The performance of ocean cruising in Australia and future prospects

Transport researchers can gain important insights into traveller behaviour by examining the cruising phenomenon, and policy makers, especially those concerned with ports and maritime matters, need to be able to evaluate the potential of cruising. This paper describes the state of the cruise industry in Australia against the perspective of international developments, particularly those taking place in North America and Japan. Policy issues flow from this. Firstly, an assessment is required about the performance of the industry, particularly since one operator dominates sales in the market. An examination is made of growth prospects and the significance of cruising for ports and then, the Australian Government’s cabotage policy is commented upon. Finally, recommendations are made for further research in cruising

Developments in the Aviation Industry in Australia and Asia - Implications for Australian Tourism

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the main region of growth in airline travel for at least the next two decades. According to the forecasts, China will become one of the largest domestic airline markets in the world alongside Japan, already one of the most significant domestic markets outside the USA. The inability of government-owned airlines in the region to cope with rapid growth and with the need to upgrade their services in domestic markets has resulted in major changes in policy. As a result, new airlines have been permitted to operate in South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal and Pakistan with governments adopting a more liberal attitude towards competition. A common experience has been that the new airlines cannot survive on a domestic base and a number of countries have allowed the new carriers to fly international routes. These new airlines are more likely to fly between regional centres and so take away some of the pressures on the key hub airports that tend to be congested. Also, they provide direct links to tourist attractions away from the main metropolitan centres in Australia. This paper analyses these trends in aviation in the Asian region and explores their implications for the continuing development of Asian markets by Australian airlines and the tourism sector

Open Skies” in India - Is it succeeding

With a “middle class” of 200 million people in a large country where travel between the major population centres by surface transport can be arduous, India has a potentially large domestic airline market. In the post-World War II period, India nationalised its airline industry into one international carrier, Air India, and one domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, but it began to relax these controls in 1986. Since then, a series of policy initiatives introduced what is proclaimed to be an “open skies” policy. There has been no shortage of new entrants willing to add capacity into a system where supply-side constraints are regarded as the main impediment to a boom in airline travel. However, many of these new ventures have failed within a few years and the remaining carriers, including Indian Airlines, have had to increase fares in an attempt to improve their financial performance. Far from being an “open skies” environment, airline managers continue to be subject to formal and informal government regulations and government has introduced new taxes and increased charges for aviation services. The result is an industry characterised by financial instability and low traffic growth. This paper documents the changes in the regulatory system and analyses the strategies adopted by the airlines. The paper concludes that inappropriate policies are constraining development of the industry, particularly the requirement imposed by the Government for the airlines so allocate their capacity on a mix of profitable and unprofitable routes. Paper presented at the First Conference of the Air Transport Research Group Meeting, University of British Columbia, Vancouver B.C., Canada, 25-28 June 1997. The ATRG is a Special Interest Group of the World Conference on Transport Research Society

Aviation and Tourism in Nepal: Liberalising Airline Competition in a Less Developed Country

Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, but it has natural and cultural assets that have enabled it to generate a sizeable tourism industry. As part of a strategy to increase the nation's income from tourism, His Majesty's Government of Nepal is encouraging visitors to venture out of the Kathmandu Valley but it has been recognised that the domestic transport system requires improvement, especially the commercial aviation industry. Until recently, the Government's own airline has enjoyed a monopoly, but a new liberalisation policy has permitted private sector airlines to compete. Capacity and services have been upgraded as a result, but challenges remain to be addressed. Airport infrastructure is inadequate and administration of civil aviation needs to be improved. Also, the Government's airline needs strengthening if it is to play an important role in the future of the domestic aviation industry. More critical, perhaps, are the inherent flaws in the regulatory framework. The pressures on the aviation industry in Nepal are being experienced in other less developed countries. This paper draws out general implications of the move to more liberal competition policies

Evaluating Strategies for Packaging Travel

Packaging has been a popular means of selling travel for over a century and in no small way has been responsible for the development of mass markets. In the light of this, it is surprising to find that there has been little research into the packaging phenomenon, especially from the point of view of an evaluation of packaging strategies. Principally, the literature documents flows of packaged travel or trends in sales. Very few researchers have attempted to model consumer preferences for packages. This paper reviews previous published work on packaging, but then characterises it as a form of price bundling, the general term used in marketing to describe a strategy of tying the sale of one product to the purchase of another. This more general framework is used to explain strategic motivations for popular packaging methods with an emphasis on consumers' decision-making in the presence of bundles. The paper examines the claim that the travel package, and especially the fully-inclusive tour, is at an advanced stage in its product life-cycle and that it will provide little stimulus to further growth in travel. The bundling paradigm suggests that unbundling travel can succeed, but there will remain a place for packaged travel products

Modelling the Demand for Packaged Travel

This paper reports the results of an exploratory investigation into the demand for packaged travel. Traditional models of travel demand tend to adopt a simple specification of “price” as a uni-dimensional construct. However, modern yield management practices aim to stimulate demand when required through the use of promotional discounts each distinguished by a set of conditions designed to restrict purchase to the target group. From a modelling point of view, the use of a benchmark fare (e.g. economy fare) or even an average fare does not permit testing of the independent effect of varying the price level. This problem is exacerbated when the promotion bundles the transport service with other travel services in some form of travel package. Yet travel packages are common in long distance travel markets. The problem cannot be addressed simply by expanding the vector of prices to include non-transport elements of the package. The paper describes the considerable practical and theoretical problems that have to be overcome in modelling choice in the presence of packaging. The structure of the choice of package is investigated using nested logit

Liberalising Airline Competition in India: Relevant Lessons from the Australian Experience

As the commercial airline industry developed during the 1940's and 1950's, there was universal acceptance of the need to control entry, to regulate fares and to encourage airlines to cross-subsidise unprofitable services. By 1978, however, practitioners and academics in the USA mounted a forceful case that the nation's consumers would be better off in a deregulated environment and many other countries have followed suit since then. India is one of a number of Asian countries that have become recent converts to liberalism, but in formulating policies there are problems in translating the experiences of the USA. India's airline market is relatively undeveloped and air transport plays a vital role in supporting national objectives. This paper examines the parallels between Australia and India because, like India, Australia deregulated when it had two national carriers. Australia's domestic airline market is concentrated on a small number of routes and the remainder of the network lacks the density of traffic to promote competition, but airline services are regarded as a vital part of the infrastructure to support the tourism sector. The paper evaluates the experiences in Australia in terms of their relevance to India as it continues to develop its policies and as the carriers seek to develop viable strategies

Park-and-Shop Discounts and Price Bundling

Price bundling is the term used to describe the practice of selling two or more goods or services for a single price, often involving a form of discount. Most interest in this practice has focused on its use by monopolies to pursue a form of price discrimination, though there is increasing attention being devoted to bundling in competitive service industries. In a recent article, Lan and Kanafani have demonstrated how bundling arguments can be applied to derive optimal parking prices for shoppers. The present paper is a comment on the Lan and Kanafani article. The arguments are taken further and it is argued that prescriptions for park-and-shop pricing policy need to be based on a more realistic account of competition and the role of complementarity in demand

SELLING TRAVEL AS PART OF A PACKAGE. IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSPORT RESEARCH.

The selling of long-distance travel as a package has its origins in the latter half of the last century and the practice has been instrumental in turning travel into a consumer item. Packaging is found to be significant in the Australian airline market while the degree of concentration in travel wholesaling and air transport is high. Travel packageing can be characterised as “price building”, a strategy which has been growing in popularity in competitive service sectors. This paper explorers optimal business strategies that take advantage of building, but it is shown that there are implications for policy analysis and for studies of travel demand. The relevance of bundling in transport research is illustrated while noting that there has been a lack of attention to the subject. Opportunities for further research are suggested

Elusive Destiny: The Internationalist Movement in Modern Hawaii

Humanities Open Book Program, a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon FoundationFor nearly two centuries, Hawaii's leaders have endeavored to forge a unique international role for the Islands in Pacific and even in world affairs. Colorful figures such as Kalakaua, Walter Murray Gibson, and a host of others labored mightily to transform the Islands into an oceanic political power. Although their campaigns eventually failed, Hawaii was put forever on the diplomatic map with such ventures as the attempted annexation of a distant South Pacific islands group, the provocation of a quarrel with Germany that led to the brink of war, and the persistent defense of the interests of Pacific islanders in the capitals of Europe and America. A very different but nonetheless ambitious surge of activism followed Hawaii's annexation by the United States at the turn of the present century. Shortly after World War I, local internationalists formed the Pan-Pacific Union and the Institute of Pacific Relations as the foci of a concerted effort to foster greater political and cultural understanding throughout the Pacific and the world. While both groups frequently created headlines with various programs and proposals, the latter organization became widely known when it came under the attack of the anticommunist movement during the late 1940's and 1950's. Related endeavors in more recent years have produced numerous activities in educational, political, scientific, and commercial circles that presently involve a fair proportion of the Island establishment as well as numerous prominent figures from abroad. Elusive Destiny brings the details of this little-known but always present impulse in Hawaiian history together for the first time and goes on to speculate about the likely causes of successes or failures. Carefully researched and documented, richly illustrated, and concisely written, the book should interest all persons concerned with the modern Hawaiian experience