The hope of livelihood enhancement for the mountain dwellers has been a climacteric and novel effort by many international and national organizations lately. Community based tourism development in these rural hinterlands is one of those efforts by many organizations and agencies. However, these developmental initiatives in the name of tourism remain in black and white. The very work through this piece of research has highlighted the ongoing developmental discourse of tourism in Chakrata region of Uttarakhand in India. Issues pertaining to infrastructure, policy, and community preparedness are top in the fray. The research has synthesized the core constraints and challenges the Himalayan region has been confronting. In the same time the results have provided some feasible strategies to make tourism development ideal in the region.
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Hospitality Interest and Inferred Domains: A Comparative Study Among Indian and Malaysian Students
Hospitality and Tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world with its direct contribution to GDP was USD2, 229.8bn (3.0 of total GDP) in 2015. By 2026, Travel & Tourism will account for 135,884,000 jobs directly, an increase of 2.1 per annum over the next ten years (WTTC, 2016). The potential growth trends of this sector in India and Malaysia can also be predicted by identifying occupational/professional interest trends among students in the hospitality education. This study established a comparison between 400 hospitality and tourism students of two different universities located in India and Malaysia, who identify their interests in the various domains of the hospitality and tourism industry. Findings revealed that both the Indian students and Malaysian students have a deeper interest in domains like F&B Service, F&B Production, Housekeeping and Front Office. In addition, the study infers that the score was indicative of their desire to pursue careers in Cruise Lines for Indian students while for Malaysian students; they have a deeper desire to pursue careers in domains Entrepreneurship. Findings will help institutions and industry to know the trends of students’ occupational interest in totality, which will further aid Institutions and industry to make decisions on strategic planning and implementation of taking up the course, introducing specialised areas and creating enough employment opportunities in the thrust domains.
Travel Decisions and Behaviors of Chinese Families Who Visited Space Center Houston
This qualitative study was conducted to explore the pattern of travel decision-making and behaviors of Chinese scholars and students living in College Station who visited the Space Center Houston (SCH). There were 7 participants. Interviews and content analysis were used in this study. We designed 18-item questionnaire to allow for 45- to 60-minute interviews which permitted probes and follow-up questions raised by the respondents that the researchers did not think about when planning the study. It was found that generally Chinese families made their travel decision 3-4 days prior to the visit, their purpose of visiting the SCH was mostly for children to enhance their knowledge, often they prepared poorly for the visit, little purchase behavior was shown, and they were satisfied with the experience in the SCH. Implications were also provided concerning theoretical and practical contributions and future research.
Assessment of Green IT or IS Within the Aviation Industry Using the Analytic Network Process Approach
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and assess the green information system and green information technology (IT/IS) investments within the aviation industry to help decision makers to reduce and overcome the negative impacts of Green IT/IS investment related to benefits, opportunities, cost, and risks. For this purpose, a total number of 380 usable questionnaires were collected from employees working in Egypt Air and 20 personal interviews were conducted with the experts. Data was analyzed using two techniques; SPSS version 16. So, Correlation analysis and Chi-Square tests (between benefits of green IT/IS and work experience) were conducted to find out the relationship between study variables (benefits, opportunities, cost and risks). The second technique was ANP version 2.8 software package for the interviews. Pair wise comparison, the unweighted super matrix, weighted super matrix, and limited matrix were used. Then the ANP priorities and the synthesized priorities for benefits were conducted. The results showed a positive correlation between opportunities, costs, and risks of green IT/IS. Despite green IT/IS benefits and opportunities, this does not negate the high cost of investments within the aviation industry, especially, the cost of powering IT infrastructure which had the greatest value from the experts’ point of view. Green IT/IS is increasing concern because of either lower costs or increased costs.
Exploring the Impact of Internal Marketing on Organizational Commitment of Travel Agents Employees
One effective way of improving employees performance is increasing their organizational commitment to the workplace. A good internal marketing system could positively contribute to employee organizational commitment development. The current study is exploratory in nature. It aims to explore the impact of internal marketing dimensions on travel agencies’ employee organizational commitment. A questionnaire form was used to collect data from travel agencies’ employees randomly. Structural equation modelling technique was used to test the hypotheses of the study and reveal rigorous, valid, and reliable findings. Findings revealed that some dimensions of internal marketing are significantly contributing to organizational commitment of travel agencies employees. Contributions of study to knowledge and practices are also introduced.
What Determines the Tourist Satisfaction: Evidence from Jammu and Kashmir – India
This study aims at analyzing the factors determining the tourist satisfaction towards Jammu and Kashmir tourism. The study is based on primary data which has been collected from 500 tourists respondents incorporating various tourism services and facilities provided by different stakeholders of tourism industry in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The results revealed that the 7 combined services provided to tourists in terms of Transport, Accommodation, Food, Shopping, Public behavior & Security, Public services and Other Tourism Awareness are significantly affecting the satisfaction of tourists. Further, it was found that the suitable arrangements and availability of these factors can boost the tourist flow to the state. The state need to take up with the central government for expansion of existing aviation infrastructure so that all the major state capitals of the country could be air linked with Jammu and Kashmir. Rail and road connectivity need also be speeded up.
Role of Technology in Development of Alternative Finance in India: A Discussion
A candid reflection into the current financial system will make a realization that Traditional corporate finance just isnt equipped to handle a fast-paced, interconnected world. Not being negative about the Indian financial services but technology has to be incremental in standing at par with the young companies requirements. Development of entrepreneurial culture and ecosystem must not negate the tech supported alternative sources of finance. Banks are becoming tech savvy however at the time due to the increased amount of risk which these young companies carry they are reluctant to back the finance requirement. Focusing on the basket of alternative finance sources like crowdfunding peer to peer lending angel investment, policy makers can provide the levee to the tech hungry startups and thus take the startup ecosystem on a strong footing. Researcher in the paper has reviewed and revisited the alternative sources of funds growing in India along with some already established sources in developed financial economies and its feasibility in India. India is the emerging as entrepreneurship and financial markets are developing and changing in evolutionary if not revolutionary manner. Keeping technology as the focus, researcher revolves around the options and sources of alternative finance, its pros cons and feasibility in India. The paper has been divided into two part first is capital availing and other is payment. Capital availing includes crowd funding and P2P lending and payment includes the Mobile wallet.
Financial Literacy Skills: The Catalyst for Entrepreneurial Sustenance
Entrepreneurs are accepted to be the back bone of every upcoming economy. They are the growth engines of both developed and developing economies. The quality of entrepreneurs moreover, decides about the economic status of the nation. In India too, entrepreneurship is being given attention increasingly. The projects like Start-up India, Make in India are targeted towards propelling economic growth of India. Rigorous efforts are directed towards motivating the young generation of India to set up their own enterprises. The government is equally keen in easing the norms of doing business. This all provides a promising picture for economic development of India. However, the percentage of entrepreneurial sickness in India cannot be ignored. Mere start up is not sufficient but sustenance of these enterprises should also be taken care of. Various studies have pointed out that entrepreneurial sickness is mainly caused due to financial indecisiveness. Studies have also shown that the level of financial skills and knowledge among the majority of people especially among young people, is low even in advanced societies (Jacob et al., 2000, p.15). Thus, while money is one of the important issues of the human mind, most people are unwilling to talk about it not because of the lack of interest but due to their poor knowledge in this field (Fox et al., 2005). In this regard financial literacy among the budding entrepreneurs can work wonders. This paper attempts to briefly review the importance of financial literacy and tries to identify its role in entrepreneurial development.
Community Colleges in Malawi Initiative: Transforming Malawi into a Hub of Innovation in Technology Towards Achieving Global Competiveness
Community Colleges in Malawi initiative was launched in Malawi 2 years ago. It was coined by the current President of Malawi, His Excellency Peter Arthur Muthalika. The Malawi Government observed that the unemployment rate was high and there was lack of skills among the youths. To deal with these challenges, Government has been introducing, community colleges to offer skills relevant to unemployed youths. As expected, the youths are getting skills. The followings are policy recommendations: A deliberate 3 year tax waiver on all businesses being established, introduction of special fund for start-up capital and easing cross border trade arrangements.
Behavioural Biases in Investment Decision Making
Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of the psychological factors on financial markets evolution. Investors fall prey to their own and sometimes others mistakes due to the use of emotions in financial decision making. Investors are people with a very varied number of deviations from rational behaviour, which is the reason why there is a variety of effects, which explain market anomalies. Classical finance assumes that investors are rational and they are focused to select an efficient portfolio, which means including a combination of asset classes chosen in such a manner as to achieve the greatest possible returns over the long term, under the terms of a tolerable level of risk. Behavioural finance paradigm suggests that investment decision is influenced in a large proportion by psychological and emotional factors and even group behaviour.
Technology Adoption Among the Students Using Technology Acceptance Model: An Empirical Study on Tripura University
The thirst of a learner is unquenchable for learning, acceptance, adopting new methods and approaches. Technology mediation is one method that aspires to provide higher learning gain among pupils. Universities across the globe adopted various modes and methods of the E-learning. However, the perceived ease of use and behavioral constraints has altogether worked as a barrier to technology adoption. This paper attempts to evaluate the perception of the business management students of Tripura University in accepting the digital learning methods through Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Standard constructs from TAM were tested through a structured instrument and the study indicates the earlier bottleneck resistance has dropped significantly and the peer mentoring is facilitating the teaching- learning processes.
Behavioral Biases and their Importance in Shaping Overall Investment Behavior of Indian Engineers
The study investigates the three broad dimensions viz. overconfidence, optimism and loss aversion of investment behavior of engineers and their impact on the investment behavior in context of Indian Stock Market. We have studied the importance of each Behavioral dimension/bias in shaping the overall investment behavior. Also, the sub-factors of each dimension are studied in terms of their relative importance in shaping the broad dimension. A structured questionnaire were developed and distributed among 423 Engineers who are engineering graduate. Multi-criteria technique of AHP is used to define the relative contribution of each of the behavioral bias in shaping the investment behavior. The three biases have been studied viz. overconfidence, loss aversion and overreaction. The results revealed that overconfidence is the most important bias and plays most important role in shaping investment behavior followed by loss aversion and optimism. The most important factor in deriving overconfidence is self-attribution. Results also reveal that most of the engineers are loss averse because they do not like to realize their losses. However, they are not so optimistic for the stock market that they dont expect the price rise even after a long fall.
Current Collaborative Economies Business Model Airbnb: Changing the Hospitality Industry
This paper focuses on the study of one of the most recent and successful technology-based startups, whose nature is the hospitality industry. Airbnb is part of the model peer to peer of the collaborative economy, which means it is participating in a Community market based on trust the host-guest experience for traveling richer than it would simply stay in a hotel. For the development of this work the research methods will be descriptive and analytical due to the interest of not only explain the origin and strategies that practices the company but also doing an analysis of the tendency of users, both the hosts and guests about their perception of the services offered and whether it will become the preferred way to rent a space. The trends show that the explosive growth since its inception continues to be a trend, as long as the regulations imposed by different governments are met and that trust between users stays strong.
Quantification of Risk Appetite for Young Professionals: An Empirical Study
The debate over quantification of risk appetite of investor keeps evolving. As the modern portfolio theory gained prominence, the area has grabbed researchers interest world over resulting into many significant contributions made so far. However, this area needs exploration in Indian context to add to the existing body of knowledge. This paper is an attempt to contribute in this direction by developing the instrument for quantification of risk appetite. The final outcome of the study is a questionnaire with twelve items and four factors; 1. Psychological Perspective, 2.Financial Stability Perspective, 3.Societal Perspective, 4.Tendency to Panic. The researchers used Factor Analysis (EFA) to surface dominant factors attributable to quantification of risk appetite. The methodological framework included identification of factors by using anti-image correlations and Varimax Rotated Component Matrix. The sample of 160 young professionals from Rajkot and Ahmedabad were found adequate as per Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. As the study pertains to quantification of complex behavioral aspect, Chronbachs Alpha of fifty percent was considered satisfactory. The researchers believe that the study will predominantly facilitate Portfolio Management Services (PMS) to categorize investors based on their risk appetite. This would also be of relevance for Asset Management Companies (AMCs) to structure the schemes according to the risk profile of the investors.
Why Repeat the Failed Experiment? The Logic & the Economic Cost of the Note Ban
Demonetization is not new in India. Though twice tried earlier and failed, it was of late attempted again for the third time to fight black money, corruption and counterfeit currency. The recent note ban was however unique and unprecedented unlike the previous experiments owing to several factors. One major difference was its devastating impact on the lives of millions of people across our country. The acute liquidity crunch literally brought the informal sector of India to a standstill position. The study tries to understand the logic of using the demonetization exercise again, and analyzes its economic cost in the light of data and evidence available. More so, the study examines the arguments of the advocates of demonetization and draws a realistic conclusion with an alternative proposal. It questions if the government could have avoided this painful exercise and done it differently to achieve the goals it desired.
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