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1001HSL Assessment #2 Reflective Journal

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1. Lynch and Veal (Ch. 1 customised textbook) and Godbey (Ch 1 in digitised readings)
use time, activity and attitude as concepts to study leisure. Using examples from
your own experiences to illustrate the meaning of each concept, discuss the merits
and drawbacks of each concept from the point of view of understanding and studying
leisure.
Leisure can be potentially found in everything. Some people find leisure in a simple hang out
with friends while others find it in gossiping and in chit chat with friends. There are many factors
involved in understanding what an individual considers to be leisure. There are other influencing
factors as well. For example- a friend might say that he enjoyed a wonderful time when he
visited a recreational park in the weekend. If another individual visits the same amusement park,
then it would not be much of a surprise if the level of satisfaction and leisure is not the same as
enjoyed by the first person. This is because the sense of attiring leisure is directly contingent
upon the perception, attitude and state of mind of the human being. If there are numerous
thoughts bothering a human about some concern, then he is not likely to enjoy a comedy movie
that others are laughing at. Thus, as far as the concepts of time, attitude and activity are
concerned, every point has their own set of merits and demerits associated with them. A
particular time in the year, where many festivals fall together can be generalized as a leisure time
for all. However, once again it neglects the individual life of humans where their individual
frame of mind is not paid the due attention. The activity which a person does on a daily basis has
potentially no direct relation with leisure I believe. It is not necessarily that a person who reports
to office every day that he finds leisure in his job. On the other hand, the merit of this is that a
person is likely to find leisure if he does a thing repeatedly over a considerable period of time.
The attitude of a person also defines the concept of leisure to an extent; some people get highly
admired by narcissists and start to do the things which they are doing. This I feel should not be
the way for the simple fact that different people have different cultural backgrounds and like to
experiment with different things. This is a drawback of defining the concept of leisure by the


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virtue of attitude. Also, attitude would help in defining leisure for different persons as the
perceptions and their thought are easily judged by their respective attitudes (Matzler 2003).
2. Discuss why leisure professionals in event, sport, tourism and hospitality
organisations need to understand different cultural groups (see Ch 4 of customised
textbook). Focusing on one industry sector describe one positive and one negative
experience that you have had, or observed, in relation to others that demonstrates
how sensitivity/insensitivity in cross cultural communication can impact on others.
It has become important for both service related and goods related organizations to understand
the cross cultural differences and disparities. No culture is right or wrong in any sense; they are
just a set of traditional values that are continued to the contemporary times. With the advent of
increasing globalization, multinational corporations are increasingly making it a point in
improving their understanding of the different cultures. This enables to be clear with their vision
of attaining corporate success and also for customizing their offerings to the end customer.
Different cultures also enjoy leisure activities differently. For example-Where Australians are
well known to associate their leisure activities with a beer in their hands, there are other cultures
with values such as where consuming alcohol is prohibited and they are required to follow their
traditional customs or they would be regarded as showing disapproval and disrespecting their
respective religion (Johnson 2000).
Negative Experience- The Australians and western cultures (Christianity) are known to be open
and friendly. This experience relates to a scene at a beach where the people from western culture
were flaunting and taking sun bath. They would not mind public display of affection. This is not
quite appreciated with the other reserved cultures such as the Muslim traditions and other Asian
communities and since they were also present at the beach at the same time, they were seen as
being more reserved and showed possible signs of not approving of the place. It can intuitively
pointed out that both of these cultures were enjoying their respective time out and enjoying
leisure activities, their ways were clearly different.


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Positive Experience- This scene relates to a famous hotel reception where guests were greeted
according to their respective culture. It was very pleasing to notice that the Japanese were
welcomed by the staff by bowing down and the Indians were typically offered Namaste.
Thus, leisure cannot be defined as a universal term as it does not have a similar meaning in all
the different cultures. The importance of a crisp understanding of the different cultures thus
becomes inevitable for the managerial organization style in todays technology driven highly
globalised world (Eugene 1994).
3. Is it possible to distinguish tourism from recreational activity? See Ch 2 of your
customised textbook. Use examples of your own experience to illustrate your point of
view.
Last few decades have seen a transformation in how people spend their leisure time as it
recreation giving student a break from the routine study schedules. Thus, tourism cannot be
separated from recreational activities as it is an inherent part of it. We, in our family, always plan
a tour outside the town, for example- it involves going to Gold Coast or Mountain Dandenong
for spending some time and also for a recreational activity (Alexandris 2006).
People have always associated going out for a picnic or for a world tour with their recreational
attitudes. One always sees many enterprises flaunting business opportunities and service at
tourists spots as they know from the past track records that there are many customers and
travelers who are expected to visit that tourist spot in a particular season or if not throughout the
year.
Thus, tourism is an integral part of the recreational activities right from the traditional times and
is continued till date in the contemporary times (Haywood 1989).


References


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Alexandris, K., Kouthouris, C., Meligdis, A., (2006), Increasing customers' loyalty in a skiing
resort: The contribution of place attachment and service quality, International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 414 425
Eugene W. Anderson, Claes Fornell, & Donald R. Lehmann (1994) Customer Satisfaction,
Market Share, and Profitability: Findings From Sweden The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, No.
3, pp. 53-66
Haywood, M.K. (1989), Managing Word-of-Mouth Communications, The Journal of Services
Marketing, Vol.3, No. 2, Spring, 55-67
Johnson, J.R., Zucco, P., Shealy, J.E. 2000, Skiing Trauma and Safety, ASTM, Saline, MI.
Matzler, K., Sauerwein, E., & Heischmidt, K. (2003). Importance-performance analysis
revisited: The role of the factor structure of customer satisfaction. The Service Industries Journal,
23(2), 112129.

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