Grzegorz Gołembski

The impact of modern management methods on hotel operational performance

Expansion of large international hotel chains into the Polish hospitality market has radically changed hotel management practices in Poland. The article investigates the impact of these changes on hotels’ economic performance. This impact is assessed by monitoring changes in the break‐even point, the percentage share of variable costs in sales, margins of safety, operating leverage, and other indicators reflecting economic effects of applied management methods. The research results indicate that cost reduction resulting from the introduction of new management methods must in the future be replaced by measures aimed at stimulating revenue growth.

Tourism in the economy of shortage

Abstract The article presents modes of foreign tourism practiced by people living in conditions of shortage. The causes of scarcity of goods are characterized; and ways of making money during “tourist departures” for work and of importing scarce products are presented. Poland offers the context for a discussion on this phenomenon, including its scale of development and its effects on increasing foreign-currency deposits in Polish banks. Special attention is paid to difficulties in obtaining data resulting from the state of statistical records relating to personal income and private trade; and, in the light of this specific form of tourism, suggestions are made regarding possible revisions in Jafaris “system of tourism.”

The Role of Time in the Global Tourism Market - A Demand Perspective

The earliest western concept of leisure (Greek: schole) is credited to the Greek philosopher Aristotle who juxtaposed production activities performed from the necessity to labour (e.g. by slaves) with self-actualisation activities fit for free men, such as education, pursuance of arts and philosophy, contemplation, or the performance of political duties (de Grazia 1926). Aristotle was first to point out that time should be used in accordance with the values which determine the sense of human existence.