Journal Articles (THM)

Training of employees in the tourism and hospitality industry through a refresher courses model

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Training of employees in the tourism and hospitality industry through a refresher courses model Kabii, Francis; Wandaka, John K. M.; Jilo, Naghea The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of employee’s demography on demand for refresher course training and employees ‘post- training expectations. The study hypothesized that employees age, gender, marital status, education, terms of employment, and work experience influence their decision on whether to participate in refresher training or not, and also the employees post- training expectations. The study design was exploratory and triangulated both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A total of a total of 500 questionnaires were distributed from which 414 were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 83%. A cluster sampling method was used. The target population was employees working in three, four and five star hotels located in five towns in Kenya. The study noted that there was positive correlation between the respondents’marital status (rs = 3.00, N (385), p < 0.007), levels of education (rs=0.098, N (414), p=0.046), and work experience (χ2= 23.285, df=8, p<0.003) and their expectations upon completion of refresher courses. These expectations include enhanced productivity, greater economic and financial reward, and reduction in fear of being retrenched during the low seasons. The study concludes that training institutions should consider employees’ demographic attributes as they develop any refresher course training and recommends continuous training for the industry to meet the growing demand based on tourism increases.

The Role of Tour Guides in Promotion of Sustainable Tourism Practices in Kenya

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Role of Tour Guides in Promotion of Sustainable Tourism Practices in Kenya Kabii, Francis; Wandaka, John K. M.; Wamathai, Ann; Jilo, Naghea The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of tour guides in the promotion of sustainable tourism practices when visiting protected areas in Kenya when visitors watch wildlife. Although many scholars agree that tour guides have a role in satisfying visitors and promotion of a destination, limited studies have been conducted to find out the role of guides in promotion of sustainable tourism practices. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of tour guides work experience and their level of education on the way they implemented sustainable tourism practices. It also sought to examine whether tour guides adhere to their rules and code of ethics and whether their level of education and work experience had any influence. The target population was practicing tour guides who were randomly selected. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The findings from the Chi-square test of independence indicated no significant relationship existed between the tour guides experience and their opinion on their role in protecting wildlife and the environment, and promotion of sustainable tourism practices (χ2=1.66, df =3, p=0.647 ) since the pvalue was greater than 0.05. The study also noted that there existed a significant relationship between guides work experience (χ2=11.71, df =6, p=0.069), guides level of education (χ2=0.147, df =2, p=0.092) and their knowledge on visitors impact on the environment and wildlife. The study recommends regularly training of tour guides who then can educate the visitors on the impact of their activities on wildlife, environment and the local communities as a way of mitigating negative impacts

Terrorism and Tourism: Kenya’s Resilient Tourism Industry Survival Strategies

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Terrorism and Tourism: Kenya’s Resilient Tourism Industry Survival Strategies Kabii, Francis The objective of the study was to investigate the impact of terrorism incidences on hotels in Kenya and the survival strategies used by the destination. The study hypothesized that there was no significant relationship between the respondent’s work experience and their opinion on the effect of terror attacks. It also hypothesized that there was no significant difference between the respondent’s gender and their emotional reactions to a terror attack. Qualitative data was collected through interviews while quantitative data was collected using researcher administered questionnaires. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed from which 138 were successfully completed. The study noted that although there was a weak positive correlation between respondents work experience, and opinions on the effect of the terror attacks to their business this relationship was insignificant at p=0.05 (r=0.04, p=0.273) meaning work experience had little influence. Likewise, 41% of male strongly agreed that they were traumatized as they continued with their duties as compared to 51% of female respondents. The finding indicated that gender did not influence their feelings (U=1923, P=0.37). Majority of the respondents 64% agreed that it had taken more time to achieve short-term goals while a 64% of them strongly agreed that it had taken longer time than anticipated for the hotel to achieve short and mediumterm goals.

PREFERRED SOCIAL NETWORKING APP BY EMPLOYEES IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN KENYA

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

PREFERRED SOCIAL NETWORKING APP BY EMPLOYEES IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN KENYA Kabii, Francis; Jilo, Naghea The purpose of this paper was to examine the preferred social media application network by employees in the tourism and hospitality industry. The specific aims were to examine the preferred social media amongst Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, email and YouTube, examine the relationship between respondent’s gender, a position at workplace and choice of social media and finally find out official the duties performed by the respondent’s using the smartphones. The finding indicated that the most popular social media platform was WhatsApp (93%) closely followed by Email (84%) and the least being LinkedIn used by only 25% of respondents. Employees’ gender (χ2=5.880, df =1, p<0.05) and position at the workplace (χ2=9.585, df =2, p<0.05) had minimal influence on the selection of social media preference. The majority (81 %) of the respondents perform up to 50% of their official duties with the help of their smartphones translating to improved and effective customer services, reduced operation cost, and healthier business performance. The study concluded that WhatsApp and Email were the most preferred social media network and were used to communicate and transact business with customers and other stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry. Smartphones are no longer luxury tools but are part of the technology that every employee in the industry must adapt to.