Feasibility Study Of National Saudi Arabia Day Tourism Essay

Feasibility Study Of National Saudi Arabia Day Tourism Essay Every country celebrates its national day-be it the date of countrys independence from a former colonizer, the day when the country declared itself a new and sovereign state, thus marking its place in the international community of nations or simply the time when a once-divided country was reunified and made whole again. This event paper will focus on the celebration of a National Saudi Arabia Day, which is traditionally celebrated on the 23rd of September. This is the date when King Abdul Aziz reunited the country in 1932. Saudis National Day was declared a holiday only fairly recently, but its social, historical and cultural impact is felt every time it is celebrated. The researcher would like to recommend holding a number of activities held simultaneously on the culminating event of the celebration. This will be called Soar Saudi Arabia and will feature activities that relate to the countrys rich history, economy and social life. The main event will be held in the capital city, Riyadh, during the evening. The capital is the most perfect location for the main event because it is the most accessible and cosmopolitan place in the country. It offers all the top of the line amenities and services that potential tourists will look for, such as taxicab services, car rentals, and five-star hotel accommodations. But the celebration will not be confined to just the capital. The NDC will also launch small token events in other parts of the country to impart the feeling of a collective national celebration. Other smaller events will likewise be held during the day in Riyadh to build up the excitement for the primary celebration at night. There will be exhibits showing photographs and artefacts relating to the history of Saudi Arabia, books and movies depicting Arabian culture, and a specially commissioned documentary depicting the rise and reunification of KSA which will be shown for free every two hours in the main event tent. Kiosks and booths selling tourist items, trinkets, delicacies and other crafts shall surround the main staging area. During the culminating program, there will be a live cultural presentation from KSAs tribal and ethnic groups, a grand pyrotechnic show, and a short awarding ceremony for honouring Arabian citizens who have given substantial contribution to KSA society. This program shall be held at the main event tent. Taking advantage of the 2005 declaration of September 23rd as a national holiday, the researcher proposes to hold all the events on this particular date to take advantage of the number of people who do not have to go to work or school on that day, and can instead be convinced to participate in an important patriotic event. Soar Saudi Arabia is therefore a most opportune event for both the organizers and the people to make the most out of the national day celebration for the first time. It is an excellent opportunity for companies and other organizations to give back to the community as well as to directly expose their product or service to the market of consumers (Mack 1999). This year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will celebrate its 78th National Day, surely a momentous event for any state. The Kingdom enjoys a strong and prosperous economy despite the global financial downturn that happened in the last quarter of 2008. As the KSA welcomes another year of sovereignty and prosperity, it is but fitting that the private sector, the state and the international community come together to celebrate a very significant time in the countrys history. According to Almaeena (2005), a nations act of honouring its national day is not merely paying lip service to the long-established tradition of celebrating this particular day. Rather, it is also important to look at September 23rd as the date when the people of KSA can individually and collectively look back upon the historical foundation of their nation and also look forward to future challenges and developments that will come upon them. The need to rekindle the Saudi Arabian societys passion for celebrating their national day can be addressed by putting up an event to mark this famous day. Soar Saudi Arabia is an event that is meant to accomplish many things, but for the most part it is designed to serve as a venue for bringing the Saudi Arabian citizens together in a day of pride and honour. It is also a day to remind the international community of the KSAs power and influence, its unique history and people, and its exalted position in the global economy and politics. The event is likewise expected to generate profits for both the government and the private sector by increasing the tourist traffic. September is one of the slow months of the tourist season, and launching a big national celebration on the national holiday will definitely attract a sizable crowd of tourists who have never before seen how the people of KSA celebrate this day. The driving ideal behind the event is to portray that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is more than just the petroleum products that it produces-it is a country peopled by intelligent, hardworking citizens who share a proud common heritage and who believe in the same positive social objectives. Because this is the first time that KSA will really go all out on a national day celebration, it is expected that Soar Saudi Arabia will attract not merely business but also notable dignitaries from other states who will wish to attend a distinctive event. Thus, the event at hand is not just for tourism and business purposes; it is also a way for KSA to promote the country and claim its place in the international community. Soar Saudi Arabia is therefore not just any typical national day celebration that begins with a welcome speech and ends with a brilliant display of fireworks. The researcher has designed this event so that it will cater to the interests of both old and young people, whether or not they are citizens of KSA. What is important is for the event to become a symbol of the countrys grand story and its readiness to face the challenges that the future may pose. It is hoped that through this event, the younger generations will be more convinced to pay greater attention to their exceptional history and heritage, even as globalization continues to facilitate a kind of uniformity across different countries. Mission, vision and objectives of the event At the heart of this event is an opportunity for the people of KSA to express their patriotic feelings on the national day celebration. More than anything else, Soar Saudi Arabia is a venue for the people to show their pride for their fatherland. It is the goal of this event to provide an excellent chance for the world to understand Saudi Arabian society in particular and the Muslim world in general. The widespread prejudice today against the Islamic community has not considerably hindered the economic activities of Saudi Arabia and of Arabic companies, but the social stigma makes an impact beyond the realm of corporate engagements. Soar Saudi Arabia is envisioned to be a means for the world to know more about Saudi Arabia, to appreciate the beauty of how their society came about. The event will be spearheaded by a 2010 National Day Council (NDC), members of which will come from the private sector, the government, the royal family, foreign investors, the academe, non profit organizations, international groups, and other relevant stakeholders. The NDC envisions the celebration to be a showcase of all the best that Saudi Arabia has to offer: its food, music, fashion, artwork, history, culture, sports, tradition and literature. It will be a venue that will allow the varying threads that make up the social life of KSA to come together and blend in a beautiful design to honour the day when the country was reunited as one state and one territory. The organizers intend for this celebration to be a reminder to everyone that KSA is not just a country where oil makes people rich; it is also a country with a colourful past and a lot of new lessons to learn. Yon Cho (n.d.) noted that festivals and special events (FSEs) have recently become a catalyst for community development, as well as becoming more popular among communities (Small et al. 2005). Soar Saudi Arabia is designed to become a driver for the growth of tourism and international interest in KSA, as well as a source of pride and joy for the people themselves. Liang et al. (2008) are entirely in agreement when they said that FSEs have the peculiar effect of crystallizing the sense of identity of the local community who holds such events, as well as piquing the interest of tourists who have little or no exposure at all to their particular culture and history. Tourism has become an important business in recent years because of the lowered costs and improved safety of methods of transportation. Globalization has also helped in the process because new technological tools such as the Internet and the email have allowed people to learn more about far-flung places that they had only read or heard about, therefore making them curious enough to actually visit these locations. With the array of transportation and accommodation options available to international visitors, the tourism industry has certainly grown and become a robust economic sector. The KSA is not exactly a hot tourist spot by todays standards, but it is hoped that through events like Soar Saudi Arabia new festivals and special gatherings will be created and held in order to boost not just the countrys tourism profits but also its cultural and historical heritage. The present event is but a small step towards opening the KSA society to the whole world and introducing a different side of the country to the international community. Proposed organizational structure As already mentioned, the 2010 National Day Council will be spearheading Soar Saudi Arabia and will serve as the main government agency to handle all affairs and transactions necessary for the event. The Council shall be composed of eleven notable leaders and personalities in their respective fields, with one chairperson and ten regular members. They will be appointed by the King through a careful nomination and selection process. Some of the proposed sectors from which the council members must come from include the banking industry, the academe, the petroleum manufacturers and so on and so forth. The Council will have its own paid organizational staff who will oversee all aspects of the celebration, from the coordination with partner agencies and companies to the documentation of all the events and programs for the duration of the month-long celebration. However, the entirely staff will not be permanent; only a core group of personnel shall be necessary to perform the Councils regular work. Additional employees will be hired on a project basis as needed prior to the September 23rd event itself. Work breakdown structure A work breakdown structure allows is a kind of family tree that gives an accurate graphical description of all the job components needed to complete a particular project or event. Breaking down the project at hand into smaller work units allows the coordinator to have a more manageable concept map of all the work that needs to be accomplished. By dividing the whole project into smaller bites, improvements can be applied at once and problem areas identified and addressed properly. Figure 2. Work breakdown structure for the Soar Saudi Arabia 2010 celebration The project will go through the requisite four stages of event management: planning, running, following up and evaluating. These four steps are necessary in order for the Council and its partner agencies to have a clear idea as to the changes that need to be integrated in the next National Day Celebration. This being the very first time that KSA will officially celebrate its reunification day, it is incumbent upon the Council to make this a good standard against which future special events and festivals will be measured and analyzed. Thus, ensuring the events success is important not only for the sake of a good show, so to speak, but also for the sake of future celebrations to be held in KSA. Human resource plan Basic risk management plan In any event or occasion, it is always important for the organizers to come up with contingency plans that are sufficient to answer for any problems that will occur prior to or during the event itself. The bigger and more complex an event is, the greater the chances of something going wrong along the way, even if every detail was carefully planned and executed prior to the event itself. This is why event organizers have to establish back up plans or what is more properly called a risk management plan that can be made operative in case of any breach or failure in the agreed scheme of activities. In an event as big as the national day celebration of KSA, there are a number of risk factors that have to be taken into serious consideration. Most important among them are the security and crowd control measures that will be employed, especially during the night of the culmination program in Riyadh. The main event tent will be the venue for the evening celebration but the surrounding areas shall be also be a staging ground for the pyrotechnic show. An estimated 10,000-20,000 people (locals and tourists alike) plus the NDC personnel are expected to stay in Riyadh as early as a week before the September 23 event. Therefore, proper security measures have to be outlined in order to protect the safety of all the people. Additional police officers would have to be taken in from the surrounding provinces so that the city police would be sufficient in number to respond to any emergency situations. Another priority risk that has to have back-up plans is the very real likelihood of transportation and accommodation problems among the guests. The citys carrying capacity is so much less than the number of people who are expected to pour into KSA for the duration of the event, so solutions have to be designed in order to make the travel to and from the hotels and the events area should be as seamless as possible. To allow traffic and transportation jams to occur is to leave a negative impression, especially with the first-time tourists who are only just beginning to form their ideas about KSA. Hotels and second-class living areas also have to be built or leased from private companies so that there will be sufficient rooms for every tourist, whatever their particular budget may be. Income and expenditure The following represents the proposed income and profit scheme between the NDC and the private companies who will be selected as partners for the event: Income Expenditure From corporate sponsorships Construction of event venue From voluntary donations Staff salary Government allocated budget Complimentary transportation and accommodation for selected VIPs Share from the profit of commercial booths in the events area Tokens to VIPs and sponsors Rentals from the booths and other business in main area Salary for additional police and peacekeeping force Beautification for Riyadh City Gratis for cultural performers, filmmakers and others Event monitoring and evaluation Even with the financial partnership with corporate organizations and other socio-civic groups, the 2010 National Day Council will remain as the main oversight body that has veto power over all decisions and strategies regarding the event. For example, a corporate sponsorship may be terminated in case of any breach committed by the partner company or individual. The hiring of additional personnel for the actual event day shall be supervised by the regular staff of the NDC in order to have a firm control of the necessary skills and qualifications needed but their wages shall be borne by the collective NDC funds. The event shall be separately and jointly evaluated by the different partner agencies and companies as well as by the NDC. This two tiered process is necessary in order to determine the success of the event as perceived by the different participants and stakeholders. An on-site feedback survey shall also be done on the day of the event itself by randomly selecting visitors to the booths and the evening program. Holding separate evaluations is also necessary to determine the actual benefits of the corporate partnership on a mutual level. On the part of NDC, it is a way to identify if there are ineffective partners or groups that have been selected for this first event, so that future festivals can have better sponsors. As for the corporate partnerships, the companies themselves will be able to know if their investment in the event has paid off. Each party to the partnership has a different objective upon joining, and holding discrete assessment methods tailored to their specific requirements will give a fuller and realistic view of the events success. At the end of the day, the evaluation outcomes shall be put together and analyzed as a comprehensive, interlocking series of activities.

Knowledge Based Systems

What is a knowledge-based system? A system which is built around a knowledge base. i. e. a collection of knowledge, taken from a human, and stored in such a way that the system can reason with it. Example: System: What is the patient's name? User: George Smith System: What is the patient's age? User: 52 years System: Is the patient male or female? User: Male System: What are the symptoms? User: Headache dizziness upset stomach high fever System: When did these symptoms first appear? User: 23/03/2002System: I conclude that the patient has a viral infection , my recommendation is that he should take two aspirin, drink plenty of fluid, get lots of rest. What is knowledge? Knowledge is the sort of information that people use to solve problems. Knowledge includes facts, concepts, procedures, models, heuristics, etc. Knowledge may be: * specific or general * exact or fuzzy * procedural or declarative What is an expert system? * A particular kind of knowledge-based system * One in which the knowledge, stored in the knowledge base, has been taken from an expert in some particular field.Therefore, an expert system can, to a certain extent, act as a substitute for the expert from whom the knowledge was taken. What is Artificial Intelligence? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is concerned with exploring such aspects of human (and other animal) mental activity as: * understanding * creativity * Perception * problem-solving * consciousness * using language * Intelligence by simulating them using computers. It is therefore closely connected with such social sciences as: * psychology * linguistics * philosophy Applied Artificial IntelligenceWhat is applied AI? Applied AI is concerned with producing software which is â€Å"intelligent† It is intelligent in that it is based on what we know about human reasoning and other mental abilities We are therefore talking about a branch of advanced computing – computer technology – rather than social science Knowledge eng ineering The term â€Å"knowledge engineering† is often used to mean the process of designing, building and installing an expert system or other knowledge-based system. Some authors use the term to mean just the knowledge acquisition phase. ExpertsAn expert is an experienced practitioner in his/her particular field. More than that, he/she is a highly effective problem-solver and decision-taker in that field. Experts have three qualities: * They make good decisions * They make those decisions quickly * They are able to cope with a wide range of problems. Experts and expert systems Note that: The task that an expert system performs will generally be regarded as difficult. An expert system almost always operates in a rather narrow field of knowledge. The field of knowledge is called the knowledge domain of the system.There are many fields where expert systems can usefully be built. There are also many fields where they can’t. Note also that an expert can usually explain a nd justify his/her decisions. Reasons for building an E. S. One might build an expert system for any or all of the following reasons: * To archive an expert’s knowledge, to insure against the day when he/she leaves, or retires, or dies. * To disseminate his/her knowledge, so that it is available in more (possibly many more) places than the location of the expert. * To ensure uniformity of advice/decisions. As a basis for training other specialists. Advantages of expert systems E. S. have the following advantages over human experts: * The knowledge is permanent * The knowledge is easily replicated * The knowledge is represented explicitly, and can be evaluated * The system is consistent – whereas human practitioners have bad days, computers don’t. * Once built, running costs are low Disadvantages of expert systems a) Developing an expert system usually costs a great deal of time & money b) Historically, there has been a high failure rate in E.S. projects * The pr oject may well fail during development – most likely during the â€Å"knowledge acquisition† phase. * The development may succeed, but the organisation may fail to accept and use the finished system. c) A human expert can update his/her knowledge in the light of * Common sense * Knowledge derived from other domain * Contacts with other experts. An expert system can’t. Choosing an E. S. project a) Because of cost, and the danger of failure, it is important that E. S. projects are carefully chosen. ) The expense must be justified, in the light of the possible benefits. c) E. S. technology must be appropriate a. the right kind of expertise is involved b. Make sure it isn’t a problem which conventional programming could do better. d) Management, and the participants, must support the project fully. Possible expert systems – case histories For discussion; The following seven problem areas may, or may not, be suitable for computerisation as expert system s. * A certain third world country has a large population, very few trained doctors, and insufficient resources to train many more.It is proposed to provide paramedics, who can be trained relatively cheaply and easily, with medical kits and portable PCs, each PC to be loaded with an expert system that can advise on the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of common diseases. * The housing department in a provincial English town is overworked, although the staff turnover is quite low. Much of the work the staff do involves interviewing clients, and there is a clear pattern of questioning (which varies to a limited degree, depending on the circumstances of the client). It is proposed to build an expert system, which will direct the questioning process. A firm of wine importers relies heavily on its chief wine expert, who is skilled at selecting wines that are destined to be popular, on the basis of their taste, colour, scent etc. She is soon to retire. It is proposed to build an exper t system that will enable any of several junior wine specialists to do her job. * An education authority has a severe shortage of primary school teachers. It is proposed that an expert system should be built which can do the job of teaching English and arithmetic to five year old children. * A software company proposes to build an expert system which can perform book-keeping for small commercial concerns. A large manufacturer of diesel electric locomotives has problems in providing enough maintenance personnel who are sufficiently skilled to locate faults in these (highly complex) locomotives. They propose to build an expert system which can perform fault location on such a machine. * A mineral exploitation company wishes to extend its operations, which involve searching for hitherto undiscovered deposits of valuable metal ores. It is short of trained geologists. It proposes to build an expert system which can assess a geological site and come to a conclusion about how likely it is that there is a worthwhile mineral deposit there.

Newspapers’ role in society Essay

Mass media is a distinctive element of today’s society. Together, the different elements are a product of societal change, forced regulations, rising living standards, and technological modernization. Mass media includes mediums such as magazines, television, internet, radio, cinema, video games, and cellular telephones. The ability to mass communicate with these devices has had such a massive impact that Denis McQuail describes that â€Å"the mass media has primary and crucial importance for the integration of the diverse secular worlds of modern men into coherence and unity† (32). There is no doubt among theorists that media is influencing society, but there are different theories that suggest that it may be society influencing media, not media influencing society. This essay shall look at newspapers’ past and present, and how they will continue to affect the world we live in. In the early 1950s after WWII, American communication made deep inroads into Europe, and words like â€Å"mass†, â€Å"effects†, and â€Å"functions† organized research on both sides of the Atlantic (Curran 407). Almost a decade later, some of the biggest research took place in 1959, when Elihu Katz argued that people need to concentrate less on what the media do to people and more on what people do with media (McQuail 71). Dennis McQuail sides with Katz, in believing that peoples contact with media is of utmost importance, stating, â€Å"media is helping in enabling people to bring about a more satisfying relationship between themselves and the people around them† (71). The views are across the board, pointing in both directions, but research continues even today as to what extent life is changing because of emerging technologies. Not only the substance of what is being communicated is important, but just as vital is the process. Technological innovations have assisted in supplying content for our media forms, and also the circuits and motherboards of how they are made are affecting the ways which society operates. Both aspects have a hand in the creation of the world we live in today, and should be realized when reading this essay. Mass media first appeared on the scene as newspapers. The newspaper was the first medium of communication with a genuinely mass character. U.S newspaper firms had slow growth until the 1800s. It was in the 1830s that the population concentration in cities and the spread of mass literacy provided  a market for mass press (Wells 7). The news could finally be spread on paper, rather than word of mouth. The entire world was suddenly in-the-know about what was happening around them. Newspapers made the transition from the realm of the educated, to serving a wide range of people from this time thought the Civil War (Grant, Meadows 8). The development of advertising, telegraph, and improved production methods have assisted newspapers in reaching a worldwide audience, and eventually being the main source of news for years to come. To this day 97% of towns have only one newspaper to choose from for local news (Wells 7). This idea of newspaper monopolies is discouraging to the market, because only one view is being seen on the issue. No single company is at fault though, because starting a newspaper or radio station these days requires far more investment and risk then in previous years. Despite other forms of news, the newspapers industry is still growing today. In 2002, there were over 10,000 newspaper firms in the United States, and over half the country reading a newspaper daily (Grant, Meadows 9). The future of newspapers looks to be heading toward the digital world, against many wishes of traditional newspaper readers. Flexibility from digital methods has increased newspapers’ ability to deliver zoned editions that reduce unprofitable readership in areas far away from print facilities (Grant, Meadows 10). By the end of the 20th century, over two-thirds of U.S. newspapers maintained websites that offered classified advertising (Grant, Meadows 10). According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the majority of the population prefers to purchase the printed edition rather than viewing the electronic edition (Grant, Meadows 11). This may change though, because digital news is rather new, and websites such as cnn.com can be updated on the hour informing viewers of up-to-the minute news, instead of waiting for the next days edition to receive that same news. McQuail, Denis. Towards a Sociology of Mass Communication. London. MacMillian Publishers Limited, 1968 Curran, James, Gurevitich, Michael, Woolacott, Janet. Mass Communication and Society. 1st ed. London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 1979 Katz, Elihu, Szecsko, Tamas. Mass Media and Social Change. London: Sage.1981 Wells, Alan. Mass Media and Society. Palo Alto, National Press Books. 1972 Grant, August and Jennifer Meadows. Communication Technology Update. Oxford: Focal Press, 2004.

A New Edition Of A Textbook Should Not Be Weighed Down By...

When trying to shorten a text book, what story should be removed to save space? A new edition of a textbook should not be weighed down by subpar literature. An easy comparison of what should be kept, and what should be removed starts with the two stories of A Good Man is Hard to Find and Why I Live at the P.O. The first, a twisted tale of a family’s vacation. The second, being a boring tale of a family’s favoritism of one child over another. The expectation of this paper is to convince the editor as to why A Good Man is Hard to Find should be kept, rather than, Why I Live at the P.O. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Why I Live at the P.O. both have a storyline that follows two families. The families share a similar time period of early 20th century, as well as, also sharing a common regional setting for their stories by both taking place in southeastern United States. In the first short story, the pace of events starts off slow rolling. It quickly picks up pace when the f amily crashes down an old dirt road, and are then confronted by The Misfit, an awry murderous character. The second story’s pace is as molasses during an Alaskan winter. It follows a young woman upset, deservedly so, by the favoritism her family shows for her younger sister. This story basically takes place in one place, the family’s house. The first story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, has a far more exciting and intriguing plot. The conflict between the characters in both stories are comparable in the factShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services: