Do online hotel rating schemes influence booking behaviours?

Travelers’ hotel booking behaviors increasingly depend on peers' opinions and online ratings. This study investigates the effects of online hotel ratings on travelers' attitudes toward the hotel and booking intentions, using a 2 × 2 experimental research design. The results suggest that online rating lists are more useful and credible when published by well-known online travel communities (e.g., TripAdvisor). More favorable attitudes toward a hotel and higher booking intentions emerge when the hotel appears in best hotels lists. Finally, for the entries on best hotels lists, better attitudes and higher booking intentions result if the list is published on a well-known online travel community (Tripadvisor), whereas for entries on a worst hotel list, attitudes and booking intentions decrease even further if the list appears on TripAdvisor.

Economic valuation of an offshore wind farm in Greece: the role of individual’s base-state influences and beliefs in the value formation process

The increased concern for the impacts of climate change on the environment, along with the growing industry of renewable energy sources, and especially wind power, has made the valuation of environmental services and goods of great significance. Offshore wind energy is being exploited exponentially and its importance for renewable energy generation is increasing. We apply a double-bound dichotomous Contingent Valuation Method analysis in order to both a) estimating the Willingness to Pay (WTP) of Greek residents for green electricity produced by offshore wind farm located between the islands of Tinos and Andros and b) identifying factors behind respondents’ WTP including individual’s behaviour toward environment and individual’s views on climate change and renewable energy. A total of 141 respondents participated in the questionnaire. Results show that the respondents are willing to pay on average 20€ every two months through their electricity bill in return for carbon-free electricity and water saving from the wind farm. Respondents’ environmental consciousness and their perception towards climate change and renewable energy have a positive effect on their WTP.

Do online hotel rating schemes influence booking behaviors?

Travelers’ hotel booking behaviors increasingly depend on peers' opinions and online ratings. This study investigates the effects of online hotel ratings on travelers' attitudes toward the hotel and booking intentions, using a 2 × 2 experimental research design. The results suggest that online rating lists are more useful and credible when published by well-known online travel communities (e.g., TripAdvisor). More favorable attitudes toward a hotel and higher booking intentions emerge when the hotel appears in best hotels lists. Finally, for the entries on best hotels lists, better attitudes and higher booking intentions result if the list is published on a well-known online travel community (Tripadvisor), whereas for entries on a worst hotel list, attitudes and booking intentions decrease even further if the list appears on TripAdvisor.

Landscape and farm scale management to enhance biodiversity conservation in the cocoa producing region of southern Bahia, Brazil

In southern Bahia, Brazil, large land areas are used for the production of cocoa (Theobroma cacao), which is predominantly grown under the shade of native trees in an agroforestry system locally known as cabruca. As a dominant forest-like landscape element of the cocoa region, the cabrucas play an important role in the conservation of the region`s biodiversity. The purpose of this review is to provide the scientific basis for an action plan to reconcile cocoa production and biodiversity conservation in southern Bahia. The available research collectively highlights the diversity of responses of different species and biological groups to both the habitat quality of the cabrucas themselves and to the general characteristics of the landscape, such as the relative extent and spatial configuration of different vegetation types within the landscape mosaic. We identify factors that influence directly or indirectly the occurrence of native species in the cabrucas and the wider landscape of the cocoa region and develop recommendations for their conservation management. We show that the current scientific knowledge already provides a good basis for a biodiversity friendly management of the cocoa region of southern Bahia, although more work is needed to refine some management recommendations, especially on shade canopy composition and density, and verify their economic viability. The implementation of our recommendations should be accompanied by appropriate biological and socioeconomic monitoring and the findings should inform a broad program of adaptive management of the cabrucas and the wider cocoa landscape.

Wind farm construction impacts reindeer migration and movement corridors

Over the last decade, we have seen a massive increase in the construction of wind farms in northern Fennoscandia. Wind farms comprising hundreds of wind turbines are being built, with little knowledge of the possible cumulative adverse effects on the habitat use and migration of semi-domesticated free-ranging reindeer. We assessed how reindeer responded to wind farm construction in an already fragmented landscape, with specific reference to the effects on use of movement corridors and reindeer habitat selection. We used GPS-data from reindeer during calving and post-calving in the MalAyen reindeer herding community in Sweden. We analysed data from the pre-development years compared to the construction years of two relatively small wind farms. During construction of the wind farms, use of original migration routes and movement corridors within 2 km of development declined by 76 %. This decline in use corresponded to an increase in activity of the reindeer measured by increased step lengths within 0-5 km. The step length was highest nearest the development and declining with distance, as animals moved towards migration corridors and turned around or were observed in holding patterns while not crossing. During construction, reindeer avoided the wind farms at both regional and landscape scale of selection. The combined construction activities associated with even a few wind turbines combined with power lines and roads in or close to central movement corridors caused a reduction in the use of such corridors and grazing habitat and increased the fragmentation of the reindeer calving ranges.

Analysis of Optimum Location, Viability, and Potential Effects of Wind Farm Construction in Maine

Maine has the highest potential for wind energy in New England and falls within the top twenty states in the nation. It falls just behind Wisconsin and California with an estimate electrical output of 56 billion kWhs. The geological makeup of Maine’s mountains in the western part of the state, and the exposed coastline provide opportune areas to capture wind and convert it into energy. The information included in this poster will suggest the most likely areas for wind development based on a number of factors as recommended by the American Wind Energy Association.

Farm Size and Lymphoma Cancer in Maine

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Hotel Dall'Onder uma empresa sociotélica

Nesta dissertação procura-se demonstrar que os conceitos de empresas visionárias, de Collins e Porras (2000), e de empresas missionárias, de Mintzberg (2001), podem ser aplicados para entender o comportamento do Hotel Dall’Onder. Foi aplicada a metodologia do estudo exploratório de caso único, por ser um caso revelador e por representar um teste local de uma teoria significativa. A coleta de informações em vários documentos publicados pela imprensa, em livros, artigos e reportagens, além do que se pôde obter nas entrevistas de profundidade com pessoas representativas do empresariado, com micro-empresários, com colaboradores da empresa e com seus acionistas e diretores, representaram, neste, trabalho “provas testemunhais”, não sendo, assim, necessária qualquer análise estatística qualitativa ou quantitativa. A história da colonização italiana no Rio Grande do Sul aportou elementos para o melhor entendimento da formação da cultura do “colono”. O meio ambiente, embora adverso, facilitou a “acumulação primitiva” e forçou a procura de novos mercados. Foram analisados a missão, a ideologia e o comportamento histórico e presente do Hotel Dall’Onder, suas semelhanças e diferenças com os conceitos de Mintzberg (2001) e Collins e Porras (2000) e sua aderência a princípios éticos e de respeito social e ambiental, considerando a sua inserção nos projetos administrados pela Atuaserra e pelo projeto que ele próprio criou: Caminhos de Pedra. As conclusões são de que o Hotel Dall’Onder supera as exigências de Collins e Porras (op. cit.) e Mintzberg (op. cit.), podendo ser classificada como uma empresa visionário e missionária plus, pois adota os princípios éticos de Abela (op. cit) e res peita o meio ambiente, na linha do Sistema de Produto Inteligente de Blue e outros. Além disso, aplicou intuitivamente as bases teóricas do marketing social como instrumento de transformação social, visando a melhoria de vida das pessoas envolvidas, e a implantação de um novo modo de agir, criando o turismo cultural, apoiado na arquitetura, na gastronomia, na vitivinicultura, na agroindústria caseira, nos costumes e nas idiossincrasias, sem utilizar nenhum mecanismo de propaganda, difusão ou uso de mídia paga. Por isso se propõe sua qualificação como empresa sociotélica, ou seja, voltada para uma missão externa a si própria e de profundo cunho social. Apresenta diferenciais enormes: a distribuição de 10% do faturamento bruto, todos os meses, para todos os colaboradores; o estímulo ao surgimento de concorrentes em seu próprio ramo de negócios; o investimento, o apoio e a criação de atrativos turísticos sem mercado cativo e o investimento maciço no desenvolvimento do turismo regional, mesmo em prejuízo dos investimentos que lhe dariam maior escala e melhor condição competitiva, e isso por acreditar na máxima em dialeto vêneto dos colonos: Quanto pi baletere, tanto pi tordi (Quanto mais frutas, mais pássaros).

A iluminação natural em hotelaria de lazer : estudo de caso de um hotel hidrotermal no Paraná

A busca da solução ideal entre os fenômenos naturais para conforto na habitação de um modo geral e na hotelaria de lazer de forma especifica, constitui um desafio para profissionais e proprietários desse tipo de edificações. As variáveis e condicionantes da região de localização do prédio e o domínio no assunto, tem levado alguns profissionais da área a acreditar que podem alterar o espaço em que o homem vive modificando o comportamento do meio (Enarch, 1983). Estudos específicos na área de conforto ambiental mostram, que a utilização correta dos meios em uso na aplicação da energia disponível e que a correta implantação da obra no sitio podem reduzir consideravelmente o consumo energético, proporcionando o necessário conforto e bem estar ao usuário.O Estudo que aqui é apresentado se propôs de forma sucinta, a traçar um rápido panorama da historia da hotelaria de lazer, desde tempos antigos, com o inicio das primeiras jornadas romanas, até os dias de hoje, procurando identificar quais os critérios adotados para aproveitamento de iluminação e ventilação natural na arquitetura de hotéis de lazer Na seqüência situou-se a história da hotelaria de lazer no Brasil. No terceiro capitulo foram abordados, alguns exemplos significativos da arquitetura brasileira na década de 50, que influenciaram a primeira manifestação da arquitetura de hotel voltado ao bem estar, no Paraná. No quarto capitulo é apresentada a primeira e discreta participação do exemplo paranaense, com a adoção de alguns aspectos, no que se refere ao aproveitamento natural da iluminação e ventilação natural.O estudo de caso, finalmente buscou encontrar traços referenciais, do hotel tomado como objeto da pesquisa, procurando identificar, os critérios adotados quando presentes, para redução de consumo de energia e para conforto ambiental na hotelaria de lazer apresentada.

Can unobserved heterogeneity in farmer ability explain the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity?

The well-known inverse relationship between farm-size and productivity is usually explained in terms of diminishing returns with respect to land and other inputs coupled with various types of market frictions that prevent the efficient allocation of land across farms. We show that even if in the absence of diminishing returns one can provide an alternative explanation for this phenomenon using endogenous occupational choice and heterogeneity with respect to farming skills.

A narratological analysis of D. M. Thoma`s: the white hotel (1981)

“A Narratological Analysis of D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel (1981)” originated within a seminar on British Postmodernist Literature during the first Master’s Degree in “British and North-American Culture and Literature” (2001-04) at the Universidade da Madeira set up by the Department of English and German Studies. This dissertation seeks to present a narratological analysis of Thomas’s novel. The White Hotel stands as a paradigmatic example of the kind of literature that has dominated the British literary scene in the past three decades, commonly referred to as postmodernist fiction, owing to its formal craftsmanship (multiplicity of narrative voices and perspectives, mixing of differing genres and text types, inclusion of embedded narratives) alongside the handling of what are deemed as postmodernist topoi (the distinction between truth and lies, history and fantasy, fact and fiction, the questioning of the nature of aesthetic representation, the role the author and the reader hold in the narrative process, the instability of the linguistic sign, the notion of originality and the moral responsibility the author has towards his/her work), The narratological approach carried out in this research reveals that Thomas’s text constitutes an aesthetic endeavour to challenge the teleological drive that is inherent in any narrative, i. e., the inevitable progression towards a reassuring end. Hence, the subversion of narrative telling, which is a recurrent feature in Thomas’s remaining literary output, mirrors the contemporary distrust in totalising, hierarchised and allencompassing narratives. In its handling of historical events, namely of the Holocaust, The White Hotel invites us to reassess the most profound beliefs we were taught to take for granted: progress, reality and truth. In their place the novel proposes a more flexible conception of both the world and art, especially of literary fiction. In other terms, the world appears as a brutal chaotic place the subject is forced to adjust to. Accordingly, the literary work is deemed hybrid, fragmented and open. So as to put forth the above-mentioned issues, this research work is structured in three main chapters. The initial chapter – “What is Postmodernism?” – advances a scrutiny not only of the seminal but also of more recent studies on postmodernist literary criticism. Following this, in Chapter II – “Postmodernist British Fiction” – a brief overview of postmodernist British fiction is carried out, focusing on the fictional works that, in my opinion, are fundamental for the periodising of British postmodernism. In addition, I felt the need to include a section – “D. M. Thomas as a Postmodernist Novelist” – in which the author’s remaining literary output is briefly examined. Finally, Chapter III – “A Narratological Analysis of The White Hotel” – proposes a narratological analysis of the novel according to the particular Genettian analytical model. To conclude, my dissertation constitutes an approach to D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel as a text whose very existence is substantiated in the foregrounding of the contingency of all discourses, meeting the postmodernist precepts of openness and subversion of any narrative that claims to be true, globalising and all-inclusive.

Characterization of a plankton community in a fish farm

Aim: The objective of this study was to analyze the composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities related to the dynamics of a fish farm; Methods: Samples were collected every other day, within a period of twenty consecutive days, during the dry and rainy seasons. Two samples were collected upstream from the fish pond (reservoir); the other four samples were collected in the fish farm area; Results: Rotifera and Chlorophyceae species were found in high densities at almost all sampling sites during both seasons under analysis. The higher phytoplankton species richness from site P3 to P6 was influenced by the management employed within the fish farm. The zooplankton community showed low values of density, species richness and equitability during the dry season; Conclusions: The continuous water flow and the addition of fertilizers (organic and inorganic) in the fish ponds had an influence on the plankton community, leading to a reduction in water quality and Cyanobacteria dominance.