HOLIDAY ATTACHMENT: THE CONSTRUCT AND ITS MEASUREMENT

Given that it is not the individual components constituting a holiday in isolation or in simple additive relationship that determines tourists’ sense of satisfaction with that holiday, the absence of an instrument to capture the effect of the holiday experience in its entirety is but odd. Not only that, the current approach of inferring the whole complex of holiday experience as the simple additive sum of the knowledge of its constituent parts is epistemologically problematic, too. Beginning with a brief inventorying of the current approaches to the measurement of place attachment, which is being used by researchers to assess tourists’ attachment to holiday destinations, the present paper attempts to develop a more holistic instrument, Holiday Attachment, which can comprehensively measure tourists’ attachment with the composite holiday experience. The holiday attachment instrument has successfully demonstrated the essential tests of validity and reliability. The paper is concluded with a brief discussion of the current limitations and the developmental dimensions of the instrument, as well as its implications and potential applications.Holiday attachement; Holiday utility; Holiday identity; Implications of the scale.

ACTIVITY BASED COSTING FOR BETTER COST MANAGEMENT

Implementing change in management, successfully and profitably, is the greatest challenge for modern enterprises. Innovation in strategies, marketing performance, role of competition, change in technology, change in customer needs, management initiatives are all facts of life in the global environment today. Cost management works with its customer to manage change more profitably. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is a new methodology of product costing which measures the cost of products more accurately. Overhead allocation is much more sophisticated under this system. This paper attempts to highlight the need, importance and methodology of ABC for better Cost Management in modern enterprises.Cost management; Cost and activity drivers; Activity based costing (ABC); ABC implementation; ABC applications

TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

Tourism and the environment are intricately and inseparably interlinked, with many positive  relationships as well as several irreversible negative impacts. Destinations of higher environmental quality attract tourists and in that process are also transmuted, either positively or negatively. Drawing evidences largely from the Indian context, the present paper analyzes the root causes of tourism related degradation in environmental quality and suggests alternatives that synergizes tourism and environment. Two case studies are presented: one to show how tourism produces inferior environmental quality and the other to suggest a practical means to overcome the apparent contradiction between conservation and development. It is concluded that the paradigm of ecocultural tourism and the praxis of community based ecotourism could provide useful global frameworks with reference to which locally informed quality-tourism initiatives could be formulated and customized

Cruise Crimes: Economic-Legal Issues and Current Debates

Cruise tourism is one of the sunshine sectors of international tourism and is growing rapidly in many parts of the world. It is estimated that the growth rate of cruise tourism is twice the rate of tourism overall. Notwithstanding all the positives that accompany this growth, many critics have drawn attention to the “dark side” of cruise crimes. The eco-system aboard the cruise ship offers a fertile ground for the occurrence of crimes. The present paper examines the issue of crimes onboard from multiple standpoints and suggests some remedial measures that would lead to better management of cruise crimes. A presentation of the recent initiatives by the U.S. legislative bodies aimed at containing cruise crimes is also provided.cruise ships; criminology aboard; cruise crime typology; crime prevention; industry initiative; legislative intervention; and USA

THE EVOLVING COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS IN THE RETAIL BANKING SECTOR IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF KARNATAKA BANK

The banking industry in India is going through a unique competitive situation: on the one hand, the proliferation of new banks has increased competition multi-fold; on the other hand, given the rigid regulatory environment, banks have very little liberty to innovate products. The entry of multinational banking giants with superior service operations has further amplified the competition for customers. This paper examines the business performance of Karnataka bank during the period between 2006 and 2014 in order to bring home some of these challenges. Based on feedback from the branch managers, savings and current accounts - two classic banking products – suffered the most in the onslaught. Practicing managers as well as customers that we interviewed held that banking services in terms of customer experience ought to be improved and that various value added services could be introduced. Customers also expected reduced penalty for minimum balance and enhanced insurance cover for their accounts

GLOBAL ADVERTISING IN THE INTERNET ERA: THE STANDARDIZATION-CUSTOMIZATION DEBATE REVISITED

Advertising is a huge worldwide industry growing in importance due to the high penetration rate through mainstream media channels and the internet, reflecting social values worldwide. While the standardization versus localization debate has quite matured in the case of traditional advertising, it has not yet touched upon most critical issues related to digital marketing. The paper reviews the literature, compares both the strategies, and conclude with recommendations for global advertising decision makers

The Evolution of Destination Branding: A Review of Branding Literature in Tourism

Tourism is a promise and destinations communicate the credibility of that promise by means of destination brands. Branding has become a key tool for tourism destinations to make explicit the complexity of experiences to be expected by tourists visiting a destination. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of various issues associated with tourism destination branding. It brings together a wide range of debates in the generic marketing literature, places them alongside the nuances of tourism, and thereby identifies unique challenges of branding in tourism destination contexts. Finally, a case study of USP based national tourism branding campaigns in the Caribbean is presented

ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS AMONG DRUG-RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT: AN OBSERVATIONAL COHORT STUDY

Objective: Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is regarded as one of the major challenges in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). It can lead to non-compliance or interrupting treatment completion, which can contribute to avoidable morbidity, drug resistance, treatment failure, reduced quality of life, or mortality. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Ernakulam district of Kerala from 2016 to 2019. All DR-TB patients registered under the DR-TB center were enrolled in the study. Due to privacy and confidentiality HIV infected patients and patients below 12 y of age were excluded in this study and only the data with ADR reported by patients is collected from medical records. Results: Out of the total 146 patients, about 75 % of patients experienced at least one ADR during treatment, and a total of 208 ADRs were reported. Among all the ADRs, the most common ADR was gastritis (12.98%) followed by ototoxicity (10%) and vomiting (5.76%), etc. It was found that males (78.76%) within the age group 46-65 y exhibited more ADR than females. Some of the ADR requires drug withdrawal and replacement with other drugs and most of the patients also needed symptomatic treatment without modifying the treatment regimen. All ADR reported were collected and causality assessment was done via WHO and Naranjo scale. The majority of ADR belongs to the “probable” category in the WHO scale and Naranjo scale. The evaluation of the severity of ADR by using the Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale indicated that most of the ADR was of moderate level showing a 4b reaction. The study also assessed the preventability of ADR using the Schumock and Thornton preventability scale. Conclusion: Many of the ADRs were unidentified or not reported due to several reasons like milder ADR, patient lack of knowledge, Negligence of symptoms, unawareness of health providers, etc. Whereas the long-term treatment and diversities in age, gender, etc. were found as major contributors to ADR along with comorbidities. New drugs in combination with existing drugs created the potential for previously unnotified reactions. Pharmacovigilance should address the safety of therapy and identify ADRs, especially the serious ones with routine monitoring to prevent mortality, morbidity, and other negative outcomes

The Evolving Service Culture of Cuban Tourism: A Case Study

The case examines the impressive growth of tourism in Cuba. It analyzes tourism development in a society striving to navigate its way economically amid numerous social and political challenges. The Cuban experiment with tourism is a shortterm mega success. However, it is highly uncertain whether long-term sustainability can be maintained without the appropriate managerial changes at all levels. This paper highlights challenges in the tourism employment sector – training, supervisory issues, and performance evaluation, within a centrally controlled bureaucratic system. Of specific interest is the disconnection between the natural hospitability of the Cuban people and low levels of tourist satisfaction stemming from a lack of professional hospitality. The paper concludes by focusing on the high relevance of the Cuban cultural identity as a key motivator undergirding the demand for tourism. However, with the rapid growth of tourism, strains are occurring in the cultural realm, thus requiring immediate policy intervention for sustained positive results

What Could Tourism Do to a Small Fishing Village: A Case Study of the City of Weihai, China

Weihai City, located on the east end of Shandong Peninsula in Northeastern China was once a small and remote fishing village. In recent years Weihai City has become one of the most popular tourism destinations in China. The tremendous development of tourism has had a significant impact on Weihai’s economy, physical environment, and culture. Weihai is now famous for the beautiful coastal scenery, high quality leisure living, and a strong Korean and increasingly Russian influence. This study examines the perception of Weihai residents on the position of Weihai as a tourist destination and also their vision of Weihai’s future tourism development. Based on the resident surveys and available secondary data, tourism impacts in Weihai can be said to be largely positive. Place attachment and a sense of pride about belonging to the place are noticeable among the locals. Economic data suggests overall prosperity, too. However, available evidence also highlights some strained relationships among the various stakeholder groups