The influence of flight delays on business travellers

The main aim of the study was to assess the influence of flight delays on business travellers. Studies on flight delays have been done from a number of perspectives; these include the reasons for flights delays, the costs to airlines and airports, the effect on airline scheduling and the impact on airline market share. An area that has received little, if any, attention is the impact of flight delays on business travellers, one of the most lucrative markets for airlines. This study empirically researches the direct cost of flight delays to travellers of a specific corporation. In addition, the use of mobile technology in communicating the occurrence of flight delays to business travellers, and how this could alleviate traveller frustrations, are discussed from a theoretical perspective. The study followed a quantitative methodology to determine man-hours lost and the direct costs of flight delays to travellers from a selected corporation. Two data sets were used, one provided by the corporation on flights undertaken by their corporate travellers over a predetermined period, the other by the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) on all flights over the same period. The two sets of data were matched and analysed to determine which flights undertaken by the corporate travellers were delayed, based on actual arrival times, and if any significant relationships could be determined between flight delays and types of traveller (frequent versus infrequent) or specific time periods (time of day, day, week and month). The results indicated that frequent travellers experienced the majority of flight delays, and consequently represented the greatest cost to the corporation. The study also found significant relationships between substantial delays and the month of the year, day of the week, and the time of day flown. The identification of patterns could provide business travellers with the information to better manage their travel arrangements and optimise their travel times and costs. In calculating the direct monetary cost, the value of time lost was found not to constitute a substantial amount to the corporation, but this result must be viewed against the limitations of the study. This study serves to provide a foundation for future research into the cost of flight delays to business travellers. Future research should include larger samples (large global or multiple companies could be used) and extend the time periods for assessing delays. Future studies could also include other direct and indirect costs not covered here and the study could be replicated in different geographical areas, particularly areas with a high density of flights such as Asia, the United States of America and Europe. CopyrightDissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Tourism Managementunrestricte

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

Adoption and acceptance of mobile commerce in Saudi Arabia: the case of e-ticketing in the airline industry

Mobile technology has influenced business strategies over recent years and the increasing penetration of mobile devices and related solutions such as mobile commerce has revolutionised consumer organisations. Saudi Arabia with its high mobile penetration has the potential for higher usage of mobile services in the near future. This research aimed at understanding and evaluating the acceptance and adoption of mobile commerce in Saudi Arabia with specific focus on the airline ticketing services through evaluation of the attitude and behaviour of the airline consumers towards mobile commerce in airline ticketing services. The research was designed as a mixed and explanatory research and used both deductive and inductive approaches to understanding mobile commerce acceptance in airline ticketing services. The research also involved extensive review of technology adoption models such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), based on which a research framework was developed and hypotheses specified. Quantitative study involved online questionnaire based survey with 207 travellers who were connected at the King Abdul-Aziz airport in Saudi Arabia, while qualitative study involved interviews with eight employees of Saudi Airlines. The collected data was analysed using MS Excel and SPSS and subjected to descriptive, regression and content analysis. The research findings indicate positive perceptions of airline travellers towards the usefulness, ease of use and other related benefits of using mobile commerce for air ticketing services. The key factors influencing the attitude were identified to be the ease of use, usefulness and social influence, while key determinants of behavioural intention were identified to be mobility, compatibility and usefulness. The other factors such as cost, trust, perceived risk and usecontext were not found to be the key influencers of the behavioural intention of Saudi Arabian travelers towards use of mobile commerce for airline ticketing services. Another key finding was the lack of any significant differences, perhaps surprising, in the behavioural intention to use mobile commerce across various demographic groups based on age, gender and education. The research findings will be useful for both practitioners of mobile commerce as well as academicians involved in research on acceptance and adoption of mobile commerce. Moreover, the research findings are not just useful for the airline industry in Saudi Arabia, but can also be consulted by those interested in understanding mobile-commerce acceptance in airline industry anywhere else across the globe or any other industry in Saudi Arabia

E-commerce in the travel and tourism industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

The e-commerce revolution in business can help African countries expand their tourism industry. Africa, with its great wealth in wildlife and unique resorts, can benefit from the ever increasing user population of the Internet, particularly in the USA and Western Europe where most of the tourists to Africa come from (Internet World Stats, 2004). E-commerce which runs on the backbone of the Internet can help the African tourism industry break into international tourism, thus increasing the flows of the much needed foreign currency. As there was little empirical data on the e-commerce activities in the African tourism industry the researcher first and foremost examined a large number of websites in order to paint a picture of the nature and extent of the e-commerce activities in four -African countries. For comparison, websites of tourism organisations from USA and Western Europe were also examined. The surveys revealed that few of the African organisations are embracing e-commerce and that although some websites were comparable to those of their western counterparts the majority had room for considerable improvement. After examining the websites another survey was carried out to find the current progress of e-commerce adoption and usage from the perspective of the African tourism organisations. Analysis of the data collected showed that e-commerce adoption among the tourism organisations was slow. This led to more surveys being carried out to find the barriers to e-commerce among tourism organisations with information-only websites and those whose websites had limited interactive facilities. These surveys revealed that tourism organisations with information-only websites faced more barriers than those with websites which had limited interactive features. They also revealed that the most common barriers were technological and security and legal barriers. The ultimate survey involved finding out from tourism organisations with fully-fledged e-commerce websites how they overcame the e-commerce barriers. The methods used by these organisations to overcome e-commerce barriers together with recommendations made in the surveys carried out earlier were used to formulate recommendations and guidelines for those organisations intending to adopt and e-commerce. The recommendations and guidelines were tested and results showed that they are helpful and easy to follow

Sky high economics

The global airline industry is on the cusp of a connectivity revolution. Currently 3.8 billion passengers fly annually, with only around 25% of planes in the air offering them some form of onboard broadband. This is often of variable quality, with patchy coverage, slow speeds and low data limits. By 2035, it is likely that inflight connectivity will be ubiquitous across the world. Non-broadband-enabled ‘traditional’ sources such as seat upgrades, onboard duty free and baggage fees are currently worth around $60 billion to airlines. For the first time, this research study bridges the gap between current market estimates of traditional revenues and the forecasting of incremental revenue from broadbandenabled cabins. Using IATA passenger traffic data and forecasts of growth, including a near doubling of passenger numbers to 7.2 billion annually, this research study forecasts that broadband-enabled ancillary revenue will reach an estimated$30 billion for airlines by 2035. Overall, a total market of $130 billion of additional revenues will be created. As well as airlines, this market will include content providers, retail goods suppliers, hotel and car suppliers, airlines and advertisers. The four primary areas of broadband enabled ancillary revenue have been defined in the research are: • Broadband access • Advertising, encompassing interruptive advertising and pay-per-click • E-commerce and destination shopping • Streaming, including premium content The research looks at six key regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Africa, Middle East and Latin America, analysed using both primary and secondary research, drawing on available data of passenger numbers and of forecasted aircraft growth globally. By 2035, broadband-access revenue is forecast to remain the highest single source of new ancillary revenues, accounting for 53$0.23 per passenger in 2018, to $2.82 in 2028, reaching$4 per passenger by 2035. With current traditional ancillary revenue for airlines of around $17 per passenger, the research study projects that broadband connectivity will add around 24$11 billion of revenues, and Full Service Carriers (FSC) around $19 billion. The capitalisation of opportunities presented by a connected cabin with high quality continuous coverage will depend on the degree that airlines are willing to engage with third party suppliers, retailers, destination companies, content providers and others. The research study forecasts that by 2035, from the estimated$30 billion airline share of the total broadbandenabled revenue of $130 billion, Asia Pacific has the highest figure at$10.3 billion, followed by Europe with $8.2 billion, North America with$7.6 billion, Latin America with $1.9 billion, Middle East at$1.3 billion and Africa with $0.58 billion. The opportunity for revenue growth from broadband enabled services is dependent on airlines commercialising passenger data to a much greater degree than occurs currently. Today, only 11% of existing airline schemes offer personalised rewards based on purchase history or location data. More loyal customers can generate a 23% premium in profitability and revenue to airlines. Airlines today have failed to fully develop the potential opportunities offered by passenger data. Airlines are in the driver’s seat for realising a massive opportunity. By bringing together right technological, retail, advertising and content partners, airlines will be able to offer passengers the services they are asking for, whilst improving the bottom line. With the number of passengers currently flying every day forecast to almost double by 2035 this is a ‘sky high’ multibillion dollar opportunity for the global airline industry

\u3ci\u3eThe Conference Proceedings of the 2001 Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) of the WCTR Society, Volume 2\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 01-7https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1147/thumbnail.jp

INVESTIGATING ICT SOLUTIONS FOR THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT IN THE FREE STATE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

ThesisInefficiencies in the public transportation system in the Free State province resulting in poor quality public transportation has led to the investigation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions to improve the system, through integration, and the challenges and opportunities that may result from this integration. This research investigates ICT solutions for public transportation improvement focusing on the challenges and opportunities for all stakeholders of the public transportation system. Critical review of South African legislation and policies on public transportation and ICT was carried out. This was to review government laws and policies governing public transportation development. It also reviewed how the government planned on improving public transportation, developments so far based on those plans and future plans, and how these legislations by the government have been carried out in the Free State province. A theoretical framework was developed to lay out expectations for the integration process including the adoption of technologies and adaptations to the new integrated public transportation system based on technology acceptance and diffusion theories. Questionnaire and Interview surveys were carried out on public transportation vehicle owners, drivers, public transportation users and non-users to assess the current state of public transportation, their needs that could potentially be solved by ICT and the challenges likely to be faced. The use of questionnaires was also to assist in identifying and defining elements needed for successful integration of ICT into the system. ICT experts, transportation planners, academics, public transportation owners and users were also interviewed to gain more understanding and insight on ICT solutions, the public transportation systems, technologies for potential use in the public transportation system and challenges that may arise due to integration