LOS PROCESOS DE GESTION EN RELACION AL AREA DE ATENCION AL CLIENTE DE LAS AGENCIAS DE VIAJES. MANAGEMENT PROCESSES IN RELATION TO CUSTOMER AREA OF TRAVEL AGENCIES.

RESUMEN El presente estudio busca analizar la relación que existe entre la aplicación de buenas prácticas en los procesos de gestión y el desempeño en el área de atención al cliente de las agencias de viajes de Lima. El turismo en el Perú es una de las actividades con mayor crecimiento y futuro en una economía globalizada, por lo que otros países con atractivos turísticos interesantes, compiten agresivamente ofertándolos con buena calidad, a bajos precios y mejorando permanentemente sus servicios.La necesidad de ofrecer servicios turísticos de calidad, se ha convertido en uno de los principales retos para el desarrollo del turismo en el País, y el papel que tienen las agencias de viajes en el auge de esta actividad es clave.La industria turística permaneció por mucho tiempo bajo un esquema tradicional de trabajo, desde la forma en que se ofertaban sus servicios hasta la manera de atender a los clientes basándose en la satisfacción de sus expectativas y requerimientos. Sin embargo, no era común que las empresas desarrollen herramientas que permitan adecuarse a los cambios del mercado turístico.En la actualidad, la globalización y el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías han modificado estos patrones así como las necesidades de los viajeros, quienes a través de la experiencia fueron incrementando su grado de exigencia y el gusto por el servicio de calidad. La tecnología se ha convertido en una herramienta que puede ofrecer mejoras en la operación y administración de las Agencias de Viajes.Objetivos: Determinar la relación entre la aplicación de buenas prácticas en los procesos de gestión con el desempeño en el área de atención al cliente de las agencias de viajes de Lima.Materiales y Métodos: El objeto de investigación se ha centrado en el departamento de Lima, que de acuerdo al INEI ocupa el primer lugar en número de AGV con el 69,6% de las agencias de viajes a nivel nacional. Específicamente agencias de Miraflores y del Centro histórico de Lima que son las que se ubican en los lugares más competitivos y de gran afluencia pública.Resultados: Se realizó el análisis descriptivo de los indicadores que miden las dimensiones de las variables de estudio, mediante cuadros y gráficos de frecuencia y finalmente se llevó a cabo la contrastación de las hipótesis para ello se realizó la prueba de Kolmogorov Smirnov y se determinó que las variables y dimensiones no presentan normalidad entonces se decidió el uso de la prueba no paramétrica Rho de Spearman que mide la significancia y el nivel de correlación estadística entre las variables de las hipótesis de estudio.Conclusiones: Al MINCETUR, como ente gestor del Plan Nacional de Calidad Turística que promueva campañas de capacitación a los operadores de servicios turísticos en diferentes áreas como tecnologías de la información, gestión de empresas turísticas, marketing turístico, y gestión de recursos humanos; A las instituciones educativas dedicadas a la formación de profesionales en turismo, se recomienda la enseñanza del uso de herramientas tecnológicas, software, ofimática y comercio electrónico en su malla curricularPalabras claves: Tecnologías de la información, captación de Clientes, Recursos Humanos, gestión de negocios de las agencias de viajes, agencias de viajes, normatividad turística y certificación, gestión de negocios. ABSTRACTThis study seeks to analyze the relationship between the application of good practices in management processes and performance in the area of customer support travel agencies in Lima. Tourism in Peru is one of the fastest growing activities and future in a globalized economy, so that other countries with interesting attractions that compete aggressively with good quality, low prices and constantly improving their services.The need to provide quality tourism services, has become one of the main challenges for the development of tourism in the country, and the role that travel agents in the growth of this activity is key.The tourism industry remained for a long time under a traditional scheme of work, from the way his services were offered to how to serve customers based on meeting your expectations and requirements. However, it was not uncommon for companies to develop tools to adapt to changes in the tourism market.Today, globalization and the development of new technologies have changed these patterns and the needs of travelers, who through the experience were increasing their level of demand and taste for quality service. The technology has become a tool that can provide improvements in the operation and management of travel agencies.Objective: To determine the relationship between the application of good practices in management processes with the performance in the area of customer support travel agencies in Lima.Materials and Methods: The purpose of research has focused on the department of Lima, according to INEI ranks first in number of AGV with 69.6% of travel agencies nationwide. Specifically agencies Miraflores and downtown Lima are those located in the most competitive and influx of large public places.Results: The descriptive analysis of the indicators that measure the dimensions of the study variables, using charts and graphs of frequency and finally carried out the testing of hypotheses for this Kolmogorov-Smirnov. That Test was performed and it was determined that was conducted the variables and dimensions not normally present then the use of nonparametric Spearman Rho test that measures the significance and the level of statistical correlation between the variables of the study hypothesis was decided.Conclusions: MINCETUR, as management body of the National Plan for Quality campaigns promoting training for tourism operators in different areas such as information technology, management of tourism businesses, tourism marketing, and human resources management; An educational institutions for training of tourism professionals, teaching the use of technological tools, software, office automation and electronic commerce in their curriculum is recommendedKeywords: Information technology, customer acquisition, human resources, business management of travel agencies, travel agencies, tour standards and certification, business management

Health inequalities in Germany: do regional-level variables explain differentials in cardiovascular risk?

Breckenkamp J, Mielck A, Razum O. Health inequalities in Germany: do regional-level variables explain differentials in cardiovascular risk? BMC Public Health. 2007;7(1): 132.Background: Socioeconomic status is a predictor not only of mortality, but also of cardiovascular risk and morbidity. An ongoing debate in the field of social inequalities and health focuses on two questions: 1) Is individual health status associated with individual income as well as with income inequality at the aggregate (e. g. regional) level? 2) If there is such an association, does it operate via a psychosocial pathway (e.g. stress) or via a ´´neo-materialistic´´ pathway (e.g. systematic under-investment in societal infrastructures)? For the first time in Germany, we here investigate the association between cardiovascular health status and income inequality at the area level, controlling for individual socio-economic status. Methods: Individual-level explanatory variables (age, socio-economic status) and outcome data (body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol level) as well as the regional-level variable (proportion of relative poverty) were taken from the baseline survey of the German Cardiovascular Prevention Study, a cross-sectional, community-based, multi-center intervention study, comprising six socio-economically diverse intervention regions, each with about 1800 participants aged 25–69 years. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of individual and regional level variables. Results: Regional effects are small compared to individual effects for all risk factors analyzed. Most of the total variance is explained at the individual level. Only for diastolic blood pressure in men and for cholesterol in both men and women is a statistically significant effect visible at the regional level. Conclusion: Our analysis does not support the assumption that in Germany cardiovascular risk factors were to a large extent associated with income inequality at regional level

Bistability in the actin cortex

Multi-color fluorescence imaging experiments of wave forming Dictyostelium cells have revealed that actin waves separate two domains of the cell cortex that differ in their actin structure and phosphoinositide composition. We propose a bistable model of actin dynamics to account for these experimental observation. The model is based on the simplifying assumption that the actin cytoskeleton is composed of two distinct network types, a dendritic and a bundled network. The two structurally different states that were observed in experiments correspond to the stable fixed points in the bistable regime of this model. Each fixed point is dominated by one of the two network types. The experimentally observed actin waves can be considered as trigger waves that propagate transitions between the two stable fixed points

Is telomere length socially patterned? Evidence from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with an increased risk of morbidity and premature mortality, but it is not known if the same is true for telomere length, a marker often used to assess biological ageing. The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study was used to investigate this and consists of three cohorts aged approximately 35 (N = 775), 55 (N = 866) and 75 years (N = 544) at the time of telomere length measurement. Four sets of measurements of SES were investigated: those collected contemporaneously with telomere length assessment, educational markers, SES in childhood and SES over the preceding twenty years. We found mixed evidence for an association between SES and telomere length. In 35-year-olds, many of the education and childhood SES measures were associated with telomere length, i.e. those in poorer circumstances had shorter telomeres, as was intergenerational social mobility, but not accumulated disadvantage. A crude estimate showed that, at the same chronological age, social renters, for example, were nine years (biologically) older than home owners. No consistent associations were apparent in those aged 55 or 75. There is evidence of an association between SES and telomere length, but only in younger adults and most strongly using education and childhood SES measures. These results may reflect that childhood is a sensitive period for telomere attrition. The cohort differences are possibly the result of survival bias suppressing the SES-telomere association; cohort effects with regard different experiences of SES; or telomere possibly being a less effective marker of biological ageing at older ages

Solving Nonlinear Parabolic Equations by a Strongly Implicit Finite-Difference Scheme

We discuss the numerical solution of nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations, exhibiting finite speed of propagation, via a strongly implicit finite-difference scheme with formal truncation error $\mathcal{O}\left[(\Delta x)^2 + (\Delta t)^2 \right]$. Our application of interest is the spreading of viscous gravity currents in the study of which these type of differential equations arise. Viscous gravity currents are low Reynolds number (viscous forces dominate inertial forces) flow phenomena in which a dense, viscous fluid displaces a lighter (usually immiscible) fluid. The fluids may be confined by the sidewalls of a channel or propagate in an unconfined two-dimensional (or axisymmetric three-dimensional) geometry. Under the lubrication approximation, the mathematical description of the spreading of these fluids reduces to solving the so-called thin-film equation for the current's shape $h(x,t)$. To solve such nonlinear parabolic equations we propose a finite-difference scheme based on the Crank--Nicolson idea. We implement the scheme for problems involving a single spatial coordinate (i.e., two-dimensional, axisymmetric or spherically-symmetric three-dimensional currents) on an equispaced but staggered grid. We benchmark the scheme against analytical solutions and highlight its strong numerical stability by specifically considering the spreading of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in a variable-width confined channel-like geometry (a "Hele-Shaw cell") subject to a given mass conservation/balance constraint. We show that this constraint can be implemented by re-expressing it as nonlinear flux boundary conditions on the domain's endpoints. Then, we show numerically that the scheme achieves its full second-order accuracy in space and time. We also highlight through numerical simulations how the proposed scheme accurately respects the mass conservation/balance constraint.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures, Springer book class; v2 includes improvements and corrections; to appear as a contribution in "Applied Wave Mathematics II

Rating neighborhoods for older adult health: results from the African American Health study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Social theories suggest that neighborhood quality affects health. Observer ratings of neighborhoods should be subjected to psychometric tests.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>African American Health (AAH) study subjects were selected from two diverse St. Louis metropolitan catchment areas. Interviewers rated streets and block faces for 816 households. Items and a summary scale were compared across catchment areas and to the resident respondents' global neighborhood assessments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Individual items and the scale were strongly associated with both the catchment area and respondent assessments. Ratings based on both block faces did not improve those based on a single block face. Substantial interviewer effects were observed despite strong discriminant and concurrent validity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Observer ratings show promise in understanding the effect of neighborhood on health outcomes. The AAH Neighborhood Assessment Scale and other rating systems should be tested further in diverse settings.</p

Leprosy among Patient Contacts: A Multilevel Study of Risk Factors

Leprosy is an infectious disease that can lead to physical disabilities, social stigma, and great hardship. Transmitted from person to person, it is still endemic in developing countries, like Brazil and India. Effective treatment has been available since 1960, but early diagnosis of the disease remains the most effective way to stop the transmission chain and avoid late diagnoses and subsequent disabilities. Knowledge of the risk factors for leprosy can facilitate early detection; therefore, our study aimed to investigate the factors presented by leprosy patients and their contacts, who are considered at highest risk of contracting the disease. We studied 6,158 contacts of 1,201 patients under surveillance from 1987 to 2007 in a Public Health Care Center in the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We evaluated the ways patient and contact demographics and epidemiological characteristics were associated with the detection of leprosy. Statistical analyses took into account both individual and group characteristics and their interrelationships. The main characteristics facilitating the contraction of leprosy among contacts were shown to be consanguinity and household association. Conversely, the bacillary load index of leprosy patients was the principle factor leading to disease among their contacts

When does poor subjective financial position hurt the elderly? Testing the interaction with educational attainment using a national representative longitudinal survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several studies have demonstrated that perceived financial status has a significant impact on health status among the elderly. However, little is known about whether such a subjective perception interacts with objective socioeconomic status (SES) measures such as education that affect the individual's health.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This research used data from the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Middle Age and Elderly in Taiwan (SHLS) conducted by the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health in Taiwan. Waves 1996, 1999 and 2003 were used. The sample consisted of 2,387 elderly persons. The interactive effects of self-rated satisfaction with financial position and educational attainment were estimated. Self-rated health (SRH), depressive symptom (measured by CES-D) and mortality were used to measure health outcomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant interaction effect was found for depressive symptoms. Among those who were dissatisfied with their financial position, those who were illiterate had an odds ratio (OR) of 8.3 (95% CI 4.9 to 14.0) for having depressive symptoms compared with those who were very satisfied with their financial position. The corresponding OR for those with college or above was only 2.7 (95% CI 1.0 to 7.3). No significant interaction effect was found for SRH and mortality.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although poor financial satisfaction was found to be related to poorer health, the strongest association for this effect was observed among those with low educational attainment, and this is especially true for depressive symptoms. Subjective financial status among the elderly should be explored in conjunction with traditional measures of SES.</p