The houseboat operator business composition in Kariba is one of the major revenue earners as these are done all year round with the support of the activity coming from the wild safari game drives and village/guided tours acting as secondary business. Zimbabwe underwent economical challenges from the beginning of the millennium to early 2009 and the issuing of travel warnings to Zimbabwe by the international community gave a scare to the international visitors and some stopped visiting the country.
Likewise Kariba tour operators suffered heavily as tourism took a slump and the unstable economic environment made it virtually impossible to operate. On the 14th of March 2010, Protea hotels on their website http://www. proteahotels. com/a-new-lady-on-lake-kariba. html published the acquisition of “Southern Belle” one of the biggest boats in Southern Africa from Zimbabwe to Zambia. The travel warnings had a great psychological effect in influencing destination perception with countries like the USA randing Zimbabwe as a country full of crime according to http://travel. state. gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1063. html “U. S. citizens and other foreigners are perceived to be wealthy and are frequently targeted by criminals who operate in the vicinity of hotels, restaurants, and shopping areas of major cities and tourist areas such as Victoria Falls and Kariba” . With the dwindling economy posed many questions to the extent at which service in the cruise industry was being delivered if any delivery was taking place at all.
The Term Paper on Travel and Tourism component industries and their organisations
Types of Tourism There are three types of tourism: domestic, outbound and inbound. Domestic tourism is when you travel within the country normally for a day trip; for example, someone traveling from London to Brighton for the day would be a domestic tourist. An outbound tourist is when someone travels outside the country. So someone travelling from the UK to France would be an outbound tourist to ...
Market concentration took a shift to the domestic market as the domestic market was the only the major alternative to sustain the badly hit cruise operations in Kariba, however due to the high inflation rate in the country the local market could not simply sustain the houseboat cruise operations as expenses were looming everyday and brought unstable price systems which deterred the local market from participating fully in their tourist activities as people opted just for hotel stays and leave other activities when visiting Kariba.
The other factor is that of the tour operators in Kariba only two of the operators that is Pesha Safaris and James McKenzie’s Walking Safari’s own their own boats for cruise, rental and other activities and these were existent before the closure of UTc and Hertz.
The other tour operators (especially for sunset cruises and houseboat hiring services) rely on commission of sale from the boat owners who ultimately have the power to lease or not to lease the boats to tour operators and the more recent and better boats are more expensive than the older boats hence the tour operators often resort to cheaper boat hires in order to maximize profit. Again the use of house boats for cruises often leads to overloading and questions being asked over the safety of passengers in these old cruise houseboats.
In contrast to the latter the latter the tour operators claim to strive for excellent service provision. 1. 2 Statement of the Problem There is a marked decline in demand for houseboat and cruise renting activities in Kariba. in Kariba Case Study estimated that there were 4,000 boats operating on the reservoir including 1,500 houseboats and other pleasure craft operating from several marinas (Scudder 2001) opposed to this there are presently an estimated 41 houseboats in operational capacity(www. imbabwetourism. net/houseboats) This is also worsened by the fact that there is also an ‘exodus’ of the bigger house boats from Kariba as evidenced by the sale of the Southern Belle to Protea Hotels in Zambia in 2010 and the current listing of the second biggest boat the Zambezi Trader to be on sale. At the present moment most houseboats in Kariba have no business at all for the few that are running they are surviving by serving as cruise boats.
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1.Why can we state that Rolls Royce has become a service provider? What kind of services do they offer? At first, Rolls-Royce only sold engines while support and maintenance activities were mostly licensed out to other companies. Rose, the CEO of Rolls-Royce at that time, recognized however the revenue potential from after-sales services and decided to head in a new direction. He created a highly ...
If this problem persists there will be lack of variety in accommodation choices in Kariba, which in turn leads to the economic shrinking of the town since the town relies heavily on tourism (Scudder 2001).
The houseboat industry is very important to the tourism industry or national economy in that it also contributes to the tourism sector because it increases bed capacity, statistical data in both occupancies and tourism receipts that are compiled by the destination management organizations to measure of tourism (Scudder 2001).
Using a qualitative methodology this study therefore seeks to explore the tourist perceptions on the service quality of the boating industry in Kariba, their expectations, their interpretation of service quality and gaps involved. This study will benefit both the customer and the service provider through the analysis and recommendation of suggestions made by the tourist for better service management, with the ultimate goal being eco-social development through houseboat industry development. 1. 3 Research Objectives
The purpose of this research will be guided by the following objectives which aim to: * To identify the pillars of service quality for boat cruise operations in Kariba * To explore tourist perceptions on the quality of service offered by boat cruise operators in Kariba * To address the challenge being faced by boat operators in Kariba * To suggest solutions on how service quality may be improved by boat operators in Kariba . 1. 4Research Questions * What are the pillars of service quality in the boat cruise operations in Kariba? * What perceptions do tourists have on service quality offered boat cruise operators in Kariba? What are the challenge being faced by boat operators in Kariba? * What solutions can be offered to improve quality services in boat cruise operations based Kariba? 1. 5 Significance of the Study Looking at the boat operators in Kariba they have the basic, on the ground knowledge on conducting services such as conducting houseboat cruises. The level of operation is basic level one of service provision which sees the provision of service only catering for the core service. However, running a successful tour operations company today requires a multi-dimensional approach to business.
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Automated Customer Service: Advantages Outweigh Disadvantages The marketplace in the world today is more competitive than ever before. Businesses are trying to increase profits and lower operating costs. Stockholders are insisting that companies make money, thus increasing their stock portfolios. Consumers are busier than at any point in the history of man. They work longer hours and try to ...
At the centre there is the primary service which is followed by secondary services that demarcates exceptional service from good service. Customer perceptions play a vital role in the development and improvement of any service and this is the key to unlock the thriving of any business therefore this study is significant in that: * It provides the much needed market research consisting of the views and ideas from the customer which will provide the boat tour operators key information on areas they can further develop and areas that need to be discarded. The findings of the study will be used to compare related problems being faced by other boat tour operators with similar or identical cases as it adds literature to the relatively new but fast growing cruise line and boat service industry. * The researcher is able to focus and pinpoint common requirements of cruise tour service operations which provides a guide line to aspiring boat tour operators who want to join the industry * The researcher is able to enhance research skills providing a base for improvement and capability in handling researches of such nature in future 1. Scope of study This research focused only on the boat cruise operations that are being conducted and that which can be implemented. Problems or challenges that were only considered were the ones that were caused by the current boat hiring systems being used to provide, serve and administrate the services by tour operators in Kariba and find a way to improve them by designing an architecture which will cater for them.
The questionnaires were asking only on the problems they were experiencing because of the current service conduction and what they thought was the best solution to their problems. The interviewees, were interviewed on the challenges they were facing in conducting services as per customer minimum expectation and what action was taken to the best counteract their problems. The study will be focused on the houseboat tour operators who conduct frequent business in the Kariba boat industry, namely Mystic tours, Pesha Safaris, K & G tours amongst others. . 7 Assumptions The following assumptions will be made: 1. 7. 1. There will be an increase in the number of houseboat rentals, revenue generated, and contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
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Abstract The authors (Chiu, Anderson, & Burkhammer, 2005) of the article present all the essential components of the research study. There will be a decrease in temperature in the newborn if having difficulties breastfeeding while having skin-to-skin contact with the mother. That was the inferred hypothesis. The method used to gather the information was a pretest-test-post test study design ...
1. 7. 2 There will be increase also in repeat business with the current market. 1. 7. 3 There will be no change during the development of the research 1. 8 Limitations The study is likely to limited by the corporates’ need to maintain their cosmetic brand images.
The researcher intends to deal with anxiety by giving assurance to the stake holders that the research is purely academic and no part therefore will published without prior consent of the concerned parties to the report. The study will also be limited in terms of the financial resources needed to conduct the research to the tour operators all over Kariba. The researcher will resolve this anomaly by increasing the number of research respondents, in order to come up with reliable and credible information. 1. 9 Definition of Key Terms
Customer Perceptions * Houseboat Floating accommodation with sleeping areas and self-catering facilities. * Service Quality 1. 10 Conclusion This research is conducted to find out the current challenges experienced by the cruise and ferry tour operations due to the information flowing from customers as their perceptions differ from the service that is being offered by the tour operators. The research serves to design an appropriate service blueprint that will reduce and in some cases eliminate their challenges.
