Performance and technology on the travel industry

Much of the technological development taking place in the travel trade and transport sectors is, surprisingly, still at the embryonic stage. The extent to which the subsectors utilize the technology will undoubtedly grow substantially in the future. This may have the effect of increasing the market or alternatively it may merely displace business by changing channels of distribution.travel industry, technological development, distribution

How Much Does the Federal Government Spend to Promote Economic Mobility and for Whom?

Tracks and projects federal expenditures and tax subsidies aimed at enhancing economic mobility, such as employer-related work subsidies, homeownership, savings and investment incentives, and education and training, and who benefits from them

Factors influencing the Use of Mobile Payments in Tanzania: Insights from Zantel’s Z-pesa services.

M-payments, which refer to payments over a mobile device, have not taken off as fast as expected in Tanzania, especially in the case of Zantel Telecommunication Company. The slow adoption rate raises many questions about what drives consumer behaviour.   Therefore, it is necessary to investigate factors influencing the intention to use Zantel’s Z-pesa services. The methodology used to conduct this study included the review of the literature and primary data comprising 120 customers using a questionnaire, 10 customers were subjected to a telephone interview and one person from Management at Zantel was interviewed. Analysis of the findings revealed that there were several factors that hinder the adoption and usage of Z-pesa service: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived cost, perceived mobility, perceived trust and   perceived expressiveness. The study concludes with recommendations to address the challenges facing adoption and usage of Z-pesa services. They include:  recruitment of more agents countrywide to make the service more available and accessible, instalment of new technology that allow users of M-payment services to access cash through automated teller machine (ATMs), investment in state of the art technology to minimize or eliminate system failures or network problems, frequent training and support to Z-pesa agents to overcome operational problems and recruitment of more companies to accept Z-pesa payments.Keywords: Mobile payments, Influencing factors, Technology Usage, Z-pes

E-Commerce: Expectations and Shortfalls

The concept of E-commerce has existed since the inception of the internet, but it has acquired significance in the recent years. India being one of the fastest growing E-commerce markets in the world has no specific legislation to protect the interests of the buyers and sellers of goods and services over the electronic medium. The situation is further complicated by the fact that a typical transaction over the internet or phone needs the involvement of many service providers including a payment gateway, the main website, the bank or card verification website, the security certification website and the final service provider, which includes the shipping agent who delivers the goods. Separate laws are required to regulate the functioning of all these intermediaries. The paper examines the existing provisions available for the protection of the buyers and sellers who conduct transactions through the electronic medium. Further, the customer protection policies of four dominant E- commerce websites in India being flipkart.com, irctc.co.in, makemytrip.com and groupon.co.in are evaluated. A few cases of consumer disputes arising over transactions conducted over the electronic medium are also discussed. Lastly, the paper analyses the measures which needs to be taken to provide protection to buyers and sellers on the internet

Delegating Up: State Conformity with the Federal Tax Base

Congress uses the income tax to achieve policy goals. States import federal tax policies into their own tax systems when they incorporate by reference the federal income tax base as the starting point for assessment of state income taxes. But federal tax policies reflect national, not state, political choices. This Article calls attention to the practice of tax-base conformity and to its advantages and disadvantages. Conformity conserves legislative, administrative, and judicial resources, and it reduces taxpayers\u27 compliance burdens. At the same time, however, conforming states cede tax autonomy to the federal government, thereby jeopardizing federalism values, such as regulatory diversity and diffusion of power. Conforming states also expose themselves to revenue volatility stemming from the ever-changing federal tax law. Despite these concerns, the administrative and compliance advantages of federal-state tax-base conformity are so significant that states are unlikely to abandon it. Thus, this Article makes only limited recommendations for reducing the adverse impacts of tax-base conformity

Delegating Up: State Conformity with the Federal Tax Base

Congress uses the income tax to achieve policy goals. States import federal tax policies into their own tax systems when they incorporate by reference the federal income tax base as the starting point for assessment of state income taxes. But federal tax policies reflect national, not state, political choices. This Article calls attention to the practice of tax-base conformity and to its advantages and disadvantages. Conformity conserves legislative, administrative, and judicial resources, and it reduces taxpayers\u27 compliance burdens. At the same time, however, conforming states cede tax autonomy to the federal government, thereby jeopardizing federalism values, such as regulatory diversity and diffusion of power. Conforming states also expose themselves to revenue volatility stemming from the ever-changing federal tax law. Despite these concerns, the administrative and compliance advantages of federal-state tax-base conformity are so significant that states are unlikely to abandon it. Thus, this Article makes only limited recommendations for reducing the adverse impacts of tax-base conformity

Emerging Marketing Channels in Hospitality: A Global Study of Internet-Enabled Flash Sales and Private Sales

The potential uses of flash deals or daily deals have caught the attention of many restaurant and hotel firms, as well as third-party distributors, such as Expedia. A survey of nearly 200 international hospitality practitioners found that a remarkable 42 percent had tested a flash deal promotion, and some of those firms had offered numerous flash deals. At the same time, 46 percent of the responding hospitality firms had no intention of offering a flash deal, with some citing concerns about the potential damage of group discounts to brand integrity. Individual hotels that had offered flash deals tended to be on the large side, averaging more than 150 rooms. Discounts offered in the deals ranged widely, from 15 to over 75 percent off rack rates. Likewise, commissions paid to deal vendors saw a wide range, as the most typical commission was 15 to 20 percent, but some hotels paid as much as a 40-percent commission. Most of the deals reported in this survey had been offered through Groupon or LivingSocial, but Jetsetter unexpectedly appeared as the number-three flash-deal channel for these respondents. Deal structures also varied widely, although many deals were offered for mid-week. Although most offers involve a non-refundable purchase, deal vendors are increasingly offering their customers opportunities to obtain refunds in certain circumstances. Respondents’ general assessment of the deals’ success was moderate. They agreed that their deals brought in new customers, but repeat business was more tenuous. One favorable outcome was that the respondents saw little evidence of cannibalization of existing business, particularly when they packaged their deal carefully. On balance, hoteliers who were most pleased with the outcome of their deals were also the ones who managed the cost of the deal most assertively

Flexible Train Ticketing System (FlexTT)

With the advent of ICT technologies especially the Internet, most business related operations are now conducted online. This includes the train ticket reservation. Many systems all over the world have implemented online train ticketing reservation; however they still have some limitations that require using some manual procedures. In this final year project, an attempt to develop a web-based system that provides an easy and flexible reservation procedures to overcome the problems in the existing systems. The purpose of this report is to give an overview on the Prototyping-based method which has been chosen by Author to develop this system and to show how this web-based system (Flexible Train Ticketing System (FlexTT)) would make it easy and convenient for users to perform tickets reservation anytime, anywhere with less time consuming and cost effective. Using this particular system, user is able to search for, book, pay, change and cancel a ticket at the touch of button, that means presence in the ticket counter no longer required. Furthermore Green IT concept is implemented in FlexTT by replacing paper tickets with mobile tickets. Besides FlexTT is able to detect passengers’ absence and utilizes these seats. The scope of this final year project will be mainly on developing online functions (booking, cancellation and change ticket’s date and time) and functions that are performed by sending and receiving short messaging service(SMS), which are( ticket cancellation, check ticket’s status and notifications)