The Da Vinci Code Chapter 10-12

CHAPTER 10 Silas sat behind the wheel of the black Audi the Teacher had arranged for him and gazed out at the great Church of Saint-Sulpice. Lit from beneath by banks of floodlights, the church's two bell towers rose like stalwart sentinels above the building's long body. On either flank, a shadowy row of sleek buttresses jutted out like the ribs of a beautiful beast. The heathens used a house of God to conceal their keystone.Again the brotherhood had confirmed their legendary reputation for illusion and deceit. Silas was looking forward to finding the keystone and giving it to the Teacher so they could recover what the brotherhood had long ago stolen from the faithful. How powerful that will make Opus Dei. Parking the Audi on the deserted Place Saint-Sulpice, Silas exhaled, telling himself to clear his mind for the task at hand. His broad back still ached from the corporal mortification he had endured earlier today, and yet the pain was inconsequential compared with the anguish of his life before Opus Dei had saved him. Still, the memories haunted his soul. Release your hatred, Silas commanded himself. Forgive those who trespassed against you. Looking up at the stone towers of Saint-Sulpice, Silas fought that familiar undertow†¦ that force that often dragged his mind back in time, locking him once again in the prison that had been his world as a young man. The memories of purgatory came as they always did, like a tempest to his senses†¦ the reek of rotting cabbage, the stench of death, human urine and feces. The cries of hopelessness against the howling wind of the Pyrenees and the soft sobs of forgotten men. Andorra, he thought, feeling his muscles tighten. Incredibly, it was in that barren and forsaken suzerain between Spain and France, shivering in his stone cell, wanting only to die, that Silas had been saved. He had not realized it at the time. The light came long after the thunder. His name was not Silas then, although he didn't recall the name his parents had given him. He had left home when he was seven. His drunken father, a burly dockworker, enraged by the arrival of an albino son, beat his mother regularly, blaming her for the boy's embarrassing condition. When the boy tried to defend her, he too was badly beaten. One night, there was a horrific fight, and his mother never got up. The boy stood over his lifeless mother and felt an unbearable up-welling of guilt for permitting it to happen. This is my fault! As if some kind of demon were controlling his body, the boy walked to the kitchen and grasped a butcher knife. Hypnotically, he moved to the bedroom where his father lay on the bed in a drunken stupor. Without a word, the boy stabbed him in the back. His father cried out in pain and tried to roll over, but his son stabbed him again, over and over until the apartment fell quiet. The boy fled home but found the streets of Marseilles equally unfriendly. His strange appearance made him an outcast among the other young runaways, and he was forced to live alone in the basement of a dilapidated factory, eating stolen fruit and raw fish from the dock. His only companions were tattered magazines he found in the trash, and he taught himself to read them. Over time, he grew strong. When he was twelve, another drifter – a girl twice his age – mocked him on the streets and attempted to steal his food. The girl found herself pummeled to within inches of her life. When the authorities pulled the boy off her, they gave him an ultimatum – leave Marseilles or go to juvenile prison. The boy moved down the coast to Toulon. Over time, the looks of pity on the streets turned to looks of fear. The boy had grown to a powerful young man. When people passed by, he could hear them whispering to one another. A ghost, they would say, their eyes wide with fright as they stared at his white skin. A ghost with the eyes of a devil! And he felt like a ghost†¦ transparent†¦ floating from seaport to seaport. People seemed to look right through him. At eighteen, in a port town, while attempting to steal a case of cured ham from a cargo ship, he was caught by a pair of crewmen. The two sailors who began to beat him smelled of beer, just as his father had. The memories of fear and hatred surfaced like a monster from the deep. The young man broke the first sailor's neck with his bare hands, and only the arrival of the police saved the second sailor from a similar fate. Two months later, in shackles, he arrived at a prison in Andorra. You are as white as a ghost, the inmates ridiculed as the guards marched him in, naked and cold. Mira el espectro! Perhaps the ghost will pass right through these walls! Over the course of twelve years, his flesh and soul withered until he knew he had become transparent. I am a ghost. I am weightless. Yo soy un espectro†¦palido coma una fantasma†¦caminando este mundo a solas. One night the ghost awoke to the screams of other inmates. He didn't know what invisible force was shaking the floor on which he slept, nor what mighty hand was trembling the mortar of his stone cell, but as he jumped to his feet, a large boulder toppled onto the very spot where he had been sleeping. Looking up to see where the stone had come from, he saw a hole in the trembling wall, and beyond it, a vision he had not seen in over ten years. The moon. Even while the earth still shook, the ghost found himself scrambling through a narrow tunnel, staggering out into an expansive vista, and tumbling down a barren mountainside into the woods. He ran all night, always downward, delirious with hunger and exhaustion. Skirting the edges of consciousness, he found himself at dawn in a clearing where train tracks cut a swath across the forest. Following the rails, he moved on as if dreaming. Seeing an empty freight car, he crawled in for shelter and rest. When he awoke the train was moving. How long? How far?A pain was growing in his gut. Am I dying? He slept again. This time he awoke to someone yelling, beating him, throwing him out of the freight car. Bloody, he wandered the outskirts of a small village looking in vain for food. Finally, his body too weak to take another step, he lay down by the side of the road and slipped into unconsciousness. The light came slowly, and the ghost wondered how long he had been dead. A day? Three days? It didn't matter. His bed was soft like a cloud, and the air around him smelled sweet with candles. Jesus was there, staring down at him. I am here, Jesus said. The stone has been rolled aside, and you are born again. He slept and awoke. Fog shrouded his thoughts. He had never believed in heaven, and yet Jesus was watching over him. Food appeared beside his bed, and the ghost ate it, almost able to feel the flesh materializing on his bones. He slept again. When he awoke, Jesus was still smiling down, speaking. You are saved, my son.Blessed are those who follow my path. Again, he slept. It was a scream of anguish that startled the ghost from his slumber. His body leapt out of bed, staggered down a hallway toward the sounds of shouting. He entered into a kitchen and saw a large man beating a smaller man. Without knowing why, the ghost grabbed the large man and hurled him backward against a wall. The man fled, leaving the ghost standing over the body of a young man in priest's robes. The priest had a badly shattered nose. Lifting the bloody priest, the ghost carried him to a couch. â€Å"Thank you, my friend,† the priest said in awkward French. â€Å"The offertory money is tempting for thieves. You speak French in your sleep. Do you also speak Spanish?† The ghost shook his head. â€Å"What is your name?† he continued in broken French. The ghost could not remember the name his parents had given him. All he heard were the taunting gibes of the prison guards. The priest smiled. â€Å"No hay problema.My name is Manuel Aringarosa. I am a missionary from Madrid. I was sent here to build a church for the Obra de Dios.† â€Å"Where am I?† His voice sounded hollow.† Oviedo. In the north of Spain.† â€Å"How did I get here?† â€Å"Someone left you on my doorstep. You were ill. I fed you. You've been here many days.† The ghost studied his young caretaker. Years had passed since anyone had shown any kindness. â€Å"Thank you, Father.† The priest touched his bloody lip. â€Å"It is I who am thankful, my friend.† When the ghost awoke in the morning, his world felt clearer. He gazed up at the crucifix on the wall above his bed. Although it no longer spoke to him, he felt a comforting aura in its presence. Sitting up, he was surprised to find a newspaper clipping on his bedside table. The article was in French, a week old. When he read the story, he filled with fear. It told of an earthquake in the mountains that had destroyed a prison and freed many dangerous criminals. His heart began pounding. The priest knows who I am! The emotion he felt was one he had not felt for some time. Shame. Guilt. It was accompanied by the fear of being caught. He jumped from his bed. Where do I run? â€Å"The Book of Acts,† a voice said from the door. The ghost turned, frightened. The young priest was smiling as he entered. His nose was awkwardly bandaged, and he was holding out an old Bible. â€Å"I found one in French for you. The chapter is marked.† Uncertain, the ghost took the Bible and looked at the chapter the priest had marked. Acts 16. The verses told of a prisoner named Silas who lay naked and beaten in his cell, singing hymns to God. When the ghost reached Verse 26, he gasped in shock. â€Å"†¦ And suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and all the doors fell open.† His eyes shot up at the priest. The priest smiled warmly. â€Å"From now on, my friend, if you have no other name, I shall call you Silas.† The ghost nodded blankly. Silas.He had been given flesh. My name is Silas. â€Å"It's time for breakfast,† the priest said. â€Å"You will need your strength if you are to help me build this church.† Twenty thousand feet above the Mediterranean, Alitalia flight 1618 bounced in turbulence, causing passengers to shift nervously. Bishop Aringarosa barely noticed. His thoughts were with the future of Opus Dei. Eager to know how plans in Paris were progressing, he wished he could phone Silas. But he could not. The Teacher had seen to that. â€Å"It is for your own safety,† the Teacher had explained, speaking in English with a French accent. â€Å"I am familiar enough with electronic communications to know they can be intercepted. The results could be disastrous for you.† Aringarosa knew he was right. The Teacher seemed an exceptionally careful man. He had not revealed his own identity to Aringarosa, and yet he had proven himself a man well worth obeying. After all, he had somehow obtained very secret information. The names of the brotherhood's fourtop members! This had been one of the coups that convinced the bishop the Teacher was truly capable of delivering the astonishing prize he claimed he could unearth. â€Å"Bishop,† the Teacher had told him,† I have made all the arrangements. For my plan to succeed, you must allow Silas to answer only to me for several days. The two of you will not speak. I will communicate with him through secure channels.† â€Å"You will treat him with respect?† â€Å"A man of faith deserves the highest.† â€Å"Excellent. Then I understand. Silas and I shall not speak until this is over.† â€Å"I do this to protect your identity, Silas's identity, and my investment.† â€Å"Your investment?† â€Å"Bishop, if your own eagerness to keep abreast of progress puts you in jail, then you will be unable to pay me my fee.† The bishop smiled. â€Å"A fine point. Our desires are in accord. Godspeed.† Twenty million euro,the bishop thought, now gazing out the plane's window. The sum was approximately the same number of U. S. dollars. A pittance for something so powerful. He felt a renewed confidence that the Teacher and Silas would not fail. Money and faith were powerful motivators. CHAPTER 11 â€Å"Une plaisanterie numerique?† Bezu Fache was livid, glaring at Sophie Neveu in disbelief. A numeric joke?† Your professional assessment of Sauniere's code is that it is some kind of mathematical prank?† Fache was in utter incomprehension of this woman's gall. Not only had she just barged in on Fache without permission, but she was now trying to convince him that Sauniere, in his final moments of life, had been inspired to leave a mathematical gag? â€Å"This code,† Sophie explained in rapid French,† is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Jacques Sauniere must have known we would see through it immediately.† She pulled a scrap of paper from her sweater pocket and handed it to Fache. â€Å"Here is the decryption.† Fache looked at the card. 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21 â€Å"This is it?† he snapped. â€Å"All you did was put the numbers in increasing order!† Sophie actually had the nerve to give a satisfied smile. â€Å"Exactly.† Fache's tone lowered to a guttural rumble. â€Å"Agent Neveu, I have no idea where the hell you're going with this, but I suggest you get there fast.† He shot an anxious glance at Langdon, who stood nearby with the phone pressed to his ear, apparently still listening to his phone message from the U.S. Embassy. From Langdon's ashen expression, Fache sensed the news was bad. â€Å"Captain,† Sophie said, her tone dangerously defiant,† the sequence of numbers you have in your hand happens to be one of the most famous mathematical progressions in history.† Fache was not aware there even existed a mathematical progression that qualified as famous, and he certainly didn't appreciate Sophie's off-handed tone. â€Å"This is the Fibonacci sequence,† she declared, nodding toward the piece of paper in Fache's hand.† A progression in which each term is equal to the sum of the two preceding terms.† Fache studied the numbers. Each term was indeed the sum of the two previous, and yet Fache could not imagine what the relevance of all this was to Sauniere's death. â€Å"Mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci created this succession of numbers in the thirteenth-century. Obviously there can be no coincidence that all of the numbers Sauniere wrote on the floor belong to Fibonacci's famous sequence.† Fache stared at the young woman for several moments. â€Å"Fine, if there is no coincidence, would you tell me why Jacques Sauniere chose to do this. What is he saying? What does this mean?† She shrugged. â€Å"Absolutely nothing. That's the point. It's a simplistic cryptographic joke. Like taking the words of a famous poem and shuffling them at random to see if anyone recognizes what all the words have in common.† Fache took a menacing step forward, placing his face only inches from Sophie's. â€Å"I certainly hope you have a much more satisfying explanation than that.† Sophie's soft features grew surprisingly stern as she leaned in. â€Å"Captain, considering what you have at stake here tonight, I thought you might appreciate knowing that Jacques Sauniere might be playing games with you. Apparently not. I'll inform the director of Cryptography you no longer need our services.† With that, she turned on her heel, and marched off the way she had come. Stunned, Fache watched her disappear into the darkness. Is she out of her mind? Sophie Neveu had just redefined le suicide professionnel. Fache turned to Langdon, who was still on the phone, looking more concerned than before, listening intently to his phone message. The U. S.Embassy.Bezu Fache despised many things†¦ but few drew more wrath than the U. S. Embassy. Fache and the ambassador locked horns regularly over shared affairs of state – their most common battleground being law enforcement for visiting Americans. Almost daily, DCPJ arrested American exchange students in possession of drugs, U. S. businessmen for soliciting underage Prostitutes, American tourists for shoplifting or destruction of property. Legally, the U. S. Embassy could intervene and extradite guilty citizens back to the United States, where they received nothing more than a slap on the wrist. And the embassy invariably did just that. L'emasculation de la Police Judiciaire, Fache called it. Paris Match had run a cartoon recently depicting Fache as a police dog, trying to bite an American criminal, but unable to reach because it was chained to the U. S. Embassy. Not tonight, Fache told himself. There is far too much at stake. By the time Robert Langdon hung up the phone, he looked ill. â€Å"Is everything all right?† Fache asked. Weakly, Langdon shook his head. Bad news from home, Fache sensed, noticing Langdon was sweating slightly as Fache took back his cell phone. â€Å"An accident,† Langdon stammered, looking at Fache with a strange expression. â€Å"A friend†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He hesitated. â€Å"I'll need to fly home first thing in the morning.† Fache had no doubt the shock on Langdon's face was genuine, and yet he sensed another emotion there too, as if a distant fear were suddenly simmering in the American's eyes. â€Å"I'm sorry to hear that,† Fache said, watching Langdon closely. â€Å"Would you like to sit down?† He motioned toward one of the viewing benches in the gallery. Langdon nodded absently and took a few steps toward the bench. He paused, looking more confused with every moment. â€Å"Actually, I think I'd like to use the rest room.† Fache frowned inwardly at the delay. â€Å"The rest room. Of course. Let's take a break for a few minutes.† He motioned back down the long hallway in the direction they had come from. â€Å"The rest rooms are back toward the curator's office.† Langdon hesitated, pointing in the other direction toward the far end of the Grand Gallery corridor.† I believe there's a much closer rest room at the end.† Fache realized Langdon was right. They were two thirds of the way down, and the Grand Gallery dead-ended at a pair of rest rooms. â€Å"Shall I accompany you?† Langdon shook his head, already moving deeper into the gallery. â€Å"Not necessary. I think I'd like a few minutes alone.† Fache was not wild about the idea of Langdon wandering alone down the remaining length of corridor, but he took comfort in knowing the Grand Gallery was a dead end whose only exit was at the other end – the gate under which they had entered. Although French fire regulations required several emergency stairwells for a space this large, those stairwells had been sealed automatically when Sauniere tripped the security system. Granted, that system had now been reset, unlocking the stairwells, but it didn't matter – the external doors, if opened, would set off fire alarms and were guarded outside by DCPJ agents. Langdon could not possibly leave without Fache knowing about it. â€Å"I need to return to Mr. Sauniere's office for a moment,† Fache said. â€Å"Please come find me directly, Mr. Langdon. There is more we need to discuss.† Langdon gave a quiet wave as he disappeared into the darkness. Turning, Fache marched angrily in the opposite direction. Arriving at the gate, he slid under, exited the Grand Gallery, marched down the hall, and stormed into the command center at Sauniere's office. â€Å"Who gave the approval to let Sophie Neveu into this building!† Fache bellowed. Collet was the first to answer. â€Å"She told the guards outside she'd broken the code.† Fache looked around. â€Å"Is she gone?† â€Å"She's not with you?† â€Å"She left.† Fache glanced out at the darkened hallway. Apparently Sophie had been in no mood to stop by and chat with the other officers on her way out. For a moment, Fache considered radioing the guards in the entresol and telling them to stop Sophie and drag her back up here before she could leave the premises. He thought better of it. That was only his pride talking†¦ wanting the last word. He'd had enough distractions tonight. Deal with Agent Neveu later, he told himself, already looking forward to firing her. Pushing Sophie from his mind, Fache stared for a moment at the miniature knight standing on Sauniere's desk. Then he turned back to Collet. â€Å"Do you have him?† Collet gave a curt nod and spun the laptop toward Fache. The red dot was clearly visible on the floor plan overlay, blinking methodically in a room marked TOILETTES PUBLIQUES. â€Å"Good,† Fache said, lighting a cigarette and stalking into the hall. I've got a phone call to make. Be damned sure the rest room is the only place Langdon goes.† CHAPTER 12 Robert Langdon felt light-headed as he trudged toward the end of the Grand Gallery. Sophie's phone message played over and over in his mind. At the end of the corridor, illuminated signs bearing the international stick-figure symbols for rest rooms guided him through a maze-like series of dividers displaying Italian drawings and hiding the rest rooms from sight. Finding the men's room door, Langdon entered and turned on the lights. The room was empty. Walking to the sink, he splashed cold water on his face and tried to wake up. Harsh fluorescent lights glared off the stark tile, and the room smelled of ammonia. As he toweled off, the rest room's door creaked open behind him. He spun. Sophie Neveu entered, her green eyes flashing fear. â€Å"Thank God you came. We don't have much time.† Langdon stood beside the sinks, staring in bewilderment at DCPJ cryptographer Sophie Neveu. Only minutes ago, Langdon had listened to her phone message, thinking the newly arrived cryptographer must be insane. And yet, the more he listened, the more he sensed Sophie Neveu was speaking in earnest. Do not react to this message.Just listen calmly.You are in danger rightnow.Follow my directions very closely.Filled with uncertainty, Langdon had decided to do exactly as Sophie advised. He told Fache that the phone message was regarding an injured friend back home. Then he had asked to use the rest room at the end of the Grand Gallery. Sophie stood before him now, still catching her breath after doubling back to the rest room. In the fluorescent lights, Langdon was surprised to see that her strong air actually radiated from unexpectedly soft features. Only her gaze was sharp, and the juxtaposition conjured images of a multilayered Renoir portrait†¦ veiled but distinct, with a boldness that somehow retained its shroud of mystery. â€Å"I wanted to warn you, Mr. Langdon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Sophie began, still catching her breath,† that you are sous surveillance cachee.Under a guarded observation.† As she spoke, her accented English resonated off the tile walls, giving her voice a hollow quality. â€Å"But†¦ why?† Langdon demanded. Sophie had already given him an explanation on the phone, but he wanted to hear it from her lips. â€Å"Because,† she said, stepping toward him,† Fache's primary suspect in this murder is you.† Langdon was braced for the words, and yet they still sounded utterly ridiculous. According to Sophie, Langdon had been called to the Louvre tonight not as a symbologist but rather as a suspect and was currently the unwitting target of one of DCPJ's favorite interrogation methods – surveillance cachee – a deft deception in which the police calmly invited a suspect to a crime scene and interviewed him in hopes he would get nervous and mistakenly incriminate himself. â€Å"Look in your jacket's left pocket,† Sophie said. â€Å"You'll find proof they are watching you.† Langdon felt his apprehension rising. Look in my pocket? It sounded like some kind of cheap magic trick. â€Å"Just look.† Bewildered, Langdon reached his hand into his tweed jacket's left pocket – one he never used. Feeling around inside, he found nothing. What the devil did you expect? He began wondering if Sophie might just be insane after all. Then his fingers brushed something unexpected. Small and hard. Pinching the tiny object between his fingers, Langdon pulled it out and stared in astonishment. It was a metallic, button-shaped disk, about the size of a watch battery. He had never seen it before. â€Å"What the†¦ ?† â€Å"GPS tracking dot,† Sophie said. â€Å"Continuously transmits its location to a Global Positioning System satellite that DCPJ can monitor. We use them to monitor people's locations. It's accurate within two feet anywhere on the globe. They have you on an electronic leash. The agent who picked you up at the hotel slipped it inside your pocket before you left your room.† Langdon flashed back to the hotel room†¦ his quick shower, getting dressed, the DCPJ agent politely holding out Langdon's tweed coat as they left the room. It's cool outside, Mr.Langdon, the agent had said. Spring in Paris is not all your song boasts.Langdon had thanked him and donned the jacket. Sophie's olive gaze was keen. â€Å"I didn't tell you about the tracking dot earlier because I didn't want you checking your pocket in front of Fache. He can't know you've found it.† Langdon had no idea how to respond. â€Å"They tagged you with GPS because they thought you might run.† She paused. â€Å"In fact, they hopedyou would run; it would make their case stronger.† â€Å"Why would I run!† Langdon demanded. â€Å"I'm innocent!† â€Å"Fache feels otherwise.† Angrily, Langdon stalked toward the trash receptacle to dispose of the tracking dot. â€Å"No!† Sophie grabbed his arm and stopped him. â€Å"Leave it in your pocket. If you throw it out, the signal will stop moving, and they'll know you found the dot. The only reason Fache left you alone is because he can monitor where you are. If he thinks you've discovered what he's doing†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Sophie did not finish the thought. Instead, she pried the metallic disk from Langdon's hand and slid it back into the pocket of his tweed coat. â€Å"The dot stays with you. At least for the moment.† Langdon felt lost. â€Å"How the hell could Fache actually believe I killed Jacques Sauniere!† â€Å"He has some fairly persuasive reasons to suspect you.† Sophie's expression was grim. â€Å"There is a piece of evidence here that you have not yet seen. Fache has kept it carefully hidden from you.† Langdon could only stare. â€Å"Do you recall the three lines of text that Sauniere wrote on the floor?† Langdon nodded. The numbers and words were imprinted on Langdon's mind. Sophie's voice dropped to a whisper now. â€Å"Unfortunately, what you saw was not the entire message. There was a fourth line that Fache photographed and then wiped clean before you arrived.† Although Langdon knew the soluble ink of a watermark stylus could easily be wiped away, he could not imagine why Fache would erase evidence. â€Å"The last line of the message,† Sophie said,† was something Fache did not want you to know about.† She paused. â€Å"At least not until he was done with you.† Sophie produced a computer printout of a photo from her sweater pocket and began unfolding it. â€Å"Fache uploaded images of the crime scene to the Cryptology Department earlier tonight in hopes we could figure out what Sauniere's message was trying to say. This is a photo of the complete message.† She handed the page to Langdon. Bewildered, Langdon looked at the image. The close-up photo revealed the glowing message on the parquet floor. The final line hit Langdon like a kick in the gut. 13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5 O, Draconian devil! Oh, lame saint! P. S.Find Robert Langdon

Costs and Contract Terms Essay

Executive Summary Over the span of 168 simulated days, team Honeybadgers managed the Littlefield Technologies job shop. The team’s objective was to maximize the firm’s cash position relative to the rest of the class. Using 50 days of historical data, the team reviewed re-order points, re-order quantity, capacity, lead times, and therefore contract terms. The team also weighed the cost of new machines against capital for inventory and interest rates, evaluating the return on investment and the impact a new machine had on lead times. Using this consideration set, team Honeybadgers purchased one tuning machine, one stuffing machine, and changed the contract terms on ten occasions. Ultimately, the team placed 5th. Actions & Analysis Changing Contract Terms: A 7 day lead time generated higher revenue than the other contract terms during the first 50 days. However, we observed that there was a stretch of 5-8 days when the lead time was below a 1 day lead time during the first 50 days. Evaluating the first 50 days more closely revealed that approximately every 15-20 days, the lead time dropped substantially. Noticing a pattern, and aware that a different contract time could generate more revenue, we decided to micromanage the contracts to optimize revenue. For the duration of simulation, we adjusted contract according to the trending lead time. In times of high demand, when a lead time was more than 18 hours, we opted not to use contract #3 because of the cost of each order (avg. job cost+ordering cost = $608.33) Micromanaging the contracts according to lead times was a temporary solution. This strategy allowed us to optimize revenue when we did not have the capital to purchase a machine. Purchasing Tuning and Stuffing Machines: We originally wanted to purchase both a tuning and stuffing machine because both stations had long stretches when capacity was maxed out. However, without sufficient capital, we had to ration purchases. The tuning machine was at capacity more often. At one point the machine was at capacity for 18 days in a row. Purchasing the tuning machine eliminated a bottleneck at that station, which allowed us to produce more DSS products. Although the Tuning machine was prioritized, the bottleneck at the Stuffing machine was nearly as problematic as the Tuning station’s. The Stuffing machine was at capacity for 15 days in a row. After purchasing the Stuffing machine, bottleneck shifted again, and we were able to produce more DSS products. We did not purchase a third machine because it was unclear whether the revenue earned would offset the cost of the machine. The lead time was hovering around  ½ a day when we had the capital to make the purchase, and we did not believe the additional machine would improve our lead time enough to justify a purchase. In retrospect both machines should have been purchased earlier. We will evaluate the benefits of this approach in the â€Å"Risks and Evaluations† section. Choosing Not to Borrow: When we became eligible to take out a loan, we decided to forego the option because we did not need to borrow. Our cash standing was relatively high throughout the simulation because micromanaging contract terms proved fairly effective. Another deterrent was the grossly high interest rate. A 20% interest rate mitigated any added benefit gained from taking out a loan. Choosing Not to change re-order point: Re-ordering kits was a sizeable fixed cost, but we did not adjust the re-order point / order quantity because demand variability was fairly high. We were aware there was an opportunity cost associated with holding too much inventory because we could have earned interest revenue from the cash spent on inventory. However, we kept the order amounts Q high because (1)we want to save ordering cost and (2) we were not concerned with having too much inventory on hand when there was no direct cost (such as warehousing) associated with holding inventory. Inventory Strategy Final Hours: During the last 12 simulation days we considered developing a plan to minimize our inventory at the end of the simulation. However, we were not sure how to calculate this, and the costs associated with running of inventory was too high to risk making a mistake. Results The Honeybadgers team finished the Littlefield simulation in fifth place, posting $1,511,424 in cash. The team’s final cash position was $104,192 below the first place team, earning 93.5% of their total revenue. Risks and Evaluations At the beginning of the simulation, we wanted to maintain a high R and Q because we wanted to avoid high ordering costs. While we considered keeping inventory low to save money for a new machine, we were not sure the improved lead time could offset the cost of machines. However, in hindsight we realized that we could have managed R and Q better early in the simulation, so as to minimize the amount of excess raw inventory. We now know that we could have adjusted R according to the variability of demand, holding that the more demand fluctuates; the higher R is and vice versa. We believe that this tactic could have allowed us to accumulate enough cash to purchase machines earlier, possibly as early as day 80 or 90. Purchasing a machine earlier could have improved lead times, allowing us to switch to contract #3 earlier so as to generate more revenue. We should have balanced between ordering costs during the last 100 days and the cost of having excessive or unnecessary inventory after last day. In the last day we still had approximately $80k of inventory, which held no value after demand ceased. Managing inventory better would have given more cash on hand.

1959, The Year That Changed Jazz

1959, The Year That Changed Jazz The year 1959 was marked a monumental year in American music history. Many American jazz artists made recordings that influenced society profoundly and left a lasting impact that still is present to this day. Musical experimentation during this year is considered the apogee of American jazz achievement, and jazz reached new heights that were characterized by innovation, creativity, ingenuity, magnificence, groove, and much more. In essence, four major jazz albums were created that changed music forever: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, Charles Mingus’ Ah Um, and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue has attracted more people to jazz than any other jazz recording, even after being released more than fifty years ago. The album developed a new, powerful, and grand jazz musical statement. The Kind of Blue album typifies a modal jazz style, which is music based on the extensive repetition of one or two chords or music based on modes instead of chord progression. Kind of Blue’s â€Å"So What† improvised, no time-referenced, and without a clear beat opening with the bass and the piano sets an unclear and cloudy idea in where the song was heading, with a grand riff setting the energy and Jimmy Cobb performing an incredible cymbal crash following the introduction. So what’s main characteristic is Miles’ hippy and haunting trumpet sound, which was unique and special and was developed from his playing during the bebop era with musicians such as Charlie Parker, the main alto saxophonist of the bebop era. Kind of Blue is so importa nt when it comes to American jazz history because it has exerted a prodigious influence on jazz music and on the legacy of its band members. Moreover, it opened up to a new direction in jazz music, along with a more thoughtful viewpoint on creating jazz compositions. Three interesting facts about Kind of Blue is that it is the biggest selling jazz album ever made, shifting over five million copies, it regularly tops best jazz album polls and is featured high in lists of greatest albums of any category, and that it took Miles and the group seven hours to record Kind of Blue, with all but one of the tracks being first takes. A funny story about Miles Davis and the quartet was that when they are recording Kind of Blue the first time, an engineer told Miles Davis and the band that the drums were making a surface noise, and Miles Davis hollered back at him and told him that it was a part of the album while recording. Dave Brubeck’s Time Out album is known for the rhythmic experimentation of pianist Dave Brubeck. The style of Time Out is cool jazz, in which the music was not as jagged, unpredictable, and sophisticated in comparison to bebop, and was subtler and incorporated classical harmonic devices in composition. Take Five, one of the tracks in the Time Out album, was composed in 5/4 time, and was written around a drum solo. Time Out is so important when it comes to American jazz history because it was so easily accessible to the average citizen because it was not too complicated and appealing as the group represented America’s middle class. Three interesting facts about Time Out is that each track is written in a different time signature and tempo, it rose up in the pop charts and became one of the bestselling jazz recording ever released, and that it took Dave Brubeck several years to build the line-up of his quartet that recorded the album Time Out. An interesting story about D ave Brubeck’s quartet is that when the quartet added African-American bassist Eugene Wright and were touring universities in the southern states of America, the president of a college the quartet visited was concerned because the students were getting wild and loud and asked Dave Brubeck to place Eugene Wright in the back of the stage to avoid being noticed. However, during the second tune, Dave Brubeck asked Eugene Wright to come play his solo in front of the stage, and Eugene Wright performed in front of the whole audience, unaware before heading to the front of the stage that Dave Brubeck was plotting this move. Charles Mingus’ Ah Um album is known as a grand jazz musical statement that was incredible and influential around America. Charles Mingus, a bass player and composer, believed that time was alive at the same moment and wanted freedom in playing, writing, and encouraging his musicians to improvise in any musical style, and did not view jazz as a development of new styles as the years passed by. The style of Ah Um is post-bop, where it incorporates a variety of styles such as modal jazz, avant-garde, free jazz, and hard bop all together. Several tracks in the Ah Um album include â€Å"Better Git It In Your Soul,† which is known as the incredible opening track of the Ah Um album and Self Portrait In Three Colors,† which is known as a composed, multi-faceted composition without any solos. While Charles Mingus was known to be a temperamental, aggressive, and demanding musician and composer, he was an extraordinary player and improviser, and used music to express emotio ns and feelings, such as passion, tenderness, spirituality, and much more. Ah Um is so important when it comes to American jazz history because it expressed socioracial struggles and other political beliefs that served as an influential message against racism in America, which helped create an atmosphere which led people to respect a person beyond the distinctions of color. Three interesting facts about Ah Um is that it was one of four albums Charles Mingus had made that year, Charles Mingus allowed for the other musicians to incorporated different musical elements during improvisation in a colorful and provocative way, and it featured the track â€Å"Fables of Faubus,† which was based on an event in 1957 in which Arkansas Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to prevent African-American teenagers from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and did not want to allow integration, despite a court case being settled on in the Supreme Court. An interesting st ory about Charles Mingus and the group is that one night in a little club on West 4th Street in New York City, Charles Mingus got furious in an argument with the pianist and yelled â€Å"You’re not playing yourself, you’re playing notes,† and put his arm inside the piano and grabbed the strings and pulled them out with one fist. Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come is known as a spectacular and bold musical statement unlike any jazz album every recorded before. One of The Shape of Jazz to Come’s tracks, Lonely Woman, is considered one of the greatest jazz compositions every written, which blended and brought Ornette Coleman and the quartet together as one. The Shape of Jazz to Come album exemplifies a free-jazz, a classification of the avant-garde style, where the music contains improvised solos which are free of preset chord progressions, and sometimes also free of preset meter. Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come is so important when it comes to American jazz history is was influential in such that the way that people looked at jazz and interpreted the style and sound of jazz music changed. Three interesting facts about The Shape of Jazz to Come is that Ornette Coleman used his signature plastic saxophone when the quartet recorded the album, the quartet did not feature a chordal instrument such as a piano or guitar while recording the album, and it featured Ornette Coleman’s â€Å"harmolodic† philosophy, where the group simultaneously improvises around the melodic and rhythmic pattern in a tune, rather than one musician improvising on a underlying harmonic pattern while the other musicians play the accompaniment. An interesting story about Ornette Coleman is that he had trouble finding any musician who was interested in his unorthodox musical technique, and one day he entered a club by MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, and following that night, bassist Charlie Haden tracked Ornette Coleman down, which eventually led to the creation of the quartet that recorded The Shape of Jazz to Come. In conclusion, the year 1959 was a monumental year for jazz. The influential music played by some greatest jazz musicians in America reached all corners of the country and many parts of the global world. Each of the jazz musicians prominently helped shape the American society in many ways: the political statements made through Charles Mingus’ playing, the demand for respect by Miles Davis, the tour by Dave Brubeck as part a program of cultural dà ©tente to spread the word of American freedom in countries around of Soviet Russia such as Poland, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Iraq and how jazz serves as a voice of freedom despite how the chains of segregation had divided the American society, and how Ornette Coleman’s playing changed how people viewed and interpreted jazz, despite the paranoia in the nuclear age. Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue helped open up the horizon for jazz expression, Dave Brubeck’s Time Out was the acme for jazz innovatio n, Charles Mingus’s Ah Um spread his emotions about life and spread a message to always be yourself, and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come served as the foundation for new forms of jazz music and defied the status quo.

The Importance of Companys Management Assignment

The Importance of Companys Management - Assignment Example The company took a different direction after Zhang Ruimin took over as the CEO. The company is now regarded as one of the fast developing and aspiring Chinese brands in the International Market. Before Zhang came to the rescue of the company, the Haier Group had a group of undisciplined and low-skilled employees and suffered from low productivity and reduced product quality. Zhang faced difficult times while trying to rescue the company from management mayhem and financial turmoil (Lau & Han 1-2). In order to liberate the company, Zhang instituted an organizational philosophy and rules and overhauled the business strategy to establish an incentive-oriented management control system. As the company continued to grow, Zhang was proud of its growth. However, one of the hurdles facing the company was how to fine-tune its processes and structure to face transformations in the current competitive global market. In order for the company to sustain growth in the future, it needs to consider how it will motivate its workers in the future to attain high performance goals, and how it will revolutionize the management control system to adjust to the organization’s internationalization stratagems. ... However, as the organization’s operations grew, it shifted from a process to people oriented approach. This led to the implementation of OEC management system, which aroused the employee’s sense of responsibility (Lau & Han 4). This management system grouped people into small groups with different standards and targets. This required every group to ensure that it attained the targets. This made the groups repeat the processes in order to find means of improving their process the same day (Lau & Han 5). The fact that the employees were required to come up with ways on how to improve their process within the same day would have acted as a less motivating factor. Notably, most of the processes in an organization require a considerable number of hours if the process fails or does not meet the target result then the employees will have to redo the process and will spend more time and will have overworked within that day. It is imperative to note that overworking of employees is one of the factors that contribute to low levels of motivation among employees. This may make the workers feel overburdened with huge work that can make them stressed and less motivated. Therefore, it is significant to recommend an OEC management system with a longer timeline such as two days or a week, or a management system that gives few processes to be accomplished within a given time. For instance, an OEC management system that gives three tasks that can be accomplished within five days. The reward system adopted by Haier is based on the performance of each product division recorded by the product manager (Lau & Han 7). Though this seems to be an

Working conditions in the uk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Working conditions in the uk - Essay Example However, to qualify an unemployed person one need to have the willingness and ability to work, officially designated to be in the category of ‘working age’, actively seeking a job. Unemployment for the youth is one of those contentious political issues which are also acting as a burden for the people leading their life through it. According to international Labour Organization, around 73 million young people are still unemployed which is having a significant impact on the global economy and is literally turning into a global concern (Martin, 2014). The graph above clearly shows that the level of youth unemployment is increasing at a steady pace. The reasons for the increasing unemployment rate vary across the national context. As a result of that it is difficult to track one single cause for which the rate of youth unemployment is continuously fluctuating. In this paper, the focus will be on the youth employment level of UK and the same will be analyzed from the point of view of the government and through moral frameworks. In UK, the age bracket for qualifying as an unemployed youth it is 18-25 years. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that presently the total numbers of unemployed youth in UK is around 950,000 people and it accounts to almost 23% of the total qualified youth people (Mount, 2013). One of the biggest distressing facts is that the number is too high when compared with the other nations of European Union such as Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium. The high levels of youth unemployment in UK have led some of the media commentators and politicians to talk about â€Å"the lost generation† (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee, 2012). Some of the key consequences of youth unemployment is it lowers the potential wages. Apart from that it also increases the probability of a worker experiencing unemployment during the adulthood period. Some of the industry

Organization Design 4370 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organization Design 4370 - Assignment Example This way, the company ensures that the changes it seeks to undertake are well supported. The company has been involved in organizational restructuring. For example in the year 2005, the company was involved in change restructuring of its workforce, to reduce its number of employees by 330, 000. Such changes was aimed at reducing expenses, removing the bureaucracy involved in its management and enable it to expand its operations to low cost countries (Emerson, 81). Innovation has been the driving force for change, through its consistent involvement in research for new technologies and integrating such changes in the organization. People and corporate culture are the major obstacles for change within the organization. Having introduced a culture of recruiting employees every so often, the introduction of a change such as employees overhaul is blocked by people. The company has adopted a strategy for change, to reduce transformation and operational costs and maximize on the dedication of stakeholders to its change strategy (Emerson,

Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 5

Research Proposal Example mmodities and rising wealth companies like Starbucks, Cafà © Coffee day have been trying to increase their market share and it is going to continue until there is a Coffee shop in almost every town or every other town. In India the ready-to-drink tea and coffee market has picked up a great business in the last 5 years. According to some study this market is expected to grow to $ 225 million by 2017. The domestic market is dominated by outlets like Cafà © Coffee Day, Costa Coffee, and Barista etc. and is estimated at $ 110 million. In the past decade, 1,200 cafes have come up across India registering an annual average growth rate of around 40 percent. According to Harish Bijoor Consultants (2010), CCD in India has around 70 percent of coffee outlets. Though the coffee consumption demand in India is not very high in India in comparison with other European countries or US but still demand exceeds supply. If CCD in India can add around 1000 cafes over the next two years then it will be virtually invincible. The coffee retail chains have been engaged in a healthy battle for many years. Competitors like Barista have done some radical experiments with food in its outlet with success. Thus CCD has also started focusing on food items in its outlet. CCD has started a coffee centre which caters to coffee connoisseur and business clients looking for internet access. CCD is trying to energize and stratify their brand. The company is trying to overhaul its brand through new cup, crockery designs, coffee machines which produces better brewed coffee, new wall paint and is spreading to other cities (Balasubramanyam, 2011, p. 1). CCD tries to reduce its operational cost to maximize its profitability and hence it concentrates on opening new outlets in cities where it can open a number of outlets. According to research conducted by Mr. S. Ramesh Kumar (2008), CCD presents its coffee with a special coffee experience which arouse a sense of Pleasure seeking within the customers. This

The Three Eras of Law Enforcement Research Paper

The Three Eras of Law Enforcement - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss the three eras of law enforcement looking at different aspects of the historical context of police, which will better help with understanding of how economic, political and social forces have molded the social policing institutions. The paper will also focus on the different transformational periods that law enforcement has undergone to be what it is today. The 1840-1930 political era has been associated with five main aspects namely the fact that authority came from law and the politicians, foot patrols were extensively used, the social service function was broad, there existed a strong connection between the force and the community and it also portrayed a decentralized organization. The political era’s main disadvantage lay on the aspect that the police authority mainly depended on the law and politics; on the other hand, the close political connections also presented certain challenges. For example, in New York regular officers even under the directive of a superior police officer could not be dismissed. The chief’s tenure was mainly limited to a year. Therefore, any early New York police officer who had strong political support could directly disobey the directives of his commanding officer. As compared to the British officers who were worried about things like wearing disorderly uniforms, showing up for work late and behaviors considered as disorderly to citizens, their American counterparts were assaulting their superiors, releasing their prisoners from other police officers custody and extorting money from the citizens. It is unnecessary to point out that during this era; corruption became a major issue in law enforcement. The biggest underlined factor for corruption was the soils system that had a motto that suggested that to the victor goes for the spoils. This ended up causing unrefined interruptions with the law enforcement. For example, there was an impression by

Representation of the femme fatal in sci-fi films, how has the femme Dissertation

Representation of the femme fatal in sci-fi films, how has the femme fatale changed from the 20th centaury to the 21st centaury - Dissertation Example But from literature, the femme fatale has inevitable seeped into other forms of art as well. In film, for instance, the role of the femme fatale has become a recognizable trope in certain genres, even inviting variations like spoofs or parodies of it. In film, the genre of film noir has generally monopolized or been associated traditionally with the use of the femme fatale. Film noir makes room for two kinds of female archetypes: the sweet, dutiful, loving and reliable women and the deceitful, mysterious, subversive and manipulative femmes fatales (Dirks, ‘Femme Fatale’, n.d.). An instance of a film where one finds both kinds is Double Indemnity (1944), where Phyllis Dietrichson, the homicidal wife who feigns interest in and plots with the insurance agent to kill her husband is the typical femme fatale while her step-daughter Lola Dietrichson, loving, honest and helpless, represents the only other type of woman that film noir allows for. The appearance and function of th e femme fatale in films has evolved over the years, and film noir is no longer the genre that monopolizes the use of this figure. Science-fiction films have also been repeatedly invoking the figure of the femme fatale over the years to complement their other thematic concerns. How, why and where this use of the femme fatale has taken place will be evaluated in the course of this paper. What evolving roles has the femme fatale been invoked to perform; what common patterns and departures from such patterns have occurred in their representation; what universal concerns, if any, has the femme fatale stood for: these are a few of the questions which this paper will seek to answer. The femme fatale must first be defined for us to be able to identify her in different works of art. There are certain characteristics that are popularly recognized as being typical of the femme fatale. Tim Dirks’s description of femmes fatales as ‘mysterious, duplicitous, subversive, double-crossin g, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women (‘Femme Fatale’, n.d.)’ puts in place some of these commonly accepted associations of the femme fatale. However, there is no real consensus among either critics or moviegoers of what exactly defines the femme fatale. The term is flexible and allows for a wide range of interpretations. There can be elements of the femme fatale in some characters that do not otherwise wholly conform to the stereotype and vice versa. To begin our exploration into the role of femmes fatales in science fiction films over the years it is instructive to first attempt providing an introduction to, if not a definition of, the femme fatale through the eyes of various critics and scholars over time. This attempt at defining femme fatale has been a long ongoing process in film studies, and not often with much success. There are often inherent obstacles in the act of defining itself. As critic Linda Ruth Williams declares that though most critics try to provide a ‘psychoanalytic or socially informed’ analysis of the femme fatale, what happens more often than not is succumbing to the impulse to ‘

Dispersed Team Dynamics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dispersed Team Dynamics - Term Paper Example It may be good for dispersed teams to hire external consultants to develop improved leadership in the virtual team environment. Such consultants are likely well aware of the digital technologies rather than face to face communication and team building methods to promote virtual team leadership. Buono (2004, p.144) reflects that the team leader can use the consultant’s expertise and experience to foster knowledge/information sharing in the workgroup environment. It is evident that the use of advanced technologies and hiring of external management consultants would incur additional costs for organizations. In case of digital communication networks and other technologies, the organization needs to spend further for maintenance and updation purposes, and this situation may increase the overall operating costs of the business. In addition, the company may have to raise additional funds to finance face to face orientation meetings and other workshop programs designed to improve inte rpersonal communication among the team members. Although the virtual team development requires such additional investments, this initial spending would benefit organizations to improve the performance efficiency of teams and to increase the operating revenues in the long run. To be more specific, when mutual trust and communicative relationships are improved in the virtual team environment, the team members tend to engage more actively in their work tasks, and this situation may increase the overall employee productivity.

Stereotypes in Film Essay Example for Free

Stereotypes in Film Essay Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary clearly defines ethnocentrism as the â€Å"characterization by or based on the attitude that ones own group is superior. † To address the deeper issues associated to ethnocentrism requires a more explicit definition. In this sense, ethnocentrism can be defined as the making of false assumptions regarding others ways based on our own limited experience. The key word is assumptions, because oftentimes we are not even aware that we are being ethnocentric we dont understand that we dont understand. These mannerisms lead to seeing other ways of life through a slanted perspective which can lead to unhealthy feelings of haughtiness and self-righteousness. A variety of cultures can appear differently, depending on our perspective. In many ways we are like the blind men in the fable written by the Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, The Blind Men and the Elephant. â€Å"A beast of mystery appeared in the land of the blind. The raja sent his advisors out to investigate. Waiting until the mysterious beast was sleeping, they touched it. When the blind men had felt the creature, the raja went to each of them and said to each, Well, blind man, have you seen this beast? Tell me, what sort of thing is the creature? There upon the men who were presented with the body answered, Sire, this beast is like a wall. While the men who had observed the ear replied, No, this animal is like a fan. Those who had touched the tusk said, ‘The beast is like a spear. ’ Those who knew only the trunk said it was a snake; others said the leg was a tree; the tail, a rope. All of these blind men described parts of the same thing a sleeping elephant. As you can see, the blind men had only a partial view of the elephant. There moral here is that if you put together your partial views in proper order, you will get an idea of what an elephant looks like. As Americans we seem to be limited by our own perspectives of given cultures and groups of people and fail to see the variety of viewpoints present. Assumptions can also reflect false positive attitudes about others ways. For example, we in an urban industrial society frequently think of other cultures as being free of the stresses of modern society. Unfortunately this view fails to recognize that many stresses are present in their way of life, including the threat of disease, risk of starvation, and lack of transportation to name a few. False positive assumptions are just as misleading as false negative assumptions. Ethnocentrism leads to misunderstanding others and the generalization regarding a person or group of persons, stereotyping. We falsely distort what is meaningful and functional to other peoples through our own point of view. We see their ways in terms of our life experience, not their context. We do not understand that their ways have their own meanings and functions in life, just as our ways have for us. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. In the absence of the total picture, stereotypes in many cases allow us to fill in the blanks. Our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution when the stereotype is unfavorable. For example, if you were walking downtown late at night and come upon three senior citizens walking with canes and wearing fur coats, you may not feel as intimidated as if you encountered three college-aged boys wearing leather jackets. Why is this so? In each case we have made a generalization. These generalizations have been formed based on experiences we have had ourselves, read about in books and magazines, seen in movies or television, or have had related to us by friends and family. In many cases, these stereotypical generalizations are reasonably accurate. Yet, in virtually every case, we are resorting to prejudice by ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about individuals who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. So here we have a paradox: we falsely assume because we are not even aware we are assuming and furthermore it is the normal thing to do. We cannot not be ethnocentric, and we cannot will it away or make ourselves have a completely open attitude. Is it ever possible not to be ethnocentric?

The Supply and Demand of Oil Essay Example for Free

The Supply and Demand of Oil Essay Most people, especially the anti-American regime, blame George Bush as the main reason why oil prices in the international market has been increasing in the recent years. According to them, George Bush serves as an avenue for Iraq and its allies in the Middle East to cut their supply of oil in the world market as a â€Å"payback† for attacking Iraq. Back in the early 2000’s, George Bush commence a war against Iraq for the reasons that he want to end terrorist groups that houses in the said country as well as to spread democracy in the middle east. Iraq, one of the top oil producers in the world market, in response to the action of the United States, Iraq, together with other Islamic countries, cut their oil supply in the world market for United States to suffer from rising oil prices since it is the main consumer of oil in the world market.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Little this people know, George Bush is not liable for the rising of oil prices in the international market. Iraq as well as other oil producing countries around the globe is a member of OPEC – an organization of oil producing countries operating as a cartel. Cartel, just like OPEC, manipulates the supply of a certain good in order to influence the market price in the market for the benefit of its members and/or depends on the capacity of oil that its member countries can provide to the world market. The said cutting of oil supply of Iraq and other Islamic countries was just a move initiated largely by OPEC and was not because of the war commenced by George Bush. Even if the said attack in Iraq of the United States influenced the decision of Iraqi government and other Islamic countries to cut their oil supply in the world market, but its level of significance was not enough in order to say that George Bush was liable for the rising of oil prices in the market. Price Gouging   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another fallacy that most people believed to be one of the factors that triggered the rising of oil prices in the market would be the price gouging of domestic oil firms in the market that unreasonably increases the prices of gasoline in the market. People that believes in this factor claims that domestic oil firms only wants to further increase their profitability and only uses the condition of world market for oil as a leeway in order to justify its indiscriminate and unjustifiable price increase on gasoline and other petroleum products in the domestic market. Moreover, say that price of oil in the world market indeed increase due to shortage of oil, domestic oil firms charges more than the amount that they should charge to their customers just to maintain their profitability. In other words, ignorant people about the real score on the rising of oil prices accuse domestic oil firms from cheating on them. Even if it is possible, the government would not allow such even to happen. There is a more logical reason why oil prices and other petroleum products are increasing robustly in the market in the recent years. In some countries, like for the case of the Philippines, they have the Department of Energy that monitors and approves the price increase of their domestic oil firms.   In short, domestic oil firms cannot just unreasonably raise their prices since the government keeps eye on them. Moreover, the value judgment of people claiming this factor as one of the factors that triggers the rising of oil prices in the market is based on emotions and on what they see on their immediate environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Just like the case of the first fallacy discussed above, these types of people hastily makes conclusion without conducting thoroughly research and study. At the end of the day, the association of price gouging and oil price hike is not but a fallacy, a fallacy of hasty conclusion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Price Fixing of OPEC   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Few decades after the establishment of OPEC, it mainly has the power to influence and manipulate prices of oil in the international market by either raising or cutting the volume of oil that they supply in the international market. But in the recent years, due to the depleting oil reserves of many oil producing countries, especially oil producing countries in the Middle East, OPEC has been increasing the prices of their oil in the market robustly in the recent years not because they want to but because they are forced to. But many people still are skeptical on the real score on the rising of OPEC’s oil in the international market. Those statements of many people claiming that OPEC manipulates the prices of oil in the world market are making a foregone conclusion (Peopledaily.com.cn 2004). Before this claim seems to fit, but now, amidst to the problem on depleting oil reserves of many oil producing countries, this claim does not hold anymore.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the end of the day, people, especially consumers that are not well-informed about the current situation of oil reserves of various oil producing countries in the world market, are insisting that OPEC, as a cartel, takes advantage of its market power and indiscriminately charges higher prices that what is should be optimally charging to its customers. Again, these claims of above mentioned people are nothing but a mere fallacy for they do not have the strong argumentation about the true roots of oil price increase in the international market. The Real Issue – Supply and Demand   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The main and acceptable reason behind the pricing of oil prices in the world market would be the level of supply and demand in the market. These economic factors are the determinants of â€Å"right† and â€Å"justifiable† market price of oil in the market. There are no other factors that can influence the price of oil justifiably other than the demand-supply relationship since these factors are market driven and being controlled by all of the sectors in the economy. Demand, as a one of the economic factors that influences the spiking of oil prices in the market, accounts to all of the industries’ degree of importance of oil in the market. It also accounts all of the political and social factors of the market and incorporates these factors to the consumption behavior of the consumers in the market. In other words, demand is a good determinant of â€Å"true† value of market prices of goods and services in the economy. It is the market forces that influence the level of demand of goods and services in the market, and this market forces always provides benefits to the society as a whole. At the end of the day, demand reflects degree of importance of oil in various sectors as well as accounts all the social and political factors that affect such degree of importance of oil. On the other hand, the supply is also another important economic factor that greatly influences the price increase of oil in the international market. Supply provides the willingness to accept of producers in the market. Like for the case of oil industry, the oil prices that is triggered by supply factor is mainly reflects how much price the oil producing countries are willing to accept in order for them to produce oil in the market. In other words, supply reveals the prices that oil producing countries are willing to receive in order for them to continue their production of oil in the market. Given that oil reserves of oil of most oil producing countries are starting to deplete creating an avenue for them to supply oil less in the international market, it creates enough market pressure for oil prices in the world market to increase robustly. Since the oil reserves of oil producing countries are depleting, the willingness to accept of oil producing countries increases as a move to protect their profitability (Schoen, 2004). But increasing their willingness to accept would give them enough room to raise their profit since they can haggle for higher prices of oil in the market to the consumers. This scenario is the one that is happening at present times – oil producing countries and OPEC are forced to raise their prices, or willingness to accept, due to their depleting oil reserves and not primarily because of the high demand in the market, while consumers shoulders all of the burden (Newscientist.com 2007). The Supply and Demand of Oil In the recent years, the prices of oil in the international market has been increasing due to the depletion of oil reserves of many oil producing countries and member countries of OPEC. This issue has already been discussed in the previous part of this paper. It was identified that the price of oil in the world market already breaks its previous records. The price of oil in the world market per barrel as one the previous month is averaging to $140/barrel which only suggest how severe the shortage of oil in the world market is. Given a high demand for oil in the market, assuming a constant supply of oil in the market, prices would surely increase significantly since the willingness to accept and willingness to pay of producers and consumers respectively will increase. Since oil is one of the major commodity of most industries nowadays, the demand for oil is overwhelming for most oil exporting countries, and so with OPEC (Muhanna, 2004). But this overwhelming feeling of OPEC and other oil exporting countries won’t last long considering that they do not have enough oil reserves to supply the large demand of consumers in the market. As a result, in order to maintain their present profitability, OPEC and other oil exporting countries are forced to raise the prices of their oil in the market, regardless of the level of demand of consumers for oil. In this regard, if is therefore clear that demand and supply relationship of oil is the one that currently influences the spiking of oil prices in the world market. In this regard, it is therefore clear that demand and supply of oil in the world market is the main factor why oil price has been spiking in the recent years and not because of the above mentioned fallacies about the rising of oil prices raised by â€Å"emotional† based judgment of consumers and ignorant people. References Muhanna, I. (2004). Oil Price Hike. Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6section=0article=51086d=6m=9y=2004 Newscientist.com (2007). Depleting Oil Supplies Threaten â€Å"Meltdown in Society†. Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/energy-fuels/mg19626273.900-depleting-oil-supplies-threaten-meltdown-in-society.html Peopledaily.com.cn (2004). Ten Specious Fallacies on Current World’s High Oil Prices. Retrieved 26, 2008, from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200409/07/eng20040907_156168.html Schoen, J. W. (2004). How Long will the Word’s Oil Last? Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5945678/

India As A Tourist Destination Tourism Essay

India As A Tourist Destination Tourism Essay The term marketing has a very important meaning in the area such as retailing, branding and other similar areas such as event marketing. On the other hand, marketing in tourism and hospitality sectors are still legging comparing with the other areas. In this paper, different elements of tourism marketing will be explained with the help of understanding the concepts of marketing theory and research within tourism and hospitality sectors (Williams, 2006). Tourism is broadly defined as a business activity which is connected with providing accommodation, service and entertainment for people who are visiting a place for pleasure, recreation, leisure, business and so on (Chaudhary, 2010). It becomes an integral part of todays lifestyle. Hence, tourism marketing is also one of the important sectors where more effort and concern has been given to increase the standard of tourism all over. The reason behind this new trend is due to the increase of cross-cultural activities and due to the pass ion of people for visiting new destination. Also, the volume of tourism activity and the value is increasing compare to holiday destinations. This creates an inconsistency between tourism demand and supply, thereby creating under-utilized tourism capacity (Kaynak Kucukemiroglu, 1993). Position: Scope and the Objective of the study This paper discuss about the different marketing concepts which are used in tourism marketing and their application to generate different marketing strategy. In this paper, India has been chosen as the holiday destination. Hence all the research and analyze has been done to identified different marketing strategies to increase and promote Indian tourism all over. Scope and Objectives: The objectives of this research are as follows: To study the  theoretical  framework for marketing in tourism and the concept of marketing  strategy  in the tourism  industry this includes: PEST analysis, marketing mix,  segmentation, targeting and positioning. Conduct surveys and analyze India as a holiday destination and compare it with other  holiday destination To explore the perception of India as tourist destination Global Tourism Industry Todays era, the tourism Industry is booming all over the world. Tourism has become one the significant ingredient of mankind. A new tourism industry is rising which is driven by new consumers, new technologies, new ideas and new management techniques (Poon, 1993). The opportunities in the tourism industry are increasing with time and it is considered that at the end of 21st century, the tourism industry will generate more than 500 million employments whole over the world which will results in the increase of GDP by the tourism industry upto 15% (LCS Parking, 2012). Emerge of special marketing concepts including special tourist segments where the special segment refers to the the provision of customized leisure and recreational experiences driven by specific interests of individuals and groups (Sung, 2004) increases the number of tourists all over. According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, despite of economic crisis in some of the major outbound markets around world, the total n umber of international tourists travel between the January to April 2012 is more than 285 million which indicates a growth of 5.4% compare to the last year (UNWTO, 2012). The main consideration of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) is to provide with the best possible facilities and service for a distinct and specific need of the tourists (Sung H. H., 2004) and ensure benefits for consumers, business, local people and the environment. To provide the best facilities there is an immense change in the Tourism Industry (World Travel Tourism Council, 2012). The infrastructure and accommodation is one of the key sectors of the tourist industry. Even the advanced and sophisticated communication technology helps the actual and potential tourists all over with their expectations, personalities, and ever-changing needs (Pyo, Uysal, Chang, 2002). Expected Result of the study Literature Review A General Overview of Tourism What is Tourism Marketing? A product can be idea, goods, or service. Since the tourism industry is primarily a serviced-based industry, the main products provided by tourism business are recreational experiences and hospitality. This are intangible products and much more difficult to market than the tangible product. The intangible nature of services makes quality control difficult but crucial. It also makes it more difficult for potential customers to evaluate and compare service offerings (Chaudhary, Indroduction to Tourism Marketing, 2012). In addition, instead of moving the product to the consumer, the customer must travel to the product (area/community). Travels forms a significant portion of time and money spent in association with tourism experiences and is a major factor in peoples decisions on whether or not to visit a place (Vukonic, 1983). Tourism marketing or the marketing in relation to tourism means the process of achieving voluntary exchange between: Tourist who want to appreciate/ experience product and service. Organisations which put together and offer the product and service. The WTO defines tourism marketing as a management philosophy that in the light of tourism demands makes it possible through research, forecasting, and selection to place tourism product on the market most in line with the organizations purpose for greater benefits. Nature of Tourism Marketing Marketing is different perspectives that provide an understanding of the nature of marketing and tourism marketing (Panda, 2009). Marketing is an activity: Marketing is explained as an activity that is carried by a marketer to give its offer to customers. For example, marketing of a tour packages involves assembling the package, promoting it, and arrange it for sales. The focus in this perspective is to make the activity cost-effective and efficient. Marketing is an economic process: Marketing generates revenues directly through transactions and indirectly through its multiplier effect and employment generation. Here efforts are made to maximize economic benefits. Tourism marketing in its initial phase focused on economic benefits. Marketing is a social process: Marketing as a social process involves interaction and relationship between participants coming from different walks of life and society. The social process make host-guest relationship an important part of tourism marketing. Right to travel and pro-poor tourism have developed in response to the different social process. Marketing in managerial process Marketing is considered to be a business function that undertakes all managerial functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling to carry out different activities. Overall, marketing can be combined together. It can be the economic, social, managerial process and activity at the same time. However, its different natures may dominate at different times. Process of Tourism Marketing Tourism marketing is a cycle process that begins with the understanding of drives, needs, wants and demands of tourists who are satisfied through suitable offers by entering into an exchange process with the marketers. The feedback of exchange is used by both the parties for the future relations. The different elements of a cyclic process give an insight of tourism marketing. Capture.PNG Fig: Tourism Marketing Process Understanding Needs, Drives, Wants and Demands of Tourists It is very important to know the tourist behavior as it will helps in delivering desired satisfaction. This begins with the identification of their needs, drives, want and demands. Need: Need is the felt gap between the existing and the desired state. Need motivates a person to act when it reaches the threshold level and it can be both physical and psychological. Marketers identify the need of people that direct their tourism behavior and offers alternatives to satisfy their needs. Maslows framework can be used to understand these needs. It divides the human needs into five categories of physical, safety, love and esteem and self-actualization. Tourists need a minimum acceptable level of food and accommodation at a place before travel. Safety need is reflected in the form of tourists need for law and order. That makes tourists avoid places of war, terrorism and conflicts. Need for love is the acceptance of tourists in the host society. In most of the cases, tourists prefer open societies than closed one. Esteem needs are tourists expectation that the host society would understand their importance and recognize the same. Lastly, self-actualization is undertaking trips that always been dreamt. Drive: Drive is the force created by needs. Unsatisfied needs create tension that drives the consumers to look for solutions. These solutions take the form of specific products. Buyers search for the best solution for their needs. The stimuli present in the environment give direction to drive. Want: Want is an expression of need in the specific form. Want are the thing which someone like but not really necessary. The need of recreation, leisure people generally tend to go for holiday. Marketers fit into the want framework other by redesigning offers or by assisting buyers in learning about new forms of product, services or idea. Demand: Demand is want accompanied by the purchasing power. It decides if the buyer has enough money to purchase. Demand changes with prices, substitutes, marketing efforts, inflation levels, income, etc. Demand can be created by building the purchasing power. For instance, when the demand for air travel has gone up than companies has introduced budget airlines. Growth of Tourism Marketing Tourism marketing evolved with the growth of tourism. The concept of tourism is very old, but its modern organized form started in the eighteenth century. Earlier, travel was undertaken for business and religious purpose. Tourism as a full- fledged a full- fledged business did not exist. Its marketing started with the first organized tours offered by Thomas Cook in 1841. Evolution of Tourism Marketing: Tourism marketing and its orientation has changed with the growth of tourism. Internationally, tourism came of age in 1950 and since then has seen a continuous change in the approach towards its development (Wang Pizam, 1998). The stages of tourism development and the corresponding marketing approaches are discussed below. Boosterism approach in the 1950s: It was the beginning of modern tourism and the emphasis was on boosting the tourism activity. This approach was based on the following assumptions towards tourism. Tourism is inherently good and should be developed. Cultural and natural resources should be exploited for tourism develop Economic Planning approaches in 1960s: As a result of the efforts of the earlier phases, the economic potential of tourism was well understood and new assumptions towards tourism were as follows. Tourism is like any other industry. Tourism can be used to create jobs, earn foreign exchange, and improve terms of trade, encourage regional development, and overcome economic disparities. Physical and spatial approach in the 1970s and the 1980s: The earlier approaches resulted in the massive growth in the massive growth of tourism. Mass tourism was not without consequences and its negative impacts on environment became visible and well known. This changed the earlier assumption of it being inherently good and harmless and new assumptions were formed. These were as follows. Tourism is a resource user. It exploits and destroys the natural resources used as tourism attractions. There has to be an ecological basis for its development to preserve the natural resources and tourism attractions. Tourism development can be geographically distributed to reduce the impacts. Community approach in 1990s: As tourism continued to developed, their social impacts were noticed. Particularly the local communication felt alienated. There were inconvenienced by the growth of mass tourism and were not in a position to decide on tourism development. As a result, tourism was opposed. It led to the focus on the following assumptions. Local community control on tourism development in the area is needed. Need for balanced development of tourism and search for alternatives to mass tourism. Social impact of tourism on a community and their attitudes toward tourism should be understood. Sustainable approach in the 1990s: Large-scale tourism development forced tourism planners to think of tourism development in a more holistic manner where the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural issues could be balanced. The concept of sustainable tourism was adopted for this purpose. The assumption for this approach is that a suitable balance must be established between environmental, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions of tourism development to ensure its long-term sustainability. Marketing orientation too becomes socio- environmental to balance the interests of tourism, marketers and the environment (Verbeek, Bargeman, Mommaas, 2011). Marketing Concepts for Tourism The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than the competitors do. Under the marketing concept, customer focus and value are the two important paths to sales and profit. Hence, the marketing concepts depend on the determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively than competitors do (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong, Saunders, 2008). Different marketing concepts are used in tourism industry are as discussed below. PEST Analysis in Tourism Market It is important to know about the market environment first for any marketers. In tourism this competition is fiercer, since the competition is almost in the destination of various states as well as countries. Market environment refers to the constitute forces which exist in the environment and influence the customer decision making. For scanning the tourism-marketing environment in India, the PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) Political Environment: Political environment influence tourism marketing through pressure groups, policies, rules and regulations, and legislation (Bennett Strydom, 2001). Pressure Group: These groups in society use political influence for the furtherance of certain issues. Green groups work for ecotourism, consumer group for tourist protection, cultural groups for protection of heritage and culture, industry groups for reduction of taxes and so on. These try to influence law-making bodies to create a suitable mechanism to address their concern. Law and Policies: The government regulates tourism with the help of laws that govern its different sector. The government creates policies as guidelines to provide direction for the development of tourism. For instance, the Tourist Policy 2002 guides tourism growth in India. Rules and Regulations: Rules regarding land allocation for hotels and tourism development, tax concessions, permits, registrations of tour operators and travel agents, open sky, budget airlines, and tourism police gives a direction for tourism growth. Economic Environment: The general economic environment of a country influences any economic activity. Growth of new sector: Growth of new sectors, such as information technology (IT), travel and tourism, retails and banking has given jobs to young people. This income is finding its outlet in recreation, including travel and hospitality. Growth of economy: Growth of new sectors lead to growth of economy. Easy availability of foreign exchange: Increase of foreign tourism leads in increase of foreign exchange. Social Environment: The social environment decides buying patterns of the tourists and the response of the society to tourism. The socio-cultural environment of a place decides the holiday choices regarding the type of destination, activities, duration of holiday, expenditure pattern and so on. Group behavior: Indians are group oriented. This makes group travel acceptable and likable. The reference group in framing opinions is also very important. Lifestyle changes: Globalizations has changed the lifestyle of people. People take tours frequently for a change and rejuvenations. Technological Environment: Technology has completely altered the way the tourism business is conducted. Transportation: Transportation technology has given faster and better vehicles to facilitate the movement of tourists to far off places. Information and communication Technology (ICT): Major changes have been introduced by information and communications technologies in tourism. Internet and online distribution systems have been improved. Marketing Mix in Tourism Market Tourism Product Tourism product is a mix of tangible and intangible elements. Kotler (1984) conceptualizes product as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that, might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, service, persons, places, organization and ideas. This takes the concept of product beyond physical objects and can very well include tourism. Medlik and Middleton (1973) conceptualize tourism product as a bundle of activities, services and benefits that constitute the entire tourism experience. The bundle consists of five components: destination attractions, destination facilities, accessibility, images and price. According to Smith (1994) a tourism product consists of five elements in a series of concentric circles. The core is tangible and more controllable by management but the outward progression marks more intangible elements and greater consumer participations. The tourism product is a synergistic combination of these elements. These elements are as follows. The physical plan: This is the core of a tourism product where the main attraction is produced. It can be natural such as landscape or waterfall, or facilities such as conference hall, theme park, hotel, etc. Service: Service refers to the performance of specific tasks required to meet the need of tourism. A hotel needs management, front desk operation, housekeeping, maintenance, and food and beverage provisions to function as a hotel. Hospitality: Consumers expect enhanced service or something extra. Hospitality is that extra provided over professional service. Freedom of choice: It refers to the necessity that the traveler has some acceptable range of options for a satisfactory experience. Involvement: This is participation by consumers in some degree in the delivery of service. Tourism is known to be a participative activity. Hegarty (1992) explain tourism product through the following components. Environment: It is the raw material of tourism that gives a tourist destination its particular appeal. It has natural, cultural, and social elements. Activities: These are based on and derived from the environment. Foe example, trekking, rafting, sightseeing and so on. Accommodation: A tourist must have a place to sleep and eat Transport: There must be ways of getting around the destination. Services: There are various services that support tourism such as information, health, booking and customs. Infrastructure: Tourism cannot work without basic infrastructure like roads, airports, telecommunication and medical support. Destination Life Cycle and Tourism Area Life Cycle: The concept of life cycle is applied to destination as TALC (Tourism Area Life Cycle) or DLC (Destination Life Cycle). It is defined as stages a destination goes through, from exploration to involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, rejuvenation, or decline (Howie, 2003). Tourism Area life cycle.PNG Fig: Tourism Area Life Cycle Butler (1980) proposed the tourism area life cycle model of a tourist destination that identifies the stage of exploration, development, consolidation, stagnation, and decline. Exploration: This is the beginning of the destination for tourist activities. At this stage the destination is relatively unknown and visitors initially come in small numbers restricted by lack of access, facilities and local knowledge. Development: The destination see development of amenities as more people discover them and word spreads about the attraction. Stagnation: Tourists arrivals grow rapidly some theoretical carrying capacity which involves social and environmental limits. The rise of exploration to stagnation often happens very rapidly, as implied by the exponential nature of growth curve. Decline or Rejuvenation: A destination would decline if it follows trajectories C, D, and E as shown in the above Figure. This will happen if the very attractions that created the destination are lost. However, it may continues to draw some tourists with increased consumption and unsustainable development but not for very long. Tourism pricing: Price is the momentary value decided for exchange of goods and services between the buyers and sellers. Both parties want maximum benefits from this exchange. Factors Influence Tourism Pricing Tourism pricing is influenced by a large number of factors relating to supply, demand and the environment. The cumulative effect decides the final price. Supply-side Factors: Supply of tourism services is characterised by perish-ability, geographical restrictions, and domination by intangibles, and with consumption that takes place instantly with production. All this affects pricing. The specific supply-related factors affecting prices are discussed below. Perishable: Tourism services tend to perish if not consumed. For example, if a place has a carrying capacity for 5,000 tourists per day, it will host 35,000 in a week. It cannot host all tourists in one day. Hence, tourism services are to be consumed as and when produced. To bear the cost of maintaining supplies throughout the year, the prices may fluctuate. Intangible: Tourism Services are dominated by intangibles and putting a momentary value for these is very difficult. Intangibility is used by the hotels to price rooms differently depending upon various factors. For example, room facing sea will be perceived differently from the one facing a road. Geographically restricted operations: All tourism services come defined with geographical constraints. For example, a diners clientele can get services at a particular place only where the diner is placed. Tourists can enjoy a national park only after getting there. This limits the potential of the restaurant and the park only to the people who get there. Fixed Capacity: Tourism supplies have a fixed capacity. In tourism, supplies are limited; hence prices tend to rise in relation to demand. For example, in a hotel double room cannot accommodate more than two people. Substitutes: Availability of substitutes increase total supplies and tourists shift to different options for reasons such as higher prices, non-availability, and so on. For example, paying guest accommodation is being a substitute for storage of hotel rooms. However, all components of tourism cannot have relevant substitutes. Costs: Costs decide the minimum level of revenue to be charged from the buyers. But if the costs are high because of inefficiencies of production, prices too are unreasonably high. Cost of tour packages are often not in the hands of marketers, when most of the components are bought from other suppliers. Both fixed cost and variable costs are accounted for pricing. Actively-based costing (ABC) is used to calculate costs in tourism. Competition: Competition in the market increases supplies, reduce inefficiencies and bring down prices. Demand-side Factor: Tourists option about services affects demand as well perception of price. The specific demand-related factors affecting prices are discussed below: Value Perception: Value perception of price is subjective and varies among and within market segment. It also varies with time and location. Level of Demand: The level of demand impacts prices. High demand leads to high prices as tourists compete among themselves for the experience. Demand Pattern: Tourism demand often marked by seasonal fluctuations with majority of tourists travelling during the tour season for the best experience. As a result, demand exceeds capacity in peak period and facilities remain underused in the off season. Prices are adjusted to the match the demand pattern and also to influence demand to balance it with supply. Environmental Factors: External environment constitutes many forces that directly or indirectly shape demand and supply factors and price. Tax Structure: The tax structure in the form of surcharges, airport tax, luxury tax and service tax adds to the cost and the final prices. Consequently, when the service tax rate is changed, final prices changes immediately. Market Structure: Type and level of competition in the market has a direct bearing on price. Competition can be easy or intense, negative or positive, with similar or dissimilar, government regulated of free. Less competition results in higher prices whereas the healthy competition leads to reduction of prices. Government Policies: Marketers have to abide by government policies on price. For example, India has a dual price policy wherein foreigners pay in dollar and Indians in rupees. Price is the momentary value of goods and services and fixing this value right is critical for the success of a firm in the market. The cost-based, buyer-based and competition-based methods are commonly used in tourism industry. Once a price-level is determined, pricing strategies are used to respond to the continuously changing environment. The strategies often used are market skimming, market penetration, price-quality combination, discount pricing, geographical pricing and differential pricing. Tourism Promotion: Promotion mix is the combination of different methods of promotion. Each method is suitable under different conditions and a right combination can be very powerful. Tourism promotion is persuasive communication for the target market. It follows the general rules of human communication and applies it to marketing (Jayapalan, 2001). The goal of promotion is to contribute to marketing goals but it has its specific objectives in terms of attitudes and sales behavior of the market. Promotion is carried out with the help of different methods and together these are called promotion mix. Important Promotional Tools in Tourism A few promotional tools, such as brochures, events and movies are more apt for tourism because of their distinct nature. Brochures: Brochures are popular form of promotion used for direct sales. These are defined as booklets or pamphlets used for sales and promotion. This has the following advantages. It targeted more specifically. If retained, it will have greater reminder value. It can also have secondary or pass-along audience. Events: Events are organized occasions of significance. They are used to promote and highlight the tourism potential of a destination. The following and many more types of events are used for promotion tourism. International trade fair: This fair bring large number of buyers and sellers to a place, and who are likely to spread the word about the products showcased there. Cultural fair: Destination-specific festivals like carnival etc., brings a large number of tourists to these place. Cultural events: Cultural events, such as film festivals, dance shows, musical events, etc., brings destination in news. Sports events: Sports events, such as Common Wealth Games, show that tourism can be promoted in the different city in the country. Tourism Distribution Tourism distribution is transfer of tour and associated facilities from the suppliers to the tourists through the tourism distribution system. It delivers many benefits to the tourists. These are as follows. Accessibility and availability: Attractions are made available conveniently by arranging transfer of tourists. Information: Tourists get information about places, flights, trains, routes and so on. Counseling and advice: Tourist may not be able to decide about travel destinations and plans and may ask for advice. Arrangements: Tourists want arrangements to be mad for them so that they have minimum hassles on tour. People in Tourism People are an important content of tourism marketing mix. The tourism experience depends upon sellers, tourists, other service providers, residents, and tour group member. Some people understand the importance of tourism but others may not and their behaviors or encounters with the tourists might spoil the whole tour experience. Customer can look for one time encounters or relational long-term encounters. In long-term encounters, customers get attached to the service provider or brand. Long-term relations give marketers a brand-loyal market and consumers get good service. The difficulty is created in encounter with the other service providers, tour group members, and other tourists at the destination who are not directly concerned with marketing. These too have to be marketed the idea of creating a good service environment. The main focuses of the firms are discussed below. Internal environment: The main focus of the firms remains its internal environment and it manages its employees and customers for the same. Transactional Intervention: It is use to improve and control employee behavior. It includes building awareness, training in relationship building, behavioral flexibility and professionalism, empathy, interpersonal skills non-verbal communications and improved physical surroundings. Customer relationship management: It implies entering into, building, maintain, and sustaining relation with customers. Process in Tourism Marketing Process is an important element of tourism marketing mix because of the service-intensive nature of tourism. Tourism service process or delivery of tourism service involves procedures, task schedules, mechanisms, activities, and routines by which a product or service is delivered to a customer. It is an operating system of workflow activities and their integration. The main objectives of service delivery are to build improved, simplified, real-time, on demand, guaranteed, cost-effective service. The process of service delivery includes activities and flows, procedures, mechanisms of transfer, time and cost of transfer, and involvement of tourists in transfer. Physical Evidence in Tourism Physical evidence performs specific functions in tourism and form an integral part of the marketing strategy. The important functions performed by evid