Strategic Planning for International Travel Essay - 1

Strategic Planning for International Travel - Essay Example Today, Spain is next to France in terms of number of tourists and is next to USA in terms of value of tourism sales (Travel and tourism in Spain). Another nation which economy got a badly needed shot in the arm and made a spurious revival of its economy, thanks to its beach and sex tour strategy is Thailand. New Zealand, at the moment, is poised to aggressively attract visitors to its pristine mountains, geysers, lakes and its clean environment. Prime Minister Helen Clarke believes that tourism will give New Zealand unprecedented prosperity. For its travel strategy, it intends to use "the national traits of guardianship and hospitality". Clarke dictates that there must be a vision and must have a foundation or underpinning to which everything else is attached (New Zealand tourism strategy 2015, p.1). The UK, still exulting after bagging the privilege of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and the paralympic games, has realised the importance of fortifying its tourism industry even beyond 2012 and the fact that for it to be successful in this endeavour, it must have a solid travel and tourism strategy, both international and domestic. ... It has refurbished its VisitBritain tourism agency "to promote Britain internationally in 36 markets so as to generate wealth and jobs across Britain" (VisitBritain, the national tourism agency). To do this, it must foster partnership with private entities and provide them with all the support including advice and needed information. UK has also encouraged the GTBS or Green Tourism Business Scheme, which has "over 1400 members" in its efforts to lure tourists to savor "a green holiday" consisting of pristine scenery, pure unadulterated air and water with biodiversity to boot. This, here, is a fine example of public-private partnership to push through tourism success. The 1,400 private members do the funding while the government sets the right environmental climate for tourism success so in the final analysis, their investments will be recouped in the form of glorious profits. It has been established that Scotland is now the leading ecotourism destination in Europe as 92% of these tre kkers ranked scenery as one important factor that made them decide to visit Scotland for their holiday destination. (Green tourism business scheme). As of today, "the UK's flourishing tourism industry generates over 85 billion pounds a year for the British economy. It is one of our biggest employers, directly responsible for 1.4 million jobs, or one in every 20 people in work" (Purnell 2008, p.1). But this statistic is mere pittance compared to those of USA, Spain, France, Thailand, and the rest of them. UK has to catch up, for more prosperity's sake and more employment for its citizenry. It's winning the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games is one golden opportunity it must harness to make a clean break and put itself at

School uniform Essay Example for Free

School uniform Essay Imagine waking up every morning and going to school. You put on the same clothes that you were wearing yesterday and walk to school. You open the door to the school and see everyone, all wearing the same exact outfit as you. The dread feeling you get because you feel the same way as you did every day. That is what every day would be like if school had uniforms. I think that uniforms are a commitment, they don’t allow you to express yourself as freely, and they are boring. Parents have to go out of their way to find the right uniform and spend ridiculous money on buying them. Majority of parents won’t buy more than five uniforms. Every day when you get home from school, your parents have to wash your uniforms so you can wear them the next day. Parents might have better things to do than wash your clothes every afternoon after school just so you won’t be out of dress code. You are wearing the same dirty clothes over and over again while you have nice, clean clothes in your closet that you can’t wear to school. This is the biggest reason why school should not have uniform. Everyone knows when it comes picture day we want to pick out a perfect outfit to dress up and look real nice. But, you have to wear your uniform in the picture. I believe that uniforms are preventing Kids from expressing themselves through style, which is why schools shouldn’t have them. You might have a lot of clothes that say a lot on who you are as a person, but if you have to wear a uniform every day you can’t do that. Also, girls can’t use accessories to make their outfits more interesting. When you have to wear uniforms for school you can’t wear other things that aren’t part of the outfit. Not everyone has the same style. What happens to the kids that don’t like the uniform or how they fit? Having school uniforms don’t allow you to pick, choose and refuse to fit your style and comfort. If you have any of these problems you can’t fix them, because you have to wear the uniform for the whole year. Some might say it’s a good thing to have uniform because you don’t have other groups of people criticizing what you wear or make fun of you. Also no one has to worry about how expensive or where you buy your uniforms from. But, have you ever walked into the cafeteria in the morning and you couldn’t find you friends. You never mix it up with new and exciting clothes for school. Every student just keeps wearing their uniform day after day. It would be hard to find your friends. You can’t see your friends and they are in uniforms so, they could be anywhere! Without uniforms, people can easily locate their friends by the clothes they wear. So, I think that uniforms are a very big commitment, they don’t allow students to express themselves, and they are boring. All of these are reasons why I strongly believe that schools shouldn’t require students to wear uniforms. It would just cause more problems for students and their parents.

Stem Cells Essay -- Biology Science Stem Cell Research Essays

Stem cells are a large focus of study in today’s biomedical world. They are cells that exist in an undifferentiated state, and transform into differing tissue types depending on what the cells surrounding them are. The different types of stem cells have the ability to repair many classes of damaged human tissue. However, only one type of stem cell promises to regenerate virtually any class of tissue. This is the highly controversial embryonic stem cell (ESC). Unfortunately, there is a dark side to the ESC. To obtain these cells from embryos will ultimately kill it. By definition, the acquisition of the ESC includes performing an abortion. This has created a great stir in the public world, where abortion is such a hot topic that politicians are hesitant to take either side. The embryonic stem cell is today’s Pandora’s Box. With this option now available in the medical world, everyone involved with this topic must make a difficult ethical decision: whether or not saving existing life is worth the termination of potential future life. As expected, there are two sides to the stem cell argument. One side is all in favor of their use, and the other side is dead-set against it. Stem cells come at a high price, yet this price is well worth the saved lives they can offer. In order to develop an opinion on whether or not stem cells should be used, one first must understand what they are and how they are used. Simply stated, the definition of a stem cell is an undifferentiated cell, meaning that it has no true function yet. However, all of the genes within a human stem cell have the potential to become other types of cells. The triggering mechanism for this is for the stem cells to be placed among specialized cells. Specialized cells include skin cells, muscle cells, or any other type of cell that has a specific function in the body. One of the most popular examples—and one of the most effective—is the neuron example. This was originally discovered at the University of Madison at Wisconsin in 1997. In the disease Multiple Scleroses, the myelin sheath protecting the neuron is missing. In the absence of myelin to protect the neuron, pain is a constant sensation. Researchers at UMW gathered a group of mice, which were genetically deficient of myelin. When the undifferentiated embryonic cells were implanted into their spines, the cells were able to sense that the myeli... ...he medical world wishes to be able to repair damage within the human body. While it is true that obtaining stem cells destroys life, the benefit to the greater good greatly outweighs the destruction of potential life resulting from a fertilized egg. With an infinite supply of stem cells from just a few lines, all defective tissues can be replaced. Those working in the medical world can greatly improve the quality of human life. With stem cells used in general practice in hospitals, people will live longer, healthier, lives. Many diseases would be completely eradicated, and injuries would cease to be crippling to so many people. However, only when scientists and doctors fully understand how to implement the embryonic stem cell, can all this happen. With funding and support for just a handful more stem cell lines, the medical world could be supplied with an infinite number of stem cells to cure patients. When doctors have all of the lines they need, then they can cease destroying e mbryos to obtain the stem cells they require. The biological world and the field of stem cells specifically, require the support of the federal government as well as the people to make this possible.[/i]

Biological Factors of Human Relationships

Biological factors are something that contributes hugely to the formation and maintenance of relationships- whether it is romantic, friendly or family related. Many researchers have conducted studies in which they have attempted to try and explain the link between biological factors and human relationships. I am going to specifically focus on Bowlby’s study on the role of hormones in bonding, Buss’ study on women jealousy and its relation to estrogen levels, Fishers study on the brain and its role in romantic relationships, and Marazziti who studied the effect of serotonin on love obsession.These studies will help me show the role that biological factors have in human relationships in both the development and maintenance of them. Serotonin. A neurotransmitter that may be involved in love, but is more commonly known as a chemical in the brain to change according to the moods of a person. A study conducted by Marazziti et al (1999) in Pisa (Italy) was to determine whether serotonin could perhaps explain the continuous focus on the beloved. The study mainly showed that the early stage of love really changes the way that people think.He used 60 participants; 20 who were in love, 20 who were OCD and 20 neutrals- who were not in love or OCD (controlled variable). He conducted the experiment by analyzing samples of blood from each of the participants. He found that the serotonin levels in the lovers were that of the same level as those participants who had OCD. This helps to show that there is a possible connection between the serotonin levels in the blood and the connection of romantic love.However some downfalls to this experiment could be the fact that Marazziti did not document or analyze and consider the serotonin activity in the specific brain regions may effect the validity and the reliability of the results from the study. This is because without having these factors being played into the study and research we are unsure of the exact role that se rotonin has in romantic love. Hence, the influence of this biological factor is not soundly connected with romantic relationships and has no definite tie to show how it affects or doesn’t affect it.The development of a relationship from the first and early stages of love to the more developed stages, couples tend to move from the passionate love to the more intimate relationship of relaxation, dependency, and security which all play into attachment. In 1969 Bowlby suggested, â€Å"Humans have an innate attachment system which consists of specific behaviours and psychological responses called attachment behaviours. † For his experiment it mainly was conducted for research on mother child relationships however many believe that the results are relatable to both mother child and romantic relationships.According to more modern research, it has been shown that both oxytocin- a powerful hormone which is released in men and women during touching and sex which helps to deepen and intensify the feelings of the select attachment- and vasopressin- a hormone released also during sex- help in increasing the bond that is between two lovers. Through this it helps the couples to feel closer and more bonded. One of the main criticisms of this experiment was the complexity of the researched relationships and how since they didn’t consider other factors that might affect the results, therefore resulting in the possibility that it could be unreliable.However if looking at just this one aspect, this biological factor can be considered to have an influence on human relationships both mother child and romantic, but it is unknown the influence when other factors are in play as well. In 1996, Buss suggested that jealousy may be something that is biologically based, and found that women’s patterns of jealousy vary throughout their menstrual cycle. So when oestrogen levels are low, women tend to be more sexually jealous where as when the oestrogen levels are relatively high women tend to be more emotionally jealous.This helped to set the base of his argument that â€Å"human sexual behaviour is grounded in the need to optimize the potential for reproduction, with the goal of the best genetic combination possible for the offspring, as well as maximizing parental care after a birth. † When he did his study in 1993 he found that women and men in regions of the world with high levels of pathogen stress rated the importance of physical attractiveness. For this study there was a huge amount of gender bias as he tends to favor men and only criticizes women†¦ This gives an uneven weighting and unreliable results from the research.Also he made generalizations that cant be made as different people have different personalities. Due to these criticisms, there can be hints at possibilities on his theories of this biological factors affect on human relationships however it is not something that has been proven. Finally, Fishers research i n 2001was a conducted study using FMRI (functioning magnetic resonance imaging) to analyze and examine the impact of the brain on romantic love. He took a large sample of young couples to test in this experiment.He took each person individually into the scanner and showed him or her a picture of their beloved and of an acquaintance in 6-second intervals. Throughout this process, Fisher got results that showed the brain in love. This is because the brain showed the â€Å"reward† system when the picture of their loved one came up however when the neutral or controlled picture showed, there was no activity. Interestingly, the more passionate people were- in accordance to the questionnaire they filled out of the â€Å"Passionate Love Scale† before the test- the more active the brains reward system was as well.All in all this shows that yes this biological factor does play a role in the overall outlook of human relationships. Overall, we can see that throughout the vast var iety of different studies done by a variety of different psychologists, there are quite a few things that a lot of them did not consider. Through this we can see that yes there are a lot of things that could play a role in the human relationships but due to the criticisms and downfalls of the studies we are yet to discover how much of a role they do actually play.

Human Computer Interaction Individual Report Essay

We as a group we have been set tasks to evaluate an existing system and capture the required improvements that should be made to the system through comprehensive research using the required methods to improve usability of the system. As a group we are to understand the user and capture its needs through numerous of method for example, questionnaire. I within my group decided to evaluate the system (www.pogo.com) as it was thought to inspect the system thoroughly from which some major errors were confronted. To check if these were to reflect the user of the system and that it was effecting the lack of consistent and comprehensive movement from within the site i considered to evaluate the system using ‘Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules’ . The evaluation method constructed errors which were found are to be tested with the users and get feedback via the talk aloud and the questionnaire from which I with my group will be able to test the system and capture the user requirements Content Page Paragraph Name Page Number Summary 1 Methods chosen, why 3 Problems Encountered 3 Feedback from users 4 Achievements from the assessment 4 Conclusion/ Recommendations 5 Bibliography/ references 6 Books 6 Web sites 6 Methods chosen, why The interface that chose to evaluate and redesign, was www.pogo.com as this website was not that appealing to me and I think it needs improvements as it is aimed at a family audience. To evaluate the system www.pogo.com it was required to test the system and check if the system had any major error or were they minor problems, in order for me to do this I decided to evaluate the system using the 8 golden rules of Shneiderman’s. The method was used to evaluate the system as this enabled me to test the colour, resolution, text, layout etc†¦ and I thought this method was very useful to appoint out the usability problem that the system was carry to the users. To carry out the evaluation I was first to understand the method and then continue to explore this with the system (www.pogo.com) . The methods used for capturing user requirements were Observation, Questionnaire and talk aloud. These methods were chosen because they were Easy to explore with the system, Cost Effective and Time Effective. Problems Encountered The major problems encountered during the task tests were to find the appropriate user to tackle these tasks. As the methods used were demanding a wide range of user that fitted in the categories of the novice, intermediate and expert users, it was difficult to address the needs of certain user as all categories were involved and from each users view was taken into consideration. There were novice, intermediate and expert that took the task which was a real heap for me as this would help me redesign the interface to fulfil the usability needs. Feedback from users From asking the users to complete the tasks more knowledge was gained for what users expected within a website, from this I was able to point out the like and dislike. From this I also acknowledge that the users prefer their website to be attractive so it is enjoyable to use and users also like to take minimum amount of steps to complete a particular task. The results which I obtained were very useful for redesigning the website. I found out what different usability needs were and what features users wanted to be remained on the website, and any others which they thought required changing. From this information I chose to do a paper based prototype for my system because it was simple, cheap and provided quick feedback from the user. Achievements from the assessment Having completed the assessment I feel that I would be able to explain the usability of any website/interface and from this I am able to identify usability problems such as psychological problems of the system, as well as being able to evaluate any system in depth. From this assessment I have also knowledge how I would explain various methods of capturing user requirements, stating the advantages and disadvantages of the method. Conclusion/ Recommendations If I was to do the assessment again, I would use Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules to identify the usability of the system, as I found them very useful both to understand and apply towards the website. I would also use the ‘Ten Heuristics’ to evaluate the website and I would have a great image of usability in evaluating the system. If given a chance in the future to redesign the system I would choose to do a low fidelity prototype but as well as this I would prefer to redesign the website in a high fidelity prototype provided that I am given extra time than provided in my first attempt. The reason for this would be that the users would see the prototype in a low fidelity and will be given a chance then to test the system via a high fidelity prototype. As I only had five users to complete the set task, I was unable to get different views from users to make changes to the redesign. In the future I would ask more users (maybe 10 different users) to complete at least three different tasks. By doing this, the users would experience more interaction with the system www.pogo.com and would comment more on the results they would achieve from the task, and also whether they were able to complete the task accurately, in a minimum amount of time. Bibliography/ references Books User and task analysis for interface design By: JoAnn T. Hackos Janice C. Redish Human computer interaction 3rd addition By: Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory D. Abowd, and Russell Beale Effective methodology for the study of HCI By: J. Kirakowski and M. Corbett Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd edition, By: Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory Abowd, Russel Beale Web sites http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/ Lecture 3/ Usability/Evaluation Methods/Talk Aloud/Page 15 http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Class/est571go/ta.html http://hcibib.org/tcuid/ End Page CHI2310 Human Computer Shelley Wolfson