The Negative Impacts of Tourism on Egyptian Culture Research Paper

The Negative Impacts of Tourism on Egyptian Culture - Research Paper Example There has been a substantial growth of the tourism sector in Egypt due to massive tourists visiting the country. Despite the numerous benefits brought about by the tourism sector, there are also several challenges. This paper will evaluate the impacts of tourism on Egyptian culture. It presents a brief introduction of the state of tourism in the country, discuses some benefits brought about by the sector, as well as the need to curtail tourism in Egypt, especially because of the negative impacts it is having on Egyptian culture. Introduction For the last two hundred years, tourism has been an important component in Egypt’s economy. In addition, tourism for the last generation has become an important part of the economy, which contributes about 45 percent of the country’s yearly foreign currency earnings. To improve the infrastructure to the required standards, there has been a very significant investment by both the public and by the private sectors in addition to all t he budgetary planning by the Egyptian government. This is because of the assumption that there is need for this infrastructure to hold an ever-growing number of tourists. As a result, there is an annual expenditure of millions of dollars to encourage and promote tourism especially in the neighboring Arab countries, which now represent a growing segment of the Egyptian tourist market (Icomos, 71). Because of the thriving roads, trade, and economy in general, there was massive expansion of the travel industry. For instance, there was a rise in the number of transit customers through Egypt from 275 in 1844 to 3,000 in 1847. To cater for the outstanding increase in the number of travelers between the years 1848 – 1879, the government began to issue regulations and organize the services given to the travelers, who spent about ?60-?80 during three months stay in Egypt. Tour guide (TG) was among the first services to emerge immediately because of the expansion of the travelling indu stry. The tour guide became the intermediary between the region and the visitors (El-Sharkawy, 78). The Egyptians have been able to carry out easy market promotion for a long time because of the Egypt famous historical heritage sites. However, when the marine resort tourism became the main tourism product in the 1990s there was change in conditions. Consequently, Egypt has to compete with its competitor countries in many features, for example service level and price, in the marine resort market. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a suitable market promotion plan (Rady, 2). Impacts of Tourism in Egypt Tourism has an important effect to the society. Among the direct economic gains of tourism are augment of foreign exchange earnings, contribution to government revenues, income generation and generation of employment. In addition, tourism offers indirect effects on the economic sectors, for instance fisheries, agriculture, construction and handicraft manufacturing, which provide the goods and services for the tourism sector. Moreover, tourism offers other facilities and services that promote the economic and cultural development of the community in the region for example the improvement of transportation and other infrastructure (Rady, 26). Tourism in Egypt is peculiar on the types of travel and cross-cultural transactions including religious and intellectual pilgrimages, colonialism and imperialism, archaeology, anthropology, and more, which for centuries have been important components in building Egyptian national subjectivities and identities. The basis of the Western tourism is an imagination of an ancient Egypt scattered with the excavated monuments of a pharaonic past. On the other hand, the West’

Essay on Human Resource Management in Kentucky Fried Chicken

Essay on Human Resource Management in Kentucky Fried Chicken Kentucky Fried Chicken is the largest fast food chicken operator, and franchiser in the world. Colonel Sanders has become a world-known figure by marketing his finger lickin good fried chicken. The restaurants cover a large percentage of the United States market in terms of sales. Every day, millions of diners are served at KFC, featuring the Colonels finger lickin good special recipe fried chicken. (About us) KFC knows that their employees are at the center of their success. Developing a successful employee training program and effective retention strategies will determine the success of the company and whether the company can deliver a more consistent customer experience. The KFC Corporation is based in Louisville, Kentucky and was founded by Harland Sanders in 1932. Sanders was born on a farm in Indiana in the 1890s. Following the death of his father in 1896, Sanders mother was forced to work two jobs to support the family. In order to help his mother, Sanders learned to cook for his brother and sister at the young age of six. By the age of fifteen he had worked a variety of jobs, including painter and railroad fireman. In 1920 Sanders opened a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky and he began to cook for his family and the occasional customer in a back room of the service station. It was then that he invented whats called home meal replacement selling complete meals to busy, time-strapped families. He called it, Sunday Dinner, Seven Days a Week' (Colonel Harland Sanders). Sanders enjoyed cooking the food his mother had taught him for travelers. Rather than coming in for service for their cars, people began coming in specifically for his food. Demand for his cooking rose and eventually he expanded his up and coming business by moving across the street to a facility with a restaurant, a motel, and a gas station. The restaurant was named Sanders Court Cafà © and was so successful that in 1935 the Governor granted Sanders the title of honorable Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contribution to the states cuisine. (KFC Corporation) Colonel Sanders was always experimenting with his food at his restaurant. He originally prepared his chicken in an iron skillet, which took an average of thirty minutes to do, which was to long for restaurant operations. During the late 1930s the Colonel went to a demonstration of a new gizmo, the pressure cooker. He purchased a pressure cooker and made a few adjustments. After a lot of experimenting with cooking time, pressure, shortening temperature and level, Eureka! The Colonel had found a way to fry chicken quickly, under pressure, and come out with the best chicken hed ever tasted, and what weve come to know as Kentucky Fried Chicken was born (The pressure cooker). On a daily basis more than twelve million diners visit a KFC restaurant on 109 countries and territories around the world. (About us) KFCs product specialty is fried chicken that is served in various forms and is made with the Original Recipe. KFC standards for quality start with the use of the famous bucket. The paper bucket is used for its large sized orders and helps to keep the chicken crispy by wicking away moisture. The Original Recipe, which remains a trade secret, is made from a blend of eleven herbs and spices that Colonel Sanders was able to perfect. Portions of the secret recipe are mixed in different parts of the United States but the complete hand written copy is kept in a vault at the corporate headquarters. Nutrition has been a big concern for KFC because its main products are fried. In recent years KFC has made changes and now offers a variety of menu items that are low in fat for customers that prefer lower calorie choices. To assist customers, KFC has posted a nutrition guide on their website providing customers detailed information about their ingredient choices and nutrition values. They have al so introduced grilled items that offer fewer fat grams and less sodium than the Original Recipe, all without sacrificing the great taste of KFC products. (Nutrition) KFCs training and development strategies focus on effective management and building customer relations, as well as providing high quality products, and maintaining cleanliness of their restaurant. In the beginning, the companys strategies were not very successful. The company has made changes to its strategy by focusing on giving more career opportunities for people related to business, management, and other professional area of study. The principle development and training strategies are as follows: 1) Urge the employees to get closer to the customer by adopting a very friendly behavior to them to make decisions from market back. So the first principle is to create the customer focus goal. 2) The firm also keeps in touch with the latest trends and changing technological innovations for its market and to keep a continuous change as a way of life. Adding new ideas and taste in its meals, making more deals for attracting the customers and many other small policies are adopted for this purpose. 3) Market orientation was another area of priority by the management team to generate extra effectiveness in the global market. A friendly atmosphere with the customers is very important to give them confidence for putting their suggestions in the suggestion box for getting an idea of the likes and dislikes of their valuable customers. 4) The management team communicates very effectively and learns how to create an innovative atmosphere and a better understanding with the various cultures of the globe. As people belonging in different areas and cultures have different taste. So the main principle here is not to create a strong uniform brand image but also to serve the best interest of different customers in different locations. 5) Making a market plan and providing effective training to the employees is also an important strategy for the development of the corporation in overseas locations. While training and educating the employees, human resource planning, reward system and cultural definitions were given for international operations to the management team, which further hired and trained new staff from the local countries where the new branch is to establish. This also improves international political economic relations as opening new markets in outside country and ensuring new jobs facilities for the nationals of that country played a very important role in building customer relations and getting into the cultural taste of the natives. (Training and Development Strategies) Historically, the fast food industry has not been seen as the most effective way to build a career, especially for those individuals that are starting at the bottom of the ladder. KFC is working hard to overcome this perception. During the late 1990s, KFC launched a new employee incentive program as part of a three million dollar reorganization of its corporate field operations. The program was intended to show general managers that they play an essential role in the success or failure of KFC. The managers were taken to the corporate headquarters for three days of meetings and seminars. The company believed that a great way to develop great teams is to focus on the restaurant leaders. The changes stemmed from a survey that was conducted and revealed that managers wanted more support from corporate headquarters, they want to know that they are valued' (KFC initiates). The new program emphasized on developing a closer relationship with individual stores and a stronger focus on training and hiring practices, all with the intent of providing better customer service and a better working environment that will reduce turnovers. Jackie Trujillo, chairman of Harman Management, said, They are right on target, if you are going to succeed in this industry, you have got to get people to buy into the program, because who waits on customers? Where does everything happen? If you dont have everybody buying into that, youre not going to make everyone happy' (KFC initiates). For 2010, KFC has again refocused its corporate goals and is now putting special efforts on making their employees feel valued. This is apparent in the way employees treat each other, and is also accomplished through the companys reward package. The program offers all employees bonuses through a variety of schemes. The employees are rated in two performance measures, customer satisfaction and operational basics. The bonuses are also based on sales made as a restaurant and are paid in form of retail vouchers, with some vouchers valued at over $400.00 per employee each quarter. The bonuses are meant to create energy and encourage employee engagement with the goals of the restaurant. Managers and senior staffs can also earn cash bonuses depending on how they score on a balance scorecard. Misty Reich, vice-president HR at KFC UK and Ireland, says: the aim is to use the bonuses to create an ownership mentality among KFC employees (KFC keeps staff). KFC also considers career progression wi thin the company to depend on the bonuses offered. By conducting in-depth review of the restaurants staffs twice a year, the company can decide which of them has the ability to move forward in the organization. (KFC keeps staff) In order to generate profits and achieve long term success, businesses need to build a workplace that attracts, engages, and retains the best employees. A company culture describes how an employee thinks and feels about the company. It effects how employees respond and handle themselves in the work place. At KFC the company culture is a result of the companys vision and values. Our aim is to put a smile on peoples faces around the world and gives every customer a special experience on each occasion (Human resources). These values are as follows: 1) Believe in all people: We trust in positive intentions and believe everyone has the potential to make a difference. We actively seek diversity in others to expand our thinking and make the best decision. We coach and support every individual to grow to their full capability. 2) We are customer maniacs: Customers rule. Every customer sees it, feels it and knows it in every restaurant. We make sure we have great Restaurant General Managers who build great teams. 100% CHAMPS with a Yes Attitude is the expectation. 3) Go for breakthrough: We begin by asking ourselves What can I do NOW to get breakthrough results in my piece of Yum! Our intentionality drives step change thinking. We imagine how big something can be and work future-back, going full out with positive energy and personal accountability to make it happen. 4) Build know how: We grow by being avid learners, pursuing knowledge and best practice inside and outside our company. We seek truth over harmony every step of the way. We consistently drive outstanding execution by scaling our learning into process and tools around what matters most. Breakthroughs come when we get people with knowledge thinking creatively. 5) Take the hill teamwork: We team together to drive action versus activity. We discuss the un-discussable, always promoting healthy debate and healthy decisions. Our relationships allow us to ask the earth of each other. We make specific verbal contracts to get big things done with urgency and excellence. 6) Recognize! Recognize! Recognize: We attract and retain the best people and inspire greatness by being world famous for recognition. We love celebrating the achievement of others and have lots of fun doing it! (Human resources) Building employee capability is an important strategy at KFC. A company is only as good as its employees and KFC believes that their employees should be rewarded for the dedication and large portions of their lives they invest into the company. At KFC all employees receive initial training which covers food safety, business familiarization and online testing. The elements of the training are web based and virtual reality classrooms that are used to develop champions. After commencing employment team members continue to further their training through a program called CHAMPS. CHAMPS stand for the six universal areas of customer expectations: Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy, Maintenance, Product quality, and Speed. The training is both face to face and web based. The web based program provides consistent and up-to-date information. The face to face program provides opportunity for cross-training within the restaurant so that employees continue to develop new skills. The blended train ing is estimated to require 41% less hours per learner than in-restaurant training programs. (Human resources) KFC has grown to be the largest quick service restaurant and has been proven to be a successful business enterprise with more than 11,000 restaurants in 109 countries around the world. (About us) KFC understand that their employees are at the center of their success. Through structured employee training and effective retention strategies the company can deliver a more consistent customer experience. The training, development, and retention of the right people are the key ingredients to the secret recipe that result in the long term success of KFC.

The Samurai and the Bushido Code Essay -- Japan, Elite Warriors, Bushi

The samurai were à ©lite warriors in Japan during the 1200’s to the early 1700’s. Fifth century Japan saw conflicts with Korea and China, but Japan had a very untrained army, with a clumsy Calvary, and poor infantry men (Blumberg 1). The reason was that horses were seen as a burden and were never bred to be strong, fast, and large for war purposes (Blumberg 2). In the 6th and 9th centuries, a series of rebellions in Japan began from the Emishi people of the northern home islands; these country people were very well-trained in mounted archery. The nimble Emishi would defeat the Japanese riders with ease (Blumberg 2). But during the war against the Emishi, Japan learned to breed horses for fighting, adapted new fighting methods, and developed new weapons. They replaced the slow, straight-sword with two curved blades that were faster and lighter. For the next 350 years, infantry was replaced with mounted archers, and we start to see the 13th century samurai form (Blumber g 3). The Bushido Code, the code that all samurai follow, helped form medieval Japan. The warrior class and ruling class in the 13th century to the 17th century were known as the samurai (Clark 1). The samurai were skilled in archery, swordsmanship, horseback riding, and martial arts: the ability to kill with their bare hands (Clark 2). The two swords that the samurai used were the katana, a curved, medium-sized blade used for two-handed combat, and the wakizashi, a dagger or small-bladed weapon for thrusting (Blumberg 7). The samurai specialized in mounted archery as well. They had a medium sized, very flexible bow that made firing arrows from a horse easier. With Japan's newly trained and bred horses, along with the discipline of the samurai, it made for an uns... ... the enemy's foot soldiers were close, the samurai would dismount and use their swords (Blumberg 9). That would change in the 15th century when the Chinese started to use an early version of the musket. The Japanese then had to change their fighting techniques to use spears so as not to have to dismount their horses. This was useful, since they could charge without stop, allowing them more time in between the Chinese gunfire (Blumberg 12). The Bushido Code has been around since the 13th century and is the way of the samurai. The samurai was a powerful ruling class and warrior class in medieval Japan. The samurai were powerful warriors with great respect and ethics for their country. They impacted modern Japan by passing on the high ethical and moral standards still recognized today, and it is the reason why Japan is one of the friendliest countries in the world.

Lakota Way

English 100-13 21 October 2009 Family Virtues Virtues are usually taught through the eyes of the wise, also known as the elder. In the book The Lakota Way, by Joseph M. Marshall III, his tribe teaches virtues though story telling. The virtues of the Lakota tribe and those of my family are more similar then I had anticipated, although we do have our differences. The Lakota Way, stories and lessons for living, is a book written in 2001 by Joseph M. Marshall III. Marshall dedicates his book to Kimberly Jo Schumidt and Joseph N.Marshall II. The stories he tells through out his book are those that have been passed down from his family about the Lakota’s and their virtues. Marshall’s stories are based on morals and virtues. While reading chapter 3, â€Å"Respect,† of The LakotaWay I came to find several similarities between my family’s view and the Lakota’s view. Koskalaka is a young man, in this chapter, who goes out hunting in the woods and stumbles acr oss the Deer Woman whom his grandmother had told him about.His grandmother had mentioned that she knew a man who was never home because the Deer Woman took him, so he should avoid her as much as possible. The Lakotas are trying to teach respect to young Koskalaka. They are showing him that you should respect your family and those around you because one day you can lose it all. Like the Lakotas, my family has been taught respect through are generations. My family has taught us that family comes first and we must respect each other and ourselves. They have said that if we do not respect ourselves then neither are we respecting our family name.I asked my mom what respect was when I was younger and she said,â€Å"respect is not something to just play around with, you should always give people the respect they deserve and treat people the way that you would like to be treated. You shouldn't disrespect people and always keep in mind how you would feel if someone were to disrespect me the way that you are disrespecting them. † I took her words to heart and learned a valuable lesson that day, so much so that now when I see someone disrespecting another I feel the need to intervene.In The Lakota Way, Koskalaka meets the deer woman and remembers what his grandmother had told him and out of respect he declines her tempting offer to go with her. Just like Koskalaka respects his elder grandmother my siblings also have learned that we must respect people and more the elder. In the Lakota tribe, the grandmother said that when the Deer Woman takes them into her lodge she has sex with them but, when they wake the deer woman is no longer there leaving the man forgetful of his family and in search of the Deer Woman.Unlike the Lakotas, my family has gone out and seen their own type of deer woman wether it be with drugs, sex, or lies, but never have they forgotten about the rest of us. My family has learned to embrace one another when they have fallen into temptation, where the Lakotas would cast them out. My relatives have gone through many hardships and difficult situations but the morals have set into our heads like Koskalaka’s grandmother set into his head. The many men whom the Deer Woman lured into her lodge lost complete contact with their families and thus themselves.They left their family’s worried about where they could be and what could be happening to them. The men became selfish and inconsiderate, and  no longer showing the respect and attention that they should have been showing to their family because of the Deer Woman. Dissimilar to the men and woman of The Lakota Way, our morals have been embroiled into our minds that family should always come first, regardless of the over all out come in any situation.The Lakota’s virtues demonstrate virtues through story telling opposed to my family who teaches morals through real life example. They tell us stories of hardships one of our relatives have gone through and what w e have to do to avoid situations like that. The stories of respect in The Lakota Way are similar to those of my family’s. The Lakota’s are very virtues people who value their family and respect themselves just like the family of my own.

Brave New World Essay

Imagine living in a world with no mom and dad, and that at any of your sides you see many copies of yourself, and the only society you know is the one made up of some sort of hierarchy where you are not allowed to have any feelings or even think. This is the world depicted in the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The book was published in 1932, he was looking to provide people a picture of a future perfectionist society full of science and â€Å"happiness†, but this vision somehow became the world we live in now. In the novel Brave New World, Huxley gives us a view of a society that can only achieve stability through fictional happiness. This is an example of a Utopian society that attempted to create a perfect society. At that time, changes in science were becoming frequent and Huxley noticed these changes. With the invention of the assembly line, the Ford Company allowed people to afford cars. Huxley was able to see where these advances in science were leading. When a person thinks of a utopia he or she thinks of a place where everyone is happy, with no diseases, where anger and sadness do not exist. As the motto of this world says â€Å"Community, Identity, Stability. † These three words hang in a sign over the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, this creates and conditions new human life. These words are the slogan for this society. â€Å"Community† means that all persons must work together to maximize the greatest happiness for society as a whole, and it occurs through the artificially implanted ideas of â€Å"Identity† that each person has. Regardless of the hierarchy they have, each person is supposed to be happy with their own identity. And â€Å"Stability† is the ultimate goal of society because only through stability can happiness be maintained and all unpleasant feelings and emotions be eradicated. We are living in a Brave New World society in the present days. In the novel, people were being cloned and their lives had been already planned even before their birth with the use of psychological technologies to control the future behavior. Conditioning, combined with prenatal treatment, created individuals without individuality: each one was programmed to behave the way the government wanted. The citizen’s mind was being manipulated basically through the use of drugs and propaganda. â€Å"The principle of sleep-teaching or hypnopaedia, had been discovered. † He critiques modern government institutions whose power and ideals has slowly inserted into the minds of ordinary people. They teaching the children with some kind of propaganda while they were sleeping, the will play a message that they wanted all those children to know for the rest of their lives. The book was written years ago, really far from our time, but the scary truth is that we are living in the same standards as the world idea of Huxley. Together with the media, our government manipulates us to do what they want. For example, those TV commercials of cell phones that tells us to buy smart phones because they are better and then year after year they come up with improvements that are not real and we buy them because we think they are going to be better but we are just being stupid consumers giving money to those big companies. The government approves this because by consumerism, we generate the need of more therefore, more production, more jobs and will better the economy. This utopian society, had also its benefits. Their liberalism respecting relationship and sex, was not as bad because they had no compromises. the government taught them not to have serious relationships with other people. There were no family values, they encouraged to freely have sex with any person they wanted because sex would make them happy. We can see this, when Lenina tells Fanny that she’s been sleeping with the same guy during four months and Fanny responds â€Å"It’s such a horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man†¦ have somebody else from time to time, that’s all. † They do not condone exclusivity in a relationship, because that involved feelings of love and family and could lead to a disturbance on their social stability. We can totally mirror this in our present society. For example, few days ago a law gave underage girls the ability to purchase the morning after pill. This liberalism in sexuality is bad in the long run. This is allowing children to start their sexual life earlier, when thirteen year old kids are already having sex, there would be no exclusivity by the time they get married; there will be no family values within our society everything will be just about sex just as it was on the book. But were not responsible for those actions because this was all they knew. They manipulated them since babies so they’ll grow up to be a part of their caste and to do what that caste was supposed to do and be happy with it, therefore be more productive in society. Even though, this world was depicted as perfect and everyone seemed to be happy with their lame controlled lives, there were people that were really affecter with the ideals. For example, alpha Bernard Marx, he was a quiet guy that like to use soma (their cocaine-like drug) seemed to be in love with Lenina, he wanted something more than sex from her, but she was know pretty much as a slut, because probably half of the men in the conditioning center had slept with her and he is disgusted to hear the men in the elevator talk about Lenina as though she were meat. People in our society would look upon Brave New World; we would see it as a place of immoral behavior and obscenity. This could this possibly be because they were conditioned to all that and cannot realize it. They could just as easily be conditioned into thinking that only their thoughts are correct. Everyone’s goal in every culture is to reach a state of ultimate happiness. The society of Brave New World is just the same, but they go in different way by manipulation on actions, feelings and reproduction. There’s no need to sacrifice personal desires for the greater good. I think that what will make us really happy is the ability to freely make decisions about our own behavior and life, rather than relying on our society standards and what the government wants us to do. As an individual, I enjoy making my own decisions about what I want to be and about my sentimental relationship. I think anyone would want to strive to reach their full potential when they have the opportunity and freely reach their maximum happiness.