limited, not to mention correcting exterior supervision instantly; however, if the assessment can be submitted to Legislative Yuan from time to time, it might leave pressure to the administrative sector, so that the problems can be redressed.

Dans la lignée des travaux de l'historien allemand Peter Reichel sur la notion de fascination totalitaire et du mouvement historique initié en France par Fred Kupferman, François Hourmant ou encore Sophie Cœuré autour du voyage des intellectuels en Union soviétique dans les années 1930, cette thèse a pour objectif de dénouer les rouages du voyage en terre nazie, de l'accession d'Adolf Hitler à la chancellerie jusqu'à la déclaration du second conflit mondial. Thématique délaissée par l'historiographie du national-socialisme préférant voir dans le voyage une évidence anecdotique relevant des nécessités diplomatiques, elle s'impose cependant à l'historien devant la masse d'archives léguées. Engluée et limitée jusque-là dans la représentation classique d'un Brasillach devant la « cathédrale de lumière » de Nuremberg ou du sort des délégations étrangères aux Jeux olympiques de Berlin 1936, la pratique du voyage ne peut se résumer à une vision archétypale voulant que seul le « fasciste en formation » ne parcoure un IIIème Reich réduit à quelques points névralgiques. A partir de sources issues du Ministère des Affaires étrangères, de périodiques, de récits de voyages et d'ouvrages rétrospectifs (mémoires, correspondances, écrits privés), ce travail s'articule autour de trois axes allant de l'intérêt de l'étude du déplacement dans la compréhension d'un phénomène totalitaire, aux temps du voyage (accueil, séjour sur place, réception du voyage) tout en analysant le rôle du voyage et son degré d'implication dans la formation d'une bienveillance personnelle ou d'un rejet du totalitarisme. Un des intérêts fondamentaux de l'étude du voyage en Allemagne hitlérienne réside dans les motivations préalables conduisant au déplacement. Le voyage est avant tout objet d'histoire vécu et perçu par ceux qui l'entreprennent. Cette conscience du « moment d'histoire » entrepris amène à étudier les motivations structurelles du voyage (intérêt pour la modernité politique, déconstruction de son propre modèle national, naissance d'une diplomatie parallèle) comme existentielles (inspiration morale, dépassement de la frontière de la germanité), tout en mettant en avant l'étonnante diversité des voyageurs (origine géographique, culturelle et sociale), signe de l'attraction magnétique du national-socialisme au-delà des frontières (insertion dans le débat de la place de la spécificité nationale dans le cadre d'un minimum fasciste). Préalable indispensable à toute compréhension du phénomène, les temps du voyage permettent d'éclairer la construction d'une véritable politique nazie à l'égard du voyageur étranger d'une part, de souligner la prégnance des réseaux et contacts d'autre part. L'étude du temps sur place sera orientée autour de l'impression de l'accessible rencontrée par les voyageurs. Le temps du retour d' « Hitlérie », fait d'une variété de la forme et de l'usage, permettra de mettre en avant l'obligation naturelle, morale - voire politique - de relayer les impressions de la « chose vue ». Enfin, le voyage comme maçon d'une nouvelle image de l'Allemagne dans les mentalités collectives étrangères viendra clore ce travail. La construction de l'image totalitaire semble aller de pair avec une tentative de rationalisation de l'aveuglement rencontré quand, pour d'autres, le voyage est un mécanisme de résistance. La place du voyageur face à la question juive devient également nécessité. D'une tribune offerte à l'antisémitisme aux premiers actes de dénonciation, le voyage devient un outil de la pensée intellectuelle. La conscience d'un totalitarisme naissant fait du voyageur un homme éclairé, noyé dans la masse de la dérive fasciste transnationale ayant fait ses armes idéologiques dans le Reich. / In line with the studies by German historian Peter Reichel concerning the fascination of totalitarianism and the historical movement initiated in France by Fred Kupferman, along with the studies by François Hourmant and Sophie Coeuré regarding intellectuals traveling in Soviet union in the 1930's, the objective of this thesis is to describe the experience of the voyage on Nazi territory, from Hitler's accession to power to the beginning of World War II. This theme has been disregarded in the national-socialism historiography, due to the fact that they viewed the voyage as an anecdotic evidence of diplomatic duty. However, the amount of archives bequeathed on this topic led historians to believe that it is more relevant than previously thought. Limited to the classical image of Brasillach in front of the “Cathedral of Light” of Nuremberg as well as the image of foreign delegations during the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936, the act of traveling shouldn't be reduced to this archetypal vision implying that only the “future fascists” would travel and discover the IIIrd Reich. Using sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, newspapers, travel logs, essays, and letters, this work hinges on three parts covering the significance to study the voyage with the goal to understand the totalitarianism phenomenon, the different stages of the voyage (the reception, their stay, the return to their countries of origin), and to analyze the role and the importance of the voyage in the development of either an acceptance or a rejection towards the totalitarianism. One of the main interests in studying the voyage in Hitler's Germany is the reasoning behind the motivation for the voyage to take place. Traveling is at first a moment in history lived and perceived by those who experience it. This awareness of the experienced moment in history leads us to study the structural motivations of this voyage (interest for modern politics, deconstruction of our own national model, beginning of a parallel diplomacy) and also the existential motivations (moral inspiration, surpassing the line of “germanity”) while underlining the surprising diversity of the travelers (geographical, cultural and social origin), which shows the power of attraction of the national-socialism far across the borders. Prior to understanding this phenomenon, the different phases of the voyage help to enlighten the construction of a specific Nazi policy towards the foreign traveler on one hand, and to underline the existence and development of a real network of contacts on the other. This component will examine how the model of national-socialism seemed attainable for the travelers. The return from Germany will bring to the forefront the feeling of obligation for the travelers to explain and describe what had been experienced during the travel. Finally, the voyage as propagator of a new image of Germany in foreigner's minds will complete this study. The shaping of the totalitarian image seems to go hand in hand with an attempt to rationalize the obliviousness of a part of the population, while for others the voyage is a mechanism of resistance. The standpoint of the travelers towards the Jew's situation is also necessary to broach. Like a window that offers a view on anti-Semitism and the first acts of denunciation, the voyage becomes a tool of intellectual thinking. The awareness of this rising totalitarianism makes the traveler a knowledgeable man, lost in the masses, sliding in this transnational fascism first learned in the Reich.

The master thesis is dealing with the consumer protection in air transport. The legislation is primarily stipulated in the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union regulation, to whom is dedicated the beggining of this thesis. In next step the study is devoted to operating irregulariarities followed by problems concerning luggage that could potentially occur during transportation. The end of the theoretical part is discussing the companies that assist passengers in receiving their compensations from air carriers if they are entitled to it. The second section is mainly analytical and it is supported by the theory from the first part of the thesis. Research is done within this part via method of questioning. The aim of the thesis is checking the awareness of passengers about their rights whilst using air transport. The thesis also contains subgoal which is a summary of a basic overview of consumer protection legislation. The conclusion is devoted towards proposals for addressing any identified deficiencies.

The accurate and reliable estimation of travel time based on point detector data is needed to support Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications. It has been found that the quality of travel time estimation is a function of the method used in the estimation and varies for different traffic conditions. In this study, two hybrid on-line travel time estimation models, and their corresponding off-line methods, were developed to achieve better estimation performance under various traffic conditions, including recurrent congestion and incidents. The first model combines the Mid-Point method, which is a speed-based method, with a traffic flow-based method. The second model integrates two speed-based methods: the Mid-Point method and the Minimum Speed method. In both models, the switch between travel time estimation methods is based on the congestion level and queue status automatically identified by clustering analysis. During incident conditions with rapidly changing queue lengths, shock wave analysis-based refinements are applied for on-line estimation to capture the fast queue propagation and recovery. Travel time estimates obtained from existing speed-based methods, traffic flow-based methods, and the models developed were tested using both simulation and real-world data. The results indicate that all tested methods performed at an acceptable level during periods of low congestion. However, their performances vary with an increase in congestion. Comparisons with other estimation methods also show that the developed hybrid models perform well in all cases. Further comparisons between the on-line and off-line travel time estimation methods reveal that off-line methods perform significantly better only during fast-changing congested conditions, such as during incidents. The impacts of major influential factors on the performance of travel time estimation, including data preprocessing procedures, detector errors, detector spacing, frequency of travel time updates to traveler information devices, travel time link length, and posted travel time range, were investigated in this study. The results show that these factors have more significant impacts on the estimation accuracy and reliability under congested conditions than during uncongested conditions. For the incident conditions, the estimation quality improves with the use of a short rolling period for data smoothing, more accurate detector data, and frequent travel time updates.

The subject of this diploma thesis is survey of former traveler´s inn called Peklo and upcoming creation of its building documentation. In the first part there is an introduction of the former pub and there is also a chapter about building measuring network. In the next chapter is described measurement and a data processing. The final part of this diploma thesis is dedicated to description of creation required documents, which are clear sketch of measuring network, floor plan, view of vertical section, outside views of the pub from two different sides and a thematical map. The final documentations will be delivered to the current owner of the house and will be used for the planned reconstruction.

Abstract Background:        In recent years a rising concern towards health enhancement activities has been prominent across populations, leading to the emergence of a multi-dollar industry, namely the wellness industry, which spans across a wide spectrum of sectors, ranging from organic food to tourism. In fact, wellness tourism has been growing at an exponential rate, generating high revenues, forecast to rise. Given that millennials have been gradually replacing former generations, in volume size, it becomes evident why this age cohort has garnered massive media attention worldwide. Purpose: Nevertheless, although wellness tourism industry has sparked the attention of academic scholars and industry professionals, scant academic research has been conducted on the wellness travel attitude of this age cohort. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of millennials’ towards wellness travelling.                            Method:              For the purpose of this study, a qualitative research comprised of 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews was conducted within a sample of individual’s aged 23-35. Conclusion:          The results of this research indicated that this generational segment displayed a particular travel attitude towards wellness tourism, which can be understood from a cognitive, affective, and conative angle. Overall, the main cognitive associations and thoughts with wellness tourism entailed the notion of relaxation, and health-enhancement, whilst the core emotions experienced ranged from inner fulfillment, and happiness to nostalgia and serenity. The main benefits sought involved, escape from daily life and stress relief, which are consistent with prior studies. It was clear from this study that millennials are price-sensitive, and they cherish the variety of activities along with the novelty of experiences when travelling for wellness. This research also sheds light on the most frequently employed travel platforms and channels of communication, which can provide tourism marketing specialists and industry professionals with constructive recommendations in terms of advertising and communication of wellness travel offerings. However, due to time constraints, this study was subject to certain limitations, which hinder the generalizability of results across broader populations and diverse wellness travelers. Future research is thus much anticipated and needed to dig deeper into this lucrative market.

Aeronautical revenue from landing and handling charges to carriers is falling significantly below 60% of total revenue and will not persist as the main source of income for airports. Airports in Europe cannot continue to rely on profits from airlines; operating companies need to improve the competitiveness through commercial income from different traveler types. The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the elements of successful sales strategies by concessionaires (retailers) at the metropolitan airport system of Zurich and Basel in hopes of improving the nonaeronautical revenue from leisure travelers, a price-sensitive customer segment. The conceptual framework was corporate strategic planning with the underlying concept of sustainable business operations. Semistructured interviews included 9 executives and senior managers of concessions and retail operations at Zurich International and Basel EuroAirport, and covered major themes such as managing the shopping experience of passengers as well as collaboration between concessionaires, airports, and airlines. The key findings, which emerged from an inductive analysis of the data, were that the identification of personalized offerings and the inclusion of individual travelers' needs are required to ensure a flexible approach by each airport and shop location throughout the terminal. The collected data contained indicators for holistic and targeted concepts by retail concessions in cooperation with airport stakeholders. Social implications include sustainable retail strategies by promoting value adding products and services, improving the passenger's travel experience, and ensuring the profitability of concessionaires in a changing aviation market.

To increase the use of public transport and to increase the safety for the travelers, two aspects thatare included in the goals regarding the Swedish transport system, the design of railway stations isimportant. When planning stations, many stakeholders are involved and therefore there is a risk thatproblems may occur, especially in smaller municipalities where there might be a lack of resources.Moreover, it is the travelers’ needs that should be in focus when planning stations.This thesis was carried out with the objective to investigate measures to solve problems regardingthe travelers’ accessibility and safety at railway stations in Sweden. In addition, problems that mightoccur due to that many stakeholders are responsible for the station environment and whether thetravelers’ needs are reflected in the planning were investigated. To fulfill the objective, a case studywas performed at two small railway stations: Fagersta centralstation and Fagersta Norra. The casestudy included visual inspections of the stations, surveys among the travelers and interviews withresponsible stakeholders and with experts in these subjects.In the interviews with the stakeholders, many problems with the stations are mentioned but fewmeasures are suggested. In comparison between the answers from the stakeholders and the experts,the experts identified additional problems and suggested other measures and they should thereforebe consulted when planning station environments. In addition, additional problems were observedduring the visual inspections, mainly concerning conflicts between different traffic modes whichcould be both accessibility and safety problems. Based on this, visual inspections should beperformed when planning stations to observe problems that otherwise are forgotten.To increase the safety and the accessibility at the stations in Fagersta, measures to decrease thenumber of conflicts and their severity through e.g. hinders for vehicles and reorganization of thestation area are recommended. In the survey, the travelers pointed out the perceived safety and thewaiting area as important aspects at the stations. Since both of these aspects are insufficient,measures to improve these, through e.g. improved lighting and shelters, should be prioritized.The stakeholders’ perception of the travelers’ needs varied both between the stations and thestakeholders. Also, since the experts have a different focus, they do not observe the travelers’ needswhich makes it important to involve the travelers to find their actual needs. The stakeholders thattake initiative to consult the travelers however do not handle the station environments which meansthat no traveler dialogues are held about this at smaller stations. However, no clear connectionbetween whether the stakeholders keep regular dialogues with the travelers and if they have a clearview of the travelers’ needs were found. One benefit with consulting the travelers when planningstations could be that the responsible stakeholders receive guidance in prioritizing measures.Moreover, the shared responsibility for the station environments do not lead to that any part of thestation is forgotten in the assessment. Problems may however arise when objects are located inbetween different responsibility areas. Finally, the cooperation between stakeholders variesdepending on who are involved, and more problems might occur if private property owners areinvolved. A reorganization that suggests that one stakeholder has an overall responsibility over thestation could decrease these problems. The stakeholders that handles the traffic are positive towardsthis type of reorganization and the stakeholders that have a larger responsibility at the stations didnot give their view on this. The question regarding a reorganization needs further investigation.Key words: Accessibility, safety, railway station, stakeholder, traveler, cooperationEnglish title: An investigation regarding increased accessibility and safety for travelers at railwaystations in smaller municipalities – An evaluation with a case study in Fagersta that includes travelers’and responsible stakeholders’ view of the stations and the cooperation between stakeholders