2010 Vol. 2 (3)

The Glastonbury Festival is the largest open-air music festival in Europe and one of the most successful music festivals in the world. This paper explores the impacts of Glastonbury on the local community in Somerset through a secondary data approach which uses books, journals and websites.

Tourism is now the world’s largest industry, generating earnings of £285 billion per annum. In recent years, the tourism sector has become a significant contributor to the wealth of Singapore and represents about 10% of the workforce.

Brand franchising in the hotel industry has recently seen rapid growth. The key strategic advantage is that a hotel chain can expand its brand into more locations, with increased quality control and decreased investment costs. In China, due to its rapid economic growth, many industries have grown, especially the hotel and tourism industry.

Ecotourism is one the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry; moreover, the ecotourism concept has its benefits and positive impacts on the local area. Ecotourism can be a sustainable option for tourism. However, in reality there are also many negative impacts no matter how well ecotourism is implemented. Through secondary research, this paper critically evaluated ecotourism development in Yunnan Province, China.

This paper analyses the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) and its sustainability as a tourist development program in the Special Administrative Regions of China. The McKinsey 7-S model is used to identify the current impacts of IVS and, through PEST analysis, to analyse the risks associated with it. IVS was a post-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome measure, which has brought both positive and negative impacts to the Special Administrative Regions of China. In the short-term, the positive impacts of IVS outweigh the negatives.

The applied research analyzes the potential for low cost airlines in Asia. The author has critically examined the business model of low-cost airline models along with already established examples from North America and Europe. The paper also analyses and discusses the external constraints and internal strengths and weaknesses to generate the opportunities for improvement and further growth.

Volunteer tourism is a new niche in the tourism industry that has grown rapidly in recent years. It is a form of travel that is based on fulfilling one’s altruistic needs and hence performing actions of doing-good. However there are many so-called volunteer vacations in the market that differ from volunteer tourism.