Mobil and the American Automobile Association Research Paper

Mobil and the American Automobile Association - Research Paper Example Vallen and Vallen (2001) observe that ratings and audits for hotels can be a subjective business. He points out that in some countries where the rating systems are handled by the government, there is a great possibility that bribery, politics, and trade association bickering will affect the rating of an establishment. The Star Rating system RACV endorses is handled, not by the government, but by a private enterprise – the AAA Tourism group. This is much akin to the system adopted by the Americans – who use ratings from enterprises such as the American Automobile Association and Mobil. This has the effect of avoiding the political influence of a governmental rating system. The auditing for AAA Tourism’s ratings is done by local assessors. Vallen and Vallen further note that local assessors have a tendency to be subjective in their ratings. They observed that these assessors usually award full points for the mere presence of amenities and not the quality of such. I n comparison, the guidelines stipulated by the AAAT have a rigid point system that relies heavily on the quality of existing amenities. From observation, it may be said that these guidelines serve to mitigate such biases. One point in the assessment process of AAAT that raises questions is the fact that assessors are required by the system to make their visits announced (AAAT 2003). Other rating firms will conduct their assessments anonymously. This is, presumably, to capture the natural atmosphere and typical quality a hotel offers on any given day. The question with planned visits is that hotel management is given the opportunity to prepare what may be considered as a contrived sense of quality.

What do You Understand by Economic Protectionism Essay

What do You Understand by Economic Protectionism - Essay Example Free trade is known to be more favorable to consumers and hence such protectionism hurts the consumers more (Lee, 2001). The reason for this is mostly consumers have to buy low quality goods at a higher price. The quality of goods obtained at this is far more inferior. They even have to pay higher taxes in order to help the government bear the burden of subsidies. They are of left with little choices since foreign products are lowered or eliminated by imposing restrictions. The case is worst when it comes to essential commodities like food grains, salt, and sugar. The political argument offered for such protection is to have a ‘fair’ trade. This means either the government is trying to make the domestic industries more competitive in international market or it wants to strike a balance between importing goods and maintaining domestic production. Although it is argued that producers are favored with this policy of protection but at the same time they are losing consumers on account of this. Not all industries and firms are receiving protection and subsidies. The ones deprived of such facilities are again diversely hit as they try to increase productivity (Lee, 2001). Economists have also favored free trade than such protection because trade carries the advantages of increased productivity and employment. However real life case examples will help to point out the implications of such protection. Japanese protection for rice production can be cited as an example. Japanese people had been worshipping rice as god and had been fighting to protect rice production. Japanese government has offered subsidies to rice farmers (Barlett, 2006). This and prevention of foreign rice imports has been adopted as strategies for protection. Previously heavy snowing has distorted rice...These policies are adopted when the country is giving more importance to development of domestic industries rather than engaging in free trade. Economic Protectionism has tremendous infl uence on consumption as well as production. But the impact is more on the production side. Sometimes protection is offered to some scale industries who hardly show any incentive to grow and just wasting the opportunities and facilities offered by the government. Neither they have any incentive to innovate and produce better quality products. The country suffers a loss of revenue that it could have earned from trade. This is because other countries retaliate in a similar manner by imposing restrictions on the country’s exports. Government is worse off by losing revenue from trade. In some cases the government also offers subsidies to the industries for growth which is helpful only if the industry has the potential to compete with its foreign counterparts. Moreover urban development demands more landscapes for which they are concentrating on acquisition of rice fields. This will make farmers lose their livelihood. So the government has stepped forward to protect rice farming. It restricts cheap imported rice from entering Japan and at the same time helps the farmers with a support price. Hence rice farming protection can be considered justified here.