Search results for: tourist agency

Authors: Harison Masih, Jyotsna Kiran Peter, Sundara Singh, Geetha Singh

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The present investigation deals with diversity of dermatophytes and keratinophilic fungi from different tourist spots such as Agra Fort, Akbar tomb, It-Mat-Ud-Daulah, Mariam tomb, Radha Swami Bagh, and Taj Mahal of Agra City. These fungi are medically important which causes various infections and diseases in humans and animals. The main reservoir of these pathogens are the keratinous substances that increases due to birds and animal activities in the vicinity of monuments, where thousands (5413266) annual visitors from all over the world are visiting. The soil samples were subjected to isolate the pathogenic fungi through bait technique (buffalo skin, chicken feathers, human hair and goat tail hair). Baits were spread over the soil samples and incubated at room temperature for 30-35 days and pure culture isolates were maintained in SDA medium, stored at 4°C. Highest number of visitors were (3906453) from Taj Mahal, minimum 10785 at Mariam tomb annually, the total 271 isolates were encountered from soil samples out of these 18 genera and 38 species were found in different season. Highest incidence was 4.79% frequency shown by Chrysosporium keratinophilum while least 738% frequency occurrence by Trichophyton simii in soil samples. From the present study it was concluded that the incidence of pathogenic fungal isolates were the common in tourists soil that are etiological agents of superficial mycosis. Thus, both human and animal activity seemed to play an important role in occurrence and distribution of keratinophilic and related dermatophytes at various tourist places of Agra city.

Keywords: dermatophytic fungal diversity, bait technique, visitors at tourist spots, human and animal activities, soil samples

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Authors: Sanaa Riaz

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Spirits occupy a world that simultaneously dwells between the divine and the earthly binary while speaking to all forces of nature, marginality, and extremity in between. This paper examines the conceptualizations, interactions with, and experience of spiritual beings in relation to the concept of self and social agency, defined as a continuum of cooperation leaving those involved with an enhanced or diminished perception of self-agency. To do justice to the diverse mythological and popular interpretations of spirit entities, ethnographic examples from Africa, in particular, will be used. An examination of the nature and role of spirits in Africa allows one to understand the ways in which colonial influences brought by Catholicism and Islam added to the pre-colonial repertoire and syncretic imaginations of spirits. A comprehensive framework to analyze spirits requires situating them as a cognitive configuration of humans to communicate with other humans and forces of nature to receive knowledge about the normative in social roles, conduct, and action. Understanding spirits also requires a rethinking of the concept of self as not one encapsulated in the individual but one representing positionalities in collective negotiations, adversity, and alliances. To use the postmodern understanding of identity as a far from a coherent collection of selves fluidly moving between and dialoguing with gravitational and contradictory social forces, benevolent and maleficent spirit forces represent how people make sense of their origin, physiological and ecological changes, subsistence, and political environment and social relations. A discussion on spirits requires examining the rituals and mediational forces and their performance that allow participants to tackle adversity, voicelessness and continue to work safely and morally for the collective good. Moreover, it is important to see the conceptualization of spirits in unison with sorcery and spirit possession, central to voodoo practices, also because they speak volumes about the experiences of slavery and marginalization. This paper has two motives: It presents a critical literature review of ethnographic accounts of spirit entities in African spiritual experiences to examine the ways in which spirits become mediums through which the self is conceptualized and asserted. Second, the paper highlights the ways in which spirits become a medium to represent political and sociocultural ambiguities and desires along a spectrum of social agencies, including joint agency, vicarious agency, and interfered agency.

Keywords: spirits, social agency, self, ethnographic case studies

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Authors: Sani Mohammed Adam

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This work seeks to review the security challenges facing Nigeria and explore the relevance of laws and policies in tackling the menace. The work looks at the adequacy of available legislations and the functionality of relevant institutions such as the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force, the State Security Service, the Defence Intelligence Agency and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency etc. Comparisons would be made with other jurisdictions, such as inter alia, the Homeland Security in the USA and Counter Terrorism Laws of the United Kingdom. Recommendations would be made on how to strengthen both institutions and laws to curtail the growth of Terrorism in Nigeria.

Keywords: legislations, Nigeria, security, terrorism

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Authors: Yun-Ru Tsai, Jo-Hui Lin

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The cultural interactions between tourists and destination communities have received increased attention. Tourists play an important role in constructing a rewarding intercultural experience and cultural understanding. Cultural literacy is the ability for tourists to negotiate different cultures, this research aimed to develop a measurement of Tourist Cultural Literacy (TCL), the result provides a theoretical framework to assess how tourists interact with different cultural destinations. A pilot qualitative research was conducted in order to generate the initial items. In this study, the procedure of developing the TCL scale was divided into two parts. First, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted, a 25-item TCL scale was developed and six factors were identified: cultural sensitivity, appreciation of the culture, respect for the culture, knowledge of the culture, participate in the culture, and empathy for the culture. Second, confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling were employed, the six-factor model was verified, and was proven to have good fit, reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity. The study provides managerial implications for tourist management and education, the popularization of TCL might increase the respect and understanding between tourists and local societies as well as decrease the cultural shocks and negative social-cultural impacts derived from tourism activities, thereby reducing the maintenance cost of management and allowing tourists to obtain a better cultural experience. Future research suggestions are also provided.

Keywords: cultural literacy, cultural tourism, scale development, tourism contact

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Authors: Bankole Wright

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The late 20th to the early 21st century has been predominantly characterized by the movement of individuals from one country to another country or countries. The chief reasons for migration have always been premised on socio-cultural, socio-political and socio-economic factors, with influences of migration finding expression through various ways. Indeed, migration experiences have formed points of subjectivity which functions as agencies that propel migrants to strongly quest for migrating from their home space to other socio-cultural space that performs the role of escape for them. This paper interrogates the discourse of migration, agency and subjectivity in Helon Habila’s Travellers. The essay explores the interconnectedness between migration which is the physical [as deployed in this paper] movement from one location to another, agency as seen in the ability to act based on various ideological frameworks within which the action is taken, and subjectivity which identifies with the predominant factors that influence human actions; and how these connections are responsible for defining the diaspora individual. The discourse of what makes migrants desire to move from their various spaces is as critical as the experiences they face in their various host land. Hence, this paper demonstrates, through the analysis of an African diasporic novel, that the quest for migration is mostly determined by certain agencies in the diaspora home space, which characters have been subjects of and desire to escape. Traveller is a novel which chronicles the various experiences of migrants who journey from their various home space to another land as a result of different agencies that precipitated their migration. This paper engages these agencies as impediments to human survival.

Keywords: migration, agency, subjectivity, Helon Habila, diaspora, home, space

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Authors: Sahand Hamed Moeel Ardebil, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari, Mahmood Reza Ghorban Sabbagh

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Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, depicts a society in which, as a result of media dominance, the reality is very precarious and difficult to grasp. In Gone Girl, reality and image of reality represented on TV, are challenging to differentiate. Along with reality, individuals’ agency and independence before media and the capitalist rule are called in to question in the novel. In order to expose the unstable nature of reality and an individual’s complicated relationship with media, this study has deployed the ideas of Marxist-media theorist Guy Debord (1931-1992). In his book Society of the Spectacle (1966), Debord delineates a society in which images replace the objective reality, and people are incapable of making real changes. The results of the current study show that despite their efforts, Nick and Amy, the two main characters of the novel, are no more than spectators with very little agency before the media. Moreover, following Debord’s argument about the replacement of reality with images, everyone and every institution in Gone Girl projects an image that does not necessarily embody the objective reality, a fact that makes it very hard to differentiate the real from unreal.

Keywords: agency, Debord, Gone Girl, media studies, society of spectacle, reality

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Authors: Mehrangiz Rezaee, Zabih Charrahi

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In the last decade, with increasing tourism destinations and tourism growth, we are witnessing the widespread impacts of tourism on the economy, environment and society. Tourism and its related economy are now undergoing a transformation and as one of the key pillars of business economics, it plays a vital role in the world economy. Activities related to tourism and providing services appropriate to it in an area, like many economic sectors, require the necessary context on its origin. Given the importance of tourism industry and tourism potentials of Yazd province in Iran, it is necessary to use a proper procedure for prioritizing different areas for proper and efficient planning. One of the most important goals of planning is foresight and creating balanced development in different geographical areas. This process requires an accurate study of the areas and potential and actual talents, as well as evaluation and understanding of the relationship between the indicators affecting the development of the region. At the global and regional level, the development of tourist resorts and the proper distribution of tourism destinations are needed to counter environmental impacts and risks. The main objective of this study is the sustainable development of suitable tourism areas. Given that tourism activities in different territorial areas require operational zoning, this study deals with the evaluation of territorial tourism using concepts such as land use, fitness and sustainable development. It is essential to understand the structure of tourism development and the spatial development of tourism using land use patterns, spatial planning and sustainable development. Tourism spatial planning implements different approaches. However, the development of tourism as well as the spatial development of tourism is complex, since tourist activities can be carried out in different areas with different purposes. Multipurpose areas have great important for tourism because it determines the flow of tourism. Therefore, in this paper, by studying the development and determination of tourism suitability that is related to spatial development, it is possible to plan tourism spatial development by developing a model that describes the characteristics of tourism. The results of this research determine the suitability of multi-functional territorial tourism development in line with spatial planning of tourism.

Keywords: land use change, spatial planning, sustainability, territorial tourist, Yazd

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Authors: Ikram Metalsi

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English as a Medium of Instruction known as (EMI) is expanding rapidly in the world. A growing volume of research has been dedicated to investigating its implementation. However, considerably less attention has been given to understanding EMI in a context where its implementation has been discussed but not yet put into practice. One such context is Algeria, where talks about a possible implementation of EMI have been going on for some time. The present study examines the current discourses and university lecturers’ attitudes towards the potential implementation of EMI as well as investigating the current implicit and explicit language policies in scientific courses in Algerian state universities. The focus is specifically on Engineering departments, as this field has gained worldwide importance in EMI research (Macaro et al. 2018), and, traditionally, French has been the MOI for Engineering in Algerian universities. Using the ROADMAPPING framework (Dafouz and Smit 2016) and the mixed method research approach, the present work explores the language in education policy (LEP) and planning situation in Algeria, the current media of instruction as well as the status and use of the English language in the scientific courses of the tertiary sector. Finally, the current study explores the perceived challenges and benefits of the implementation of EMI programmes from teachers’ perspectives with a particular focus on agency and how this potential policy implementation and teachers’ perceptions of agency around it may reflexively influence their professional identity.

Keywords: media of instruction, language in education policy, lecturers attitudes, teacher agency, professional identity

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Authors: Kanyapilai Kunchornsirimongkon, Kevin Wongleedee

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The objectives of this research were to study the opinion of inbound tourist concerning the importance of perceived values and their decision to revisit Thailand. An accidental sampling method was utilized to get 200 respondents. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents were from Europe and Asia which accounted for about 82.5 percent of the total. Approximately 72 percent of the respondents chose to revisit Bangkok once and 28 percent had revisited more than one time. Male and female respondents were approximately the same proportion. In addition, the findings revealed the top three most important perceived values were time, activities, and expenses, whereas the least important perceived values were lodging, knowledge, and night entertainment. The majority of inbound tourists rated the overall perceived value at a medium level of importance since the overall mean was 4.41 which was less than 4.5.

Keywords: perceived values, tourist destination, visiting, Thailand

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Authors: Laura Ramona Nae

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The issue of risks faced by companies providing tourist and hotel services in the HoReCa field, related to the goods belonging to consumer tourists left in hotel storage, has acquired a new dimension in the context of the economic and geo-political influences that have recently intervened at the global level. Thus, hoteliers and not only had to create contractual mechanisms regarding the risks and to protect the businesses in this field of activity. This situation has led to a reassessment of the importance of insurance, in particular with regard to hotel liability insurance-premises liability, safety, and security of goods. Interpretation of clauses in contracts concluded between hoteliers and tourists consuming hotel services and products, all the more so in the current pandemic context of Covid 19, stressed the increase in the number of disputes generated by them. This article presents a general picture of the significance of the risks related to the activity carried out in the hospitality industry, tourism, respectively within the HoReCa field. The study mainly marks the specificities of the hotel deposit contract, as well as the related insurance specific to the field, as a way to cover these risks. The article also refers to alternative methods of out-of-court settlement of disputes (ADR) in the HoReCa domain, generally used in both Romania and the European Union.

Keywords: consumer tourist, disputes and ADR methods, deposit contract, hotel warehouse and hotelier insurance, hotel services and tourist products, HoReCa

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Authors: Ncamisile T. Zulu, Nicholas Munro

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Black women academics in higher education institutions are predominantly portrayed by literature as individuals who usually lack a sense of belonging, progression, and workload management. The oversaturation of this literature can (overtime) perpetuate a stereotypical idea that Black women academics are incapable of coping and succeeding in higher education institutions. The current article explores the agency, motivated by critical consciousness that Black women professors have and utilise in higher education institutions. In order to provide an understanding of how Black women academics can progress, manage their workloads and succeed in higher education institutions, the article considers how these women can take responsibility for their self-development, adaptation, and self-renewal in academic endeavours. As a result, the article presents a line of thought which could help in challenging the stereotype about Black women academics. The study was conducted at two higher education institutions involving Black women professors from different disciplines. A combination of purposive and snowballing sampling was used to recruit nine women participants, while data were collected through interviews. A critical consciousness perspective was adopted to formulate an understanding of the agency of Black women professors in higher education institutions, while thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results challenge the widely disseminated view that portrays Black women academics as incapable of coping and succeeding in higher education institutions. The findings highlight Black women professors as proactive, flexible, and self-regulating in their academic endeavours. These findings contribute to the literature by adding a more constructive narrative of Black women academics in higher education.

Keywords: agency, Black women academics, critical consciousness, higher education institutions

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Authors: Yina Donald Orga

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Osun Osogbo festival is one of the biggest art festivals in Nigeria with over 235, 518 tourist visits in 2014. The purpose of this study is to generate data on the tourists’ perception of Osun Osogbo Festival in Osogbo, Osun State Nigeria. Based on the population of 199, 860 tourist visits at Osun Osogbo festival in 2013, Krejcie and Morgan sample size table was used to select 768 tourists/respondents. Likert questionnaire were used to elicit data from the respondents. Descriptive statistic was used to describe the characteristics of respondents and analyse the tourists’ perception of the festival. The findings from data analysed suggest that the trend of domestic and international tourist visits in the past ten years for the festival had shown a consistent increase since 2004 except in 2007 and 2008 and continue to increase up to 2013. This is an indication that the tourists are satisfied with traditional, historical and authenticity features of the festival. Also, findings from the study revealed that the tourists are not satisfied with the number of toilets at Osun Sacred Grove, crowd control of visitors during the festival, medical personnel to cater for visitors during the festival, etc. In view of the findings of the study, the following recommendations are suggested; provision of more toilets at Osun Sacred grove, Osogbo Heritage Council to recruit festival guides to help control the huge crowd at the festival, the Government of State of Osun in conjunction with Red Cross Society should engage adequate medical personnel to cater for medical needs of visitors at the festival, etc.

Keywords: festival, perception, positive, tourists

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Authors: Damilohun D. Ayoyo, Anthony Mpiani, Temitope B. Oriola

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The debate on women’s roles in insurgencies and terrorist organizations continues to garner scholarly attention. While some scholars view women insurgents and terrorists as perpetrators, others have argued that they are non-agents and victims. This paper de/reconstructs the notion of ‘women as perpetrators’ of terrorism. Drawing on the narratives of rescued female Boko Haram operatives, and Boko Haram’s tactics for recruiting and deploying women and girls, the paper advances three main arguments. First, the growing social construction of women as perpetrators of terrorism – particularly radical Islamic terrorism – downplays the socio-cultural and structural processes leading to women’s involvement with terrorist organizations. Second, women agency in Boko Haram activities is better understood when grounded in the cultural and structural contexts of Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram’s construction of ‘female,’ and the experiences of female Boko Haram operatives. Third, the mechanisms through which female Boko Haram operatives are recruited and deployed make them more of non-agents and victims than perpetrators of terrorism. The paper draws on the agency-structure approach and argues that the gendered power asymmetries embedded in the cultures and structures of Northern Nigeria –the base of Boko Haram– contribute to the nature and dynamics of women’s involvement in the insurgency. Although the paper does not negate the agency of women in terrorism, it aligns with the studies that consider women insurgents as more victims than perpetrators of terror.

Keywords: Boko Haram, female agency, Northern Nigeria, patriarchy, perpetrator of terror, radical Islamic terrorism, sharia, victim of terror, women insurgents

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Authors: Chung-Hung Tsai, Ya-Ping Li

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Tourism industry is highly depended on the natural environment and climate. Compared to other industries, it is more susceptible to environment and climate. Taiwan belongs to a sea island country and located in the subtropical monsoon zone. The events of climate variability, frequency of typhoons and rainfalls raged are caused regularly serious disaster. In traditional disaster assessment, it usually focuses on the disaster damage and risk assessment, which is short of the features from different industries to understand the impact of the restoring force in post-disaster resilience and the main factors that constitute resilience. The object of this study is based on disaster recovery experience of tourism area and to understand the main factors affecting the tourist area of disaster resilience. The combinations of literature review and interviews with experts are prepared an early indicator system of the disaster resilience. Then, it is screened through a Fuzzy Delphi Method and Analytic Network Process for weight analysis. Finally, this study will establish the tourism disaster resilience evaluation index system considering the Taiwan's tourism industry characteristics. We hope that be able to enhance disaster resilience after tourist areas and increases the sustainability of industrial development. It is expected to provide government departments the tourism industry as the future owner of the assets in extreme climates responses.

Keywords: resilience, Fuzzy Delphi Method, Analytic Network Process, industrial development

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Authors: Rohit Sarin

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This paper is an attempt to prove the impact of storytelling for effective marketing and maintaining the reputation of the destination for long run. This notable aspect of heritage tourism is cultural exchange among the various communities who visit our country India. Every destination has a life cycle like the product known as destination life cycle. India is considered to be the hub of cultural heritage tourism; its cultural heritage tourism can be traced back to several centuries. Heritage tourism has gained the popularity of global cuisine activity. The statistics of 2014 reveals 903 million International Tourist in heritage tourism destination is done to know the impact of storytelling for their visit to particulars heritage tourism destination. SWOT analysis of the destination is undertaken for the research purpose. A collection of data from the travel agency was taken who visited the heritage tourism destination and were asked to fill questionnaire for the research purpose to know the impact of storytelling for their visit to destination. A total of 100 respondents filled the questionnaire. Likert scale was used in the paper also highlighted the scope, advantage and disadvantage of storytelling for effective marketing and reputation management.

Keywords: destination life cycle, heritage tourism, random sampling, reputation management, storytelling

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Authors: Aticha Kwaengsopha, Kevin Wongleedee

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Destination image can cause an increase and decrease in the growth rate of international tourists visiting Thailand. This paper drew upon data collected from an international tourist survey conducted in Bangkok, Thailand during January to March of 2014. The survey was structured primarily to obtain international tourists’ opinions towards the importance of destination image factors that they encountered during their trip in Thailand. A total of 200 respondents were elicited as data input for mean, SD, and t-test. The findings revealed that the overall level of importance of these factors was not very high. The findings also revealed the three most important factors as tourist experience, interesting place, and pleasing destination. In addition, the result for t-test revealed that there was not much effect from gender differences in opinions of the level concerning importance for destination image factors.

Keywords: destination image, international tourists, Thailand, revisit

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Authors: Masoud Jabar Zadeh Mamaghani

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Employee empowerment is an effective technique for increasing employee productivity and utilizing their individual and group capacities toward organizational goals. Empowerment is a process that helps improve and enhance performance through the development and expansion of individuals' and teams' influence and capabilities. In other words, empowerment is a strategy for organizational development and flourishing. In this study, the relationship between training and employee empowerment was examined in addition to measuring the level of empowerment among the employees of Kowsar Tehran Insurance Agency. The research method used was a descriptive correlation, and the statistical population of the study included all official employees with a degree higher than a diploma in Kowsar Tehran Insurance Agency. Data related to training hours while serving employees were extracted from their educational certificates, and data related to employees' empowerment levels were obtained through interviews and questionnaires. The research results showed that the level of empowerment among the employees in this agency is higher than the average in all dimensions. However, no correlation was observed between their empowerment level and the training hours they completed while serving.

Keywords: employee empowerment, organizational development, training, insurance industry

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Authors: Anwar ul Haq

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Muhammad Iqbal was arguably the most significant South Asian Islamic philosopher of the last two centuries. While he is the most revered philosopher of the region, particularly in Pakistan, he is probably the least studied philosopher outside the region. The paper offers a philosophical reconstruction of Iqbal’s view of human agency; it has three sections. Section 1 focuses on Iqbal’s starting point of reflection in practical philosophy (inspired by Kant): our consciousness of ourselves as free agents. The paper brings out Iqbal’s continuity with Kant but also his divergence, in particular his non-Kantian view that we possess a non-sensory intuition of ourselves as free personal causes. It also offer an argument on Iqbal’s behalf for this claim, which is meant as a defense against a Kantian objection to the possibility of intuition of freedom and a skeptic’s challenge to the possibility of freedom in general. Remaining part of the paper offers a reconstruction of Iqbal’s two preconditions of the possibility of free agency. Section 2 discusses the first precondition, namely, the unity of consciousness involved in thought (this is a precondition of agency whether or not it is free). The unity has two aspects, a quantitative (or numerical) aspect and a qualitative (or rational) one. Section 2 offers a defense of these two aspects of the unity of consciousness presupposed by agency by focusing, with Iqbal, on the case of inference.Section 3 discusses a second precondition of the possibility of free agency, that thought and will must be identical in a free agent. Iqbal offers this condition in relief against Bergson’s view. Bergson (on Iqbal’s reading of him) argues that freedom of the will is possible only if the will’s ends are entirely its own and are wholly undetermined by anything from without, not even by thought. Iqbal observes that Bergson’s position ends in an insurmountable dualism of will and thought. Bergson’s view, Iqbal argues in particular, rests on an untenable conception of what an end consists in. An end, correctly understood, is framed by a thinking faculty, the intellect, and not by an extra-rational faculty. The present section outlines Iqbal’s argument for this claim, which rests on the premise that ends possess a certain unity which is intrinsic to particular ends and holds together different ends, and this unity is none other than the quantitative and qualitative unity of a thinking consciousness but in its practical application. Having secured the rational origin of ends, Iqbal argues that a free will must be identical with thought, or else it will be determined from without and won’t be free on that account. Freedom of the self is not a freedom from thought but a freedom in thought: it involves the ability to live a thoughtful life.

Keywords: iqbal, freedom, will, self

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Authors: Koyangbo Guere Monguia Michel Alex Emmanuel

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In e-government and especially recruitment, many researches have been conducted to build a trustworthy and reliable online or application system capable to process users or job applicant files. In this research (Government Recruitment Agency), cloud computing, identity management and public key encryption have been used to management domains, access control authorization mechanism and to secure data exchange between entities for reliable procedure of processing files.

Keywords: cloud computing network, identity management systems, public key encryption, access control and authorization

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Authors: Leila Habibi, Hadi Hakimi, Hadi Sadeghian, Maryam Jafari Mehrabadi

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Nowadays, the importance of information technology and web-based information in tourism is very obvious. Increasing of sales and promotion of brands, the rise of information about tourist attractions and tourist areas, entrepreneurship and making money, introducing of hotels and side information to tourists via web are some examples of website effects on tourism. The hotels using web-based information can succeed in attracting tourists and improve the quality of services to the tourists. So, the study of hotel websites has become one of the most important issues in tourism. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the status of hotel websites in Yazd County as one of the most tourist visited counties in Iran. The quality of hotel website in a county can be very vital for tourism. Hence, this research compares the status of hotel websites in Yazd County with standard indexes and items that extracted from literature and theoretical framework. Content analysis is used for analyzing hotel websites with indexes and items in methodology. In the other words, all of the items are compared with the content of hotel-websites in Yazd one by one. Finally, every hotel archived final score which represents the position of the hotel among the others. All of scores and status of hotels are displayed in their own figures. The result of this research shows that many hotels do not offer standard web-based services and information. So, the existing situation is not very suitable for the attraction of web users or improving the tourism. The result of this research may help the managers and authorities of tourism to offer and improve the web-based services and information.

Keywords: e-tourism, hotel websites, tourism, web-tourism

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Authors: Nam Don Kim, Jungho Moon, Tae Yun Chung

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This paper proposes an Internet of Things (IoT) based virtualization platform for providing smart tourism services. The virtualization platform provides a consistent access interface to various types of data by naming IoT devices and legacy information systems as pathnames in a virtual file system. In the other words, the IoT virtualization platform functions as a middleware which uses the metadata for underlying collected data. The proposed platform makes it easy to provide customized tourism information by using tourist locations collected by IoT devices and additionally enables to create new interactive smart tourism services focused on the tourist locations. The proposed platform is very efficient so that the provided tourism services are isolated from changes in raw data and the services can be modified or expanded without changing the underlying data structure.

Keywords: internet of things (IoT), IoT platform, serviceplatform, virtual file system (VSF)

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Authors: Leila Habibi, Hadi Hakimi, Maryam Jafari Mehrabadi, Hadi Sadeghian

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Nowadays, the importance of information technology and web- based information in tourism is very obvious. Increasing of sales and promotion of brands, the rise of information about tourist attractions and tourist areas, Entrepreneurship and making money, introducing of hotels and side information to tourists via web are some Examples of website effects on tourism. The hotels using web-based information can succeed in attracting tourists and improve the quality of services to the tourists so; the study of hotel websites has become one of the most important issues in tourism. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the status of hotel websites in Yazd City as one of the most tourist visited counties in Iran. The quality of hotel website in a city such as this city can be very vital for tourism. Hence, this research compares the status of hotel websites in Yazd City with standard indexes and items that extracted from Literature and theoretical framework. It is used content analysis for analyzing of hotel websites with indexes and items in methodology. In the other words, all of the items is compared with the content of hotel-websites in Yazd one by one. Finally, every hotel archived final score and it represents the position of the hotel among the others. All of scores and status of hotels is displayed in their own Figures. The result of this research shows that many hotels do not offer standard web -based services and information. So, the existing situation is not very suitable for the attraction of web users or improving the tourism. The result of this research may help the managers and authorities of tourism to offer and improve the web- based services and information.

Keywords: e-tourism, hotel websites, tourism, web-tourism

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Authors: Patraporn Kaewkhanitarak, Suchada Srichuar, Narawat Kanjanapan

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This research is the survey research. The purpose of this research is to study information uses behavior and problem of tourists in Songkhla Province. The tool used in this study include structure questioner standardize in 5 levels rating scale. The 400 participants selected by convenience sampling (allowable error 5%) by Taro Yamane method. The collecting data period is 6 months from January-June 2014. The result of this study found that the type of information that the tourists often use to plan their trip is internet (x̅ = 3.81) and the most popular text is restaurant (x̅ = 3.77). The tourists found that booking or buying service from internet provided more affordable price and they could select appropriate plan by themselves. The most convenience source of information that the tourists often use is internet and website (x̅ = 3.69). Nevertheless, they explained that most of tourist information source in Songkhla province are lack and insufficient of tourist organization that provide information and service related to tourism.

Keywords: information, behavior, tourists, Thailand

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Authors: Priscilla Echeverria

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This paper addresses initial teacher formation as a formative space in which pedagogy students develop a pedagogical agency capacity to contribute to social justice, considering ethical, political, and epistemic dimensions. This paper is structured by discussing first the concepts of agency, pedagogical interaction, and social justice from a critical perspective; and continues offering preliminary results on the capacity of pedagogical agency in novice teachers after the analysis of critical incidents as a research methodology. This study is motivated by the concern that responding to the current neoliberal scenario, many initial teacher formation (ITF) programs have reduced the meaning of education to instruction, and pedagogy to methodology, favouring the formation of a technical professional over a reflective or critical one. From this concern, this study proposes that the restitution of the subject is an urgent task in teacher formation, so it is essential to enable him in his capacity for action and advance in eliminating institutionalized oppression insofar as it affects that capacity. Given that oppression takes place in human interaction, through this work, I propose that initial teacher formation develops sensitivity and educates the gaze to identify oppression and take action against it, both in pedagogical interactions -which configure political, ethical, and epistemic subjectivities- as in the hidden and official curriculum. All this from the premise that modelling democratic and dialogical interactions are basic for any program that seeks to contribute to a more just and empowered society. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that it opens a discussion in an area about which we know little: the impact of the type of interactions offered by university teaching at ITF on the capacity of future teachers to be pedagogical agents. For this reason, this study seeks to gather evidence of the result of this formation, analysing the capacity of pedagogical agency of novice teachers, or, in other words, how capable the graduates of secondary pedagogies are in their first pedagogical experiences to act and make decisions putting the formative purposes that they are capable of autonomously defining before technical or bureaucratic issues imposed by the curriculum or the official culture. This discussion is part of my doctoral research, "The importance of developing the capacity for ethical-political-epistemic agency in novice teachers during initial teacher formation to contribute to social justice", which I am currently developing in the Educational Research program of the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom, as a Conicyt fellow for the 2019 cohort.

Keywords: initial teacher formation, pedagogical agency, pedagogical interaction, social justice, hidden curriculum

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Authors: Boutkhil Guemide, Chellali Benachaiba

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has an inevitable impact on different industries and their performances. The tourism industry as the largest and fastest growing industry in the world cannot be excluded from this technology and its huge impacts. ICT provides information about tourist attractions in the different destinations before travelling and may improve tourists’ satisfaction. Although Algeria has great tourism potentials, it still needs to be performed well in promoting its attractions to international tourists via ICT tools yet. This research explores the impact of ICT on foreign tourists’ satisfaction of the tourism industry and uses Algerian tourist agencies as a case study, and proposes a model for the impact of ICT on sustainable tourism. Finally, it is concluded that e-ticketing, e-reservation, online payment, multilingual and updated information websites are essential needs for planning strategies in the field of e-tourism. Also, it is recommended that the tourism authorities should develop e-tourism infrastructures in order to keep up with the competitiveness of this field to enable the country to benefit from the global benefits of the tourism industry.

Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), tourism, tourists’ satisfaction, sustainable tourism

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Authors: Srećko Favro, Dora Mužinić

Abstract:

The eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea has been a significant part of the most important traffic corridors since Antiquity due to its position as the deepest indented bay of the Mediterranean and numerous bays on the coast and is-lands. The central place throughout history was occupied by the central part - Split-Dalmatia County, with its center in Antica in Salona and later in Split. Nowadays, in addition to its traffic and economic importance, this area is also important for tourism, an area where Croatia develops its economy and realizing its economic growth. Nautical tourism is the most important form of the tourist economic sector that uses the geographical features of the Croatian Adriatic water area and achieves the greatest growth based on tour-ist trends in the world (coronavirus - separation from the masses, adventure tourism - own arrangements) and thus opens up the possibility of develop-ment for other parts of the tourist economy. This will be described in the ex-ample of the business of the Split-Dalmatia County shipping company from Krilo Jesenice, which operates as a mini-cruising service provider, the lead-ing form of cruising in Croatia. The advantages that this type of tourism provides to travelers in terms of customized itineraries, high-quality services, an intimate atmosphere, and a unique experience through familiarization with local culture and tradition will be considered. Through direct primary research and analysis of available secondary research data, an attempt will be made to show how traditional Croatian mini cruisers manage to stand out in a competitive tourist environment. Their impact on the local economy, sus-tainability, and environmental protection will be considered, as well as how they are integrated into the tourist offer of other destinations in Croatia. In addition, the challenges and opportunities that arise in the maintenance and development of traditional Croatian mini cruisers will be discussed, includ-ing issues such as infrastructure, staff training, and market trends.

Keywords: croatia, adriatic, cruising, nautical tourism, mini cruise

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Li-Hsueh Chen

Abstract:

Efficient operation is more and more important for managers of hotels. Unlike the manufacturing industry, hotels cannot store their products. In addition, many hotels provide room service, and food and beverage service simultaneously. When efficiencies of hotels are evaluated, the internal structure should be considered. Hence, based on the operational characteristics of hotels, this study proposes a DEA model to simultaneously assess the efficiencies among the room production division, food and beverage production division, room service division and food and beverage service division. However, not only the enhancement of efficiency but also the adjustment of scale can improve the performance. In terms of the adjustment of scale, scale elasticity or returns to scale can help to managers to make decisions concerning expansion or contraction. In order to construct a reasonable approach to measure the efficiencies and scale elasticities of hotels, this study builds an alternative variable-returns-to-scale-based two-stage network DEA model with the combination of parallel and series structures to explore the scale elasticities of the whole system, room production division, food and beverage production division, room service division and food and beverage service division based on the data of international tourist hotel industry in Taiwan. The results may provide valuable information on operational performance and scale for managers and decision makers.

Keywords: efficiency, scale elasticity, network data envelopment analysis, international tourist hotel

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Authors: Hala Hilaly, Nermin Morsy, Jala Morsy Ibrahim

Abstract:

Brand authenticity has a significant impact on brand trust and can help grow within the markets. Consumers have become more concerned with the 'authenticity' due to the doubt of credibility of the value of mass production. This is why people prefer authentic products, which making authenticity a cornerstone of contemporary marketing and a major factor for brand success. Therefore, it is important to embrace a culture that encourages and promotes authentic values. Hence, the purpose of the research is to investigate the impact of using local products as an authentic brand on promoting Egyptian tourist destination and explore the effect of Globalized authenticity on the local product in Egypt. Results confirmed that local products provide an excellent opportunity to worldwide advertising with positive impact on promoting Egypt as tourist destination. However, number of problems are facing local products in Egypt such as imported 'Made in China' products as well as other obstacles.

Keywords: authentic brand, contemporary marketing, destination marketing, local products

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Ralph Lugon, Randolf Ramseyer

Abstract:

The beauty and quality of the natural heritage can be appreciated in different ways by different users, but the delicate balance of the environment in a nature reserve must be respected. The case of the territorial anchorage of the Grangettes natural reserve gives an interesting insight into the users' perception of the environmental constraints and standards of tourist activities. The nature reserve was once conceived as a sanctuary of natural heritage, a place where flora and fauna could flourish with minimal human interference. However, over time and with the transition to modernity, the values and meanings of the reserve have changed for visitors and the people living in the surrounding area. Today, The Grangettes nature reserve is a place of relaxation for urban dwellers with limited knowledge of nature and a lack of awareness of conservation issues. As a result, the reserve is now threatened by the negative impacts of human activities and mass tourism on its environment. Les Grangettes is a nature reserve that faces the challenge of preserving biodiversity while managing tourist flows. Ways must be found to accommodate new types of visitors from towns and cities who are looking for new activities, quality services and facilities, as well as aesthetic inspiration. To ensure the long-term conservation of the area, the flow of tourists must be carefully controlled. Through a dual qualitative-quantitative approach in 2021-22, this paper explores new visitor trends, changes in the reserve, and potential consequences for other stakeholders in the ecosystem. The purpose of this research is to assess users' perceptions of environmental constraints and standards on tourist activities in a nature reserve.

Keywords: outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, over tourism, protected area, user's perceptions

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Authors: Gysele Lima Ricci, Jose Miguel Rodriguez Anton

Abstract:

Companies in the tourism sector need to achieve competitive advantages for their survival in the market. In this way, the models based on association, cooperation, complementarity, distribution, exchange and mutual assistance arise as a possibility of organizational development, taking as reference the concept of networks. Many companies seek to partner in local networks as clusters to act together and associate. The main objective of the present research is to identify the specificities of management and the practices of cooperation in the tourist destination of São Paulo - Brazil, and to propose a new management model with possible cluster of tourism. The empirical analysis was carried out in three phases. As a first phase, a research was made by the companies, associations and tourism organizations existing in São Paulo, analyzing the characteristics of their business. In the second phase, the management specificities and cooperation practice used in the tourist destination. And in the third phase, identifying the possible strengths and weaknesses that potential or potential tourist cluster could have, proposing the development of the management model of the same adapted to the needs of the companies, associations and organizations. As a main result, it has been identified that companies, associations and organizations could be looking for synergies with each other and collaborate through a Hiperred organizational structure, in which they share their knowledge, try to make the most of the collaboration and to benefit from three concepts: flexibility, learning and collaboration. Finally, it is concluded that, the proposed tourism cluster management model is viable for the development of tourism destinations because it makes it possible to strategically address agents which are responsible for public policies, as well as public and private companies and organizations in their strategies competitiveness and cooperation.

Keywords: cluster, management model, networks, tourism sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 258