Is there a future in Travel Agency in the UK Dissertation

Is there a future in Travel Agency in the UK - Dissertation Example In essence, the future of the travel agency industry in the United Kingdom perceives technology both as danger and useful business prospect, in line with adapting to realities in society. Examining the future of the industry of travel agencies in United Kingdom is valuable for the current players in the market, as it will help improve the current practice and help resolve the declining market. The study aims to evaluate the effects of technology in UK’s travel agency industry, in order to analyze the potential disadvantages it presents and the potential it presents for optimal utilization. Identifying the threats that the information and communication technology era presents is valuable in mitigating its effects to the Travel Agency industry. On the other hand, analyzing technology as a tool for business growth would reinforce business practice and promote growth. Apart from market players, the study will also be beneficial for scholarly and academic work, as it would contribu te to the body of knowledge that evaluates the correlation of tourism and technology, on both the negative and positive aspects. The current research will also be helpful for consumers, as a means of awareness and a more accurate reference for choosing the best option in booking holiday travels that best suits their needs. Lastly, the study is useful for future research, as it would delve on the projected impact of technology on UK’s tourism. Research Question 1. How does Information Technology (IT) negatively impact UK’s Travel Agency? 2. How does IT contribute to UK’s Travel Agency? 3. How does IT affect consumer behavior in terms of disintermediation? 4. How can IT improve UK’s Travel Agency’s practice to sustain business? Research Aim To evaluate the effects of information technology on the future of United Kingdom’s Travel Agency Industry. Research Objectives 1. To identify and analyze the threats brought about by IT in UK’s trav el agency industry. 2. To determine the opportunities generated by IT in UK’s travel agency industry. 3. To analyze how IT affects consumer behavior on disintermediation. 4. To identify strategies to utilize IT in UK travel agencies to develop business practice. 2. LITERATURE The development of information technology, especially the widespread utilization of the internet medium has changed how the tourism industry functions. It can serve as both a boon and a bane, as it produces both opportunities and difficulties to the process and the stakeholders involved in the field of hospitality and tourism. Since the study focuses on travel agencies, the researcher will delve on the perspective of how travel agents are impacted due to the integration of the new technology to their line of work (Kilipiris and Zardava, 2012). Through the internet, both the behavior of the customers and the structure of the processes have been modified in the sense that it allows travel agents to sustain their visibility in distributing their services. However, as processes become automated, there is a risk that agents would be removed from the process and their roles would be fulfilled by virtual systems. It is important to note that in the event that their roles will be retained in the industry's structure, the utilization of technology would

Policies to Address the problem of U.S. oil dependency Research Paper

Policies to Address the problem of U.S. oil dependency - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that more than 150 years after the beginning of U.S. petroleum industry (since 1859), oil still is considered as the most strategic commodity. Given the limited capacity of oil reserves in the world and ever-increasing global demand for it, in recent decades oil has played a significant role in foreign policies of nations, especially those of great powers. Not surprisingly, oil has been an important factor in shaping bloody and costly conflicts, particularly since the World War II.   During the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, America was able to meet the country’s basic needs in the energy sector primarily by using its own oil reserves. However, by the end of the 1940s, â€Å"the United States began to rely on foreign oil to satisfy rising energy demand, and the proportion of imports has been rising more or less steadily ever since†. Today, according to U.S. Energy Information Administ ration (EIA), the United States is the largest oil consumer and consumes near 22% of the total production of oil in the world. That is equivalent to something about 18,771,000 barrels per day, of which about 9.7 million barrels (51%) are imported (on a net basis) from foreign countries. However, this dependency on oil is very costly and also is tightly linked to our national security due to both potential economic and political threats related to it.  

'There is no ... way of distinguishing the 'popular' from the 'high' Assignment

'There is no ... way of distinguishing the 'popular' from the 'high'. ... Nor is making such a distinction of importance' (Watso - Assignment Example This change in the social hierarchy of literature has led to the categorical division of literature on the basis of the thematic concerns of a literary piece i.e. poplar literature and high literature. 1.1. High Literature High or elite literature is a term used for the classic pieces of literature that followed the trends and customs of eighteenth century literary style and pattern. Johnson categorizes the works of Jane Eyre, lyric poetry and Puig’s works as high literature (9). 1.2. Popular Literature Newcomb states, ‘popular literature is by definition a product of literate practices, no matter how socially diverse, remote from elite norms or collective they may be’ (12). Hence popular literature is an anti thesis of high or elite literature. However popular literature is derived from high literature i.e. high literature formed the foundation that led to the production of popular literature. As a result it is impossible to distinguish one from the other and hen ce in every piece of popular literature there are strains of high or elite literature. ... 2.1. First Person Narration The novel is depicted in first person narration which provides the readers with a first hand account of all the action taking place in the novel. The narration technique used in this novel is similar to Jane Austen’s depiction of Pride and prejudice. Yet at the same time the author of Rebecca does not divulge the identity of her narrator which is an idea explored in popular literature. 2.2. Marriage Marriage is another idea that the two novels Pride and Prejudice and Rebecca explore. In the former the narrator Elizabeth as well the Jane Austen are observed to be stressing on importance of marriage and security in a woman’s life. On the other hand in Rebecca marriage is not symbolic of security and a necessity for women in fact du Maurier projects women as free and liberated as also observed from the narrator’s reaction to the marriage proposal where she says, ‘Oh but you don't understand! It's just that I, well I’m, not th e person men marry’ (32). 2.3. Liberated Woman The manners in which the characters of Rebecca and the narrator are portrayed are in itself a reflection of high and popular culture. Rebecca’s character is portrayed as a woman who is not only married in money but is also sexually liberated as stated in the novel, ‘Giles went out sailing with Rebecca†¦she had started on him as she had done on Frank†¦she might get hold of one of the workmen on the estate, someone from Kerrith, anyone†¦ she used to have this fellow Favell down to the cottage†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (174-175). this again is an idea that was explored in popular literature i.e. women having the freedom to do anything they want to. This also illustrates and supports feminism. Yet on the other hand the narrator’s shyness and

Case Analysis Leo Burnett Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Case Analysis Leo Burnett - Essay Example Leo Burnett merged its operations with a similar company in the advertising business in 2001 (O’Neil). However, LB did retain its name. Janet Carmichael was virtual team leader who headed the operation of the company. Gaining trust as a team leader requires developing precise plans and objectives, which would define the nature of relationship that should exist between the virtual groups. It is evident that geographical differences separated the groups. However, the team leader did not develop precise objective, which could enforce trust among the teams. The case projects lack of trust among teams, which led to their poor performance. Success of any project depends on its implementation plan. Carmichael did not develop implementation plan that would define the kind of role each team would play. Coordination is an important aspect that the virtual teams did not embrace. Communication office is a pillar in any successful company. LB London and its sister company in Toronto had a communication lapse, which is responsible for the woes that the company faced. Team leaders should ensure that they develop mechanisms which would enhance communication and timely information delivery. It is apparent that telephone calls and emails are not enough for business to realize its success. Team leader must be able to meet the virtual teams, share their problems and success, and finally project the way in which the team should operate. Virtual teams must be able to see defined protocols, which handle the problems that they may be having. Meetings are very important, especially when a company has various teams working in different locations. Meetings help the leader to identify any lapse that his or her team is facing. This would create trust between the team and its leader. The case illustrates ineffective communication between virtual teams and its consequences to the company. It is apparent that team leader should device effective ways which would give reflective

Analytic source review and evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analytic source review and evaluation - Essay Example The methodical studies conducted over the last decades regarding the addiction of drugs among the young people, revealed that after a certain period an individual cannot afford the price and gradually gets involved in criminal activities to increase their affordability. In majority instances, such consequences were found to be led by the negligence of parents, guardians or the other members of the society towards the young people. These activities not only hinder the healthy growth of the society, but also restrict social progress in terms of economic divergences, education prospects and governance systems. The objective of the paper will thereby be focused on analysing and evaluating the criminal activities associated with illegal drugs as well as sexual assaults in the modern day context. Discussion Illicit Drugs Illicit drugs habit is often regarded as the major cause of interpersonal violence as well as public health challenges in the modern society. With this concern, the Nation al Drug Intelligence Centre (NDIC) along with many other non-profit organizations have taken initiative and organized a yearly National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) that tends to assess the impact of threats related to illicit drug related crimes on the society as well as on the nation at large. Recent reports in this regard revealed that the total cost incurred in relation to illicit drug use was approximated in excess of $193 billion in the year 2007. The cost was estimated focusing on three major principal areas i.e. crime, health and aggregate productivity of the state or region. The component of crime cost is fundamentally based on three major factors that include criminal justice system costs, crime victim costs as well as other crime costs. In addition, health related issues and costs include four major components i.e. emergency departmental costs in the hospitals for homicide and non-homicide cases, speciality treatment and medicine costs, insurance administration costs and other health related costs. Nonetheless, the productivity costs and issues are also associated with some direct and indirect components such as labour participation costs, pre-mature mortality costs and the costs incurred due to harm of education as well as lack of societal growth (U.S. Department of Justice, 2011). When considering the global trend, people addicted by illegal drugs and related crimes in England and Wales were reported to constitute around three million adults in the year 2011-2012. This proportionate was further affirmed to account for around 8.9% of the total population in England. Another significant attribute of the trend exhibited that in majority cases, the offenders were young where minors aged 16 years to old aged people of 59 years were also identified involved in such crimes (The Independent, 2012). According to the research study of Payne-James & et. al. (2005), it was found that the drug addiction is especially notices among the unemployed persons. Cons equentially, 80% drug habituates have been reported to be spending their life suffering from several mental as well as physical health issues. At the onset, mental and financial problems can be identified as the main causes of such offences which might be caused due to social complexities or monetary troubles often faced by young generation people (Payne-James & et. al., 2005). Besides, as exhibited by Payne-James & et.

Electronic Health Record Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Electronic Health Record - Assignment Example It is an open source of information on health care (especially HIV) in developing countries of Africa. It is based on the information of various records updated in the EMR which are then refined and analyzed in the EHR. This system is state of the art technology. It covers almost every feature that would help to maintain the record of any person or country. It is also a user-friendly system, which allows a user to freely roam about in various interfaces. The flexibility offered by this system is also another feature which makes it more desirable, medical support information could be access in the remotest of the geographical regions (Mamlin et al., 2006). The start-up, maintenance and implementation cost of this product can be troublesome. Start-up and implementation cost is quite high and it requires huge sums of money in the starting phase, but with the passage of time, it becomes cheaper as the maintenance cost is not that high, which are also some of its biggest demerits. ‘Concept Dictionary’ is the idea that OpenMRS is based on. The idea is to store useful medical information such as clinical findings, lab results and even the socio-economic data. The concept is extremely successful as it becomes relatively easy to update the data set if a new disease is added, there is no need for modification, plus sharing of this medical information is also very convenient. The modular construction of OpenMRS is the real benefit that sets it apart from other ambulatory EHR devices. Its ease of use also includes the facility of putting it on a single laptop or on a large server and works with all major operating systems like Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.eMIX stands for Electronic Medical Information Exchange and is based on the concept of cloud-computing (Leslie, 2012), where one could manage, retrieve and update information in a server without actually connecting with it, through the means of internet or web-based tools and application. eMIX is develo ped to address the challenge of sharing the medical images from one interface to another, while they are not on the same network of a server.

Shipboard Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Shipboard Management - Essay Example When the ship is tilted the life boats cannot be released, so the warning system must alert passengers before the tilt takes place. In this condition the passengers did not understand the advantage of taking life rafts and use the life vests on the ship. By the time they understood the situation is out of control. The life rafts were not easy to use and board. They over turned when used by the passengers. It is difficult to assemble them by the people on board. This did not ensure any protection to passengers at the time of accident The supervision regarding the safety measures was not up to mark as some rafts were checked repeatedly and some were left without checking. This caused the destroying the roofs of the rafts for identification by the rescue helicopters. As there are many people to be rescued the number of helicopters did not comply with the need. They were over crowded. The number of rescue crew that came with the helicopters was not enough when compared to the number of p eople to be rescued. The investigation through the video tapes revealed the bow door failure. The failure was due to separation of it from the ferry. The ramp and screen of the bow were damaged and there is no supervision regarding it. This disturbed normal safety measures implementation. The video monitoring that should be done was limited to some part of the vessel only and the bow door and the adjacent parts were not monitored by it. The monitoring of the video was up to that extent only that it is useful after the accident to estimate that up to how much extent and in how much time the water entered the vessel. 1 The crew in operation also did not know about these lapses. Had they know it, they might have reversed the ship which could have avoided the accident by sinking in deep water. This reveals the communication gap between the administration of the ship and crew in operation. After this a joint agreement between different states took place to influence and amend the administrative issues regarding the prohibition of inspection. Not only did the investigations about the sinking of the vessel, the investigation set a stage for enacting further safety measures on board of every vessel. The commissioner for wrecks, Mr Justice Sheen stated that it was the duty f the officer loading the main vehicle deck to see that the bow doors were safe and secure before leaving the harbour. Not only in this case the commissioner found after this investigation that this safety instruction was regularly violated by number of managements of the ship and other officers who monitor the loading of vehicle deck. In this particular case it was found that the officer left the responsibility of closing the bow doors to his assistant. This comes under the violation of standing instructions. The commissioner criticized the ship management company regarding the violation of safety measures and stated the need of considering the strict compliance to the safety measures. When the above statement of commissioner was considered the main responsibility of the disaster lies with the chief officer, his assistant and senior master who was responsible for the monitoring of implementation of the safety measur