Abhishek Bhati

Industrial railway heritage trains: the evolution of a heritage tourism genre and its attributes

Heritage tourism forms a specific genre within the wider field of tourism; however, this genre itself encompasses a wide range of different types of heritage attractions, of which industrial attractions, military attractions, stately homes and attractions associated with historic people are all examples. This paper discusses the evolution of industrial railway heritage attractions from their original railway operations to visitor attractions; second, it examines the key attributes defining successful industrial railway heritage attractions; and third, it compares and contrasts these attributes for three industrial railway heritage attractions, spanning three separate locations and two countries (Australia and Malaysia). The findings from the study identify and support ranges of success factors and suggest a framework for examining the genre of industrial railway heritage attractions and their attributes. This framework can direct future studies that investigate the nature of industrial railway heritage trains, and contribute to enriching understanding and knowledge of this genre of attractions.

National disaster management in the ASEAN-5: an analysis of tourism resilience

This report aims to present a detailed evaluation of resilience planning of the ASEAN-5 tourism sector to national disasters. The project analyses the challenges to the tourism industry in the ASEAN-5 (Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia) countries due to national disasters (economic crisis, health hazards, natural calamity and/or act of terrorism) and the effectiveness of the measures taken in response to disastrous events.,The project analyses the effect of national disasters over a 10-year period in the ASEAN-5 countries on tourism economy and effectiveness of government action in resilience planning. The study uses two research questions to comment on comparative effectiveness of resilience planning in the ASEAN-5 nations.,The findings of this study revealed that national disasters affect a county’s tourism sector performance and its economy negatively. In particular, national disasters have harmful effects for a country’s tourism arrivals, tourism receipts, gross domestic product and unemployment. The findings reveal that regardless of geographical closeness of the ASEAN-5 countries, each experienced different effects in terms of national disasters and each used different government recovery measures.,This paper builds a knowledge management system for national disasters and the tourism sector. It provides a ready reference of timeliness and effectiveness of measures and to develop a framework for future tourist disaster management systems. Specifically, the relationships between the tourism indicators explored in this study contribute significantly to the knowledge on how these indicators interact to affect the tourism industry and the country’s economy. Furthermore, this information would act as a guide for countries to design and implement resilience planning and disaster management response.,Resilience planning is emerging as a key area under sustainable development. This report presents an evaluation of resilience planning of the ASEAN-5 tourism sector to national disasters.

Research Note: Macroeconomic Impacts of the Tourism Industry and the Contemporaneous Feedback Effect — An Australian Case Study

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate methods for analysing the dynamic impact of the tourism sector on key drivers of economic growth for destinations in Australia, while allowing for simultaneity of economic variables. The tourism sector is captured through the proxy of ‘tourism receipts’. In addition, investment and productivity growth are selected as sources of economic growth, in accordance with post-Keynesian growth theory. The paper uses time series quarterly data, covering the period 1995:Q1–2011:Q4, and employs time series estimation techniques, including structural vector autoregressive modelling and impulse response analysis, to describe the macroeconomic responses to sudden shocks in the tourism sector. The results indicate that the growth benefits of an increase in tourist expenditure are positive and statistically significant. Moreover, as suggested by the analysis of impulse response functions, a positive shock to tourist expenditure provides positive, substantial and rather long-lived implications regarding productivity and investment decisions.

Automated Tutoring System: Mobile Collaborative Experiential Learning (MCEL)

This paper reports a new simulated smart learning environment, called MCEL (Mobile Collaborative Experiential Learning). MCEL provides automated, continuous, personalized, formative feedback. Students interact with the simulated learning system via simple text messages using mobile devices in order to change the state of the system to a desired state over time. In the process, students engage in complex problem solving activities, and the system provides continuous formative assessment to help the students achieve learning objectives. Unlike conventional summative assessment approaches, students acquire set competency levels during their journey to achieving certain goals while interacting with the simulated system. MCEL allows instructors easily define learning journeys using event-condition-action (ECA) rules and reliable structured-text parser. A pilot study of MCEL is conducted and evaluated on a group of twenty IT students. Their participation is observed and a survey is conducted. The evaluation result show that MCEL supports constructive alignment in curriculum design, contextualized experimental learning, and personalized formative learning.

Personalised travel services: an exploratory study in Singapore context.

The aims of the study were to explore the demand for personalised travel services within the affluent customer segment of the outbound travelers in Singapore. The study uncovers the desired service attributes of same consumer segment. The paper begins with a general and broad overview of the travel and tourism industry worldwide and in the Asia Pacific region specifically in Singapore. The international tourism and hospitality sector has grown rapidly over the last ten years and according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals in 2012 grew to 980 million. Similarly, there has been an increase in outbound travels in Singapore. This growth has been fuelled by the economic growth that Singapore has experienced over the years. The study surveys the current literature to provide data to show the growth of outbound travel from Singapore and the increasing number of affluent Singapore travelers. The study considers an email questionnaire survey to gauge the travel patterns and desires of the affluent traveler market in Singapore. The exploratory findings identify a market for personalized travel services in Singapore and consider an inventory of service attributes desired by the affluent customer segment in Singapore. More specifically, the findings indicate that almost 65% of respondents preferred personal travel services (PTS) with 70% who currently book tours through travel agents indicating their preference for PTS. What was particularly interesting was that over 60% of those who currently engage in self-booking found the idea of PTS appealing. The key draws of PTS are convenience, personalization of itinerary and tour package, experience of consultants and trust.?Personalised travel services are targeted to the high income market and the potential demand for PTS among travelers who undertake two or more trips a year was about 72%. Travelers today are looking for more value-added services and interesting tour packages rather than the run of the mill mass tours that many travel agents still provide. Growing affluence and the desire for unique and unusual tours is creating a niche market for travel agencies to exploit. The current and common business model of providing mass tours where customers are herded on a standard itinerary does not sit well with the well-heeled and sophisticated traveler of today. Today?s affluent travelers want to be treated not as mere customers but rather as valuable clients, partnering with the tour agency to create unparalleled and enriching tour experiences.

Local connections, global perspectives

Higher education is increasingly focusing on facilitating agentic, outward-looking, globally minded graduates. International mobility experiences are positioned as key to developing these qualities; however, not all students have the inclination, resources, or support to enable them to participate in such experiences. Student surveys reveal that the top barriers to participation—time, finances, work, and family commitments—are outside the influence of educators. In response, educators need to look to opportunities afforded through both local and international experiences. Service learning can enable students to explore democratic action in a local space within a framework that accounts for global perspectives. This chapter draws on findings of six local and international case studies to explore curriculum and pedagogical frameworks that facilitate global perspectives through community-based learning experiences.

Improving Teaching and Learning in Southeast Asian Secondary Schools with the Use of Culturally Motivated Web and Mobile Technology

Improving and stimulating teaching and learning are an interesting topic among educational researchers. As technology advances and with mobile technology and the Internet being used widely, it has become a vital tool for knowledge gathering and information sharing. It can foster new directives for teachers and stimulate the minds of learners, improving learning outcomes. However, the process of this triangulation of interaction has been overlooked in the Southeastern Asian region and requires an in-depth study into its culturally diverse background to identify its core problems and benefits. We propose Student Motivated Integrated Learning & Education with culture (SMiLE c) model in order to integrate education with web and mobile technology with an emphasis on Asian learning culture to promote active learning reduce overall costs and improves student learning outcome. We illustrate how this model can be implemented in Southeast Asian schools to improve teaching to suit students’ learning style during lessons through an alert system and motivates student to participate in discussions which can be used by the institution to identify student’s skill set early in the learning process.

Optimum Stimulation Level and Shopping Experience: A Case of Australia

Tourists’ or regular customers’ shopping behaviour is of major interest to retailers. This chapter intends to investigate the relationship between optimum stimulation level (OSL), shopping experience and retail outcome. The study is conducted in Perth, Australia; 288 shoppers participated in the study. The study found that there are significant relationships between social factors and OSL, interior layout factor and OSL, store quality and social factor and interior layout, satisfaction and store quality and repatronage intention and shopping satisfaction.

Hedonic Shopping Motivation: Does It Really Matter?

In this chapter we intend to investigate the relationship between hedonic shopping motivation, shopping experience and retail outcome. The study is conducted in Surabaya, Indonesia. Three hundred and thirty shoppers participated in the study. The study found significant relationship between interior and layout and adventure motivation, interior and layout and social motivation, social factor and social motivation and social factor and idea motivation, service quality and interior and layout and social factor, shopping satisfaction and service quality and repatronage intention and shopping satisfaction.

Singapore’s Ability to Maintain Destination Competitiveness Through Integrated Resorts (IRs)

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Integrated Resorts (IRs) launched in 2010 which has created a cutting-edge for Singapore tourism industry. This tourism initiative was a great success considering that it tackled the problem of declining in international tourists visiting Singapore since 2009. The two IRs—Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) appears to have enhanced Singapore’s appeal as an attractive tourism destination with successive record high tourist arrivals and boosted higher tourism receipt and also created more employment opportunities in the service sector. This paper attempts to stimulate researchers to address Singapore’s ability to achieve destination competitiveness by exploring three key areas—tourism development planning, comparing Singapore relative to other destinations, and also the local residents’ perceptions and attitudes of the IRs.