Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Tourism Management, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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The potential of Vietnam as a holiday destination for Australian travellers is examined using HOLSAT, a new model that compares the performance of positive and negative holiday attributes against a holidaymaker's expectations [Tribe, J., & Snaith, T. (1998). From SERVQUAL to HOLSAT: Holiday satisfaction in Varadero, Cuba. Tourism Management, 19, 25-34]. The attributes used are developed for each particular application and are not generic, overcoming some of the limitations of earlier models in dealing with the concept of holiday satisfaction. This paper seeks to review the value of HOLSAT as a means of identifying tourists' satisfaction with a holiday destination, in this case Vietnam. The findings indicate that the HOLSAT model is a valuable tool that can be used to evaluate the satisfaction of tourists with particular destinations. It proved to be easy to apply and a useful diagnostic tool that can be used in the future planning and management of the tourism industry in Vietnam, enabling wholesale and retail travel agents to improve levels of service and develop appropriate products to meet the expectations of the Australian travel market. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Arid Environments, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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A study on some biological features of Prosopis juliflora, a multipurpose leguminous species introduced to Ethiopia, was carried out at Melka-Worer, North-east Ethiopia. The study focused on the number of seeds produced in a pod during the study period, seed dispersal through droppings of animals, soil seed banks, seed germination and stumping height of trees and coppicing ability of P. juliflora. The overall mean number of seeds was 23+/-4seeds/pod. The width and length of seeds ranged between 0.8-1.7 and 8-29cm, respectively. The mean weight of a seed of Prosopis was 0.0275g+/-0.001 (S.E.) while there were 36,000-37,000seeds/kg. The number of seeds recovered from 1kg of droppings of each animal ranged between 760 (goats) and 2833 (cattle), suggesting that cattle are the major dispersers of seeds of the study species followed by warthogs, camels and goats. There was a highly significant difference in vertical distribution of the seed density of P. juliflora recovered from the soil samples while the horizontal distribution exhibited a great disparity in the density of soil seeds among the sample plots. The total mean soil seed density, in the litter layer and down to 9cm depth, was 1932seeds/m^2 (+/-307S.E.). Germination of seeds of P. juliflora differed significantly among the various treatments. The highest germination percentage was obtained from seeds that were treated with mechanical scarification (100%) and sulfuric acid for 15-60min (97-99%). About 37% and 47% of the seeds recovered from droppings of goats and warthogs, respectively, germinated. All stumped trees of P. juliflora produced coppices except those stumped at 10cm below ground. The overall mean number of coppices at the studied plots was 17.8+/-0.9 (S.E.) while the overall mean height of coppices, in 6 months after stumping, was 68.4cm+/-2.7 (S.E.). The results clearly demonstrated that Prosopis is equipped with a number of biological characteristics that foster its rapid invasion of new areas. These include: (i) production of many, small and hard seeds capable of surviving passage through the digestive system of animals, entering into the soil to form soil seed banks and remaining viable until favorable conditions for germination and seedling establishment appear; (ii) attractive and rewarding pods for animals, containing fleshy and sweet mesocarp embodying the numerous small seeds, which is sought after by both domestic and wild animals, meant for long-distance dispersal; (iii) accumulation of dormant but long-lived viable seed reserves that would serve as sources of regeneration of new Prosopis plants in the event of disturbance that might eliminate the above-ground stands; (iv) production of a mixture of seeds, with a few capable of germinating immediately after dispersal to exploit the favorable conditions that might exist at the time of dispersal, while the majority remain dormant for spreading germination over time and space; and (v) great ability of resprouting and fast coppice growth from stumped/damaged trees, making it a very strong competitive invader combined with its sexual reproduction. Combinations of all these characteristics make Prosopis a powerful noxious invader as can be evidenced from its rampant invasion in the study site and elsewhere in the tropics. Therefore, any effort in the management, control or elimination of Prosopis, which does not take these biological characteristics is bound to fail. The results also revealed that stumping trees at 10cm below the ground eliminates the chance of resprouting of Prosopis and, hence, might offer a viable option for controlling and even eliminating the plants from areas where they are undesirable. The fact that Prosopis has great ecological and socio-economical importancce, which have not been fully realized in Ethiopia, makes its control through utilization a very attractive, purposive and viable option. ... Read more