Researching to Gain a Bigger View of the World
This page contains questions relating to Business. A student who wants to get a broader picture of the world of business can do this assignment and discover for himself many things.
Of course it takes research skills, particularly Internet research skills. How many students who regularly use computers, use them for study and research?
Internet searching can be frustrating until you get the hang of it. I provide below, some examples of "keyword searches".
Research of course is not limited to the internet. You can also:
Visit or phone various businesses
Talk to business people
Go to the library
Read newspapers
Read magazines
Check with government departments.
Tourism & Foreign Trade Assignment
Question 1. Exchange Rates
What are the current exchange rates against the RMB for:
US $ Japanese Yen Euro Pound Sterling Canadian $ Australian $ Russian Rouble Question 2.
Oil
What was the price of crude oil per barrel as at:
September 2005
September 2006 September 2007 March of 2008 September 1st 2008 October 2008 What will be the price on September 1st 2009 Why is the price of crude oil important? What effects the price of crude oil?
Question 3.
Overseas Travel
You are going to America to investigate the possibility of opening an office there or perhaps to try and make business contacts or do a Sales drive.
What is your cost in Rmb of a Business class return ticket to New York – and - 14 Days of Accomodation in a 4 star hotel. What is the cost in Rmb of an Economy class return ticket to New York – and - Cost of your Meals for the 14 days. Question 4.
Foreign Expert
You have invited a 'foreign expert' to come for 2 weeks to China to help you understand all the 'ins and outs' of setting up an office in China and forming a business association with an American company.
What will be the FEE or salary must you pay him for his services.
What will it cost you for this experts airfares, accomodation and meals. Question 5.
Passports and Visas
How and where can a Chinese person get a visa to travel to another country?
What is the cost of arranging your passport with Chinese Government What is the cost of arranging a visa to enter a foreign country What types of visa are there and which one do you specifically need for the USA.
Question 6. Salaries and Living Expenses
What is the annual NET income in American $'s of the average American worker.
What is his annual living expenditure. What is his tax rate per annum - how much personal tax does he pay. What is the annual NET income in American $'s of the average Chinese worker. What is his annual living expenditure. What is his tax rate per annum - how much personal tax does he pay. Question 7.
Employees
What salary does a fully qualified tourism manager receive in China - per annum.
What salary does a fully qualified tourist guide receive in China per annum. How many hours per week do these people work ON FULL PAY. How many days or hours in the year will they be on holidays ON FULL PAY. Your company sends you to live and work in America for three months. Currently they pay you 3000 RMB per month ( US $350) you can't live in America on this. What should they pay you? Justify receiving the amount you state. Question 8.
Office Rental
What does it cost to rent a reasonably sized Office in an upmarket section of YOUR CITY?
How much insurance must you pay in case of fire or flood. Question 9.
Equipment and Furniture
What does it cost to fill your new office with equipment? For Example:
Telephone / fax machine / photocopier / water bottle / tea coffee making facilities/ Your desk / secretary's desk / paper, pens, rulers, staple machine, Computers. etc
What will it cost to have professionally printed stationary (envelopes, letter heads etc) Provide a list of items and their cost.
When renting office space in YOUR CITY, what building maintenance fees do you have to pay - over and above your rent.
How much insurance must you pay to offset any 'compensation' claims from your customers (failed tours - injury - accidents - lost luggage etc) Question 10.
Professional Services
You will need to retain a Lawyer and an Accountant and Advertising agency to handle all your legal, accounting and advertising affairs. What fees are associated with these.
[You might have to contact a few to find out.]
Question 11.
Licenses and fees
What licences do you need to operate a tourist business in China.
What fees are involved in the licences. When you must arrange accomodation for your guests, how much discount will the Chinese Hotel operators give you for each guest?
If there is an entrance fee to a particular museum or place, how much discount will the tour operator be given for his tour group.
Question 12. Advertising
What are the advertising costs in China for the following:
A Television Advertisement
A full page advertisement in a Magazine
Small pictorial advertisements in a newspaper or tourist paper.
A professionally written article about your tour.
How much in 'Agent's fees' will a foreigner's hotel charge you to book their guests on your tour?
What are the advertising costs in America for the following:
Question 13.
Tourism
List the top 5 countries whose people visit China every year.
What are the top 10 places of interest in China What are the tour costs associated with visiting each How much money must you pay a 'special' translator to accompany you on a tour, to interpret for a large group of people who don't understand English. For instance, maybe you have a group of Finnish people. Maybe you can find some Chinese person who speaks Finnish or some Finnish person who speaks Chinese. What will you pay them per hour or day?
Touring in Foreign Countries
List the top 5 countries that Chinese people want to visit. What are the top 10 places of interest in those countries (2 for each) What are the tour costs associated with visiting each of these places. Question 14.
Costs and Expenses
When you plan a tour you need to consider wages of the staff, vehicles, guest accomodation or entrance fees, meals etc.
When working out how much to charge each person, you need to consider what you must earn to pay your rents, licences, office staff wages, advertising, taxes, insurances, lawyers and accountants, etc and then you have to allocate a profit margin.
Do a financial sheet showing production cost of a tour AND all the add ons. What is the final cost to the person in the street (the customer)?
Question 15. Stock Markets
What are the names of the major Stock Markets of the World – list the country as well.
What time do these different places open and close (in Chinese time) What is a 'tariff' and why it the term important to know.
What are import and export 'duties'. Question 16.
Shipping / Exporting
1.What is the cost of sending one Shipping container to Boston USA By Air
2.What is the cost of sending one Shipping container to Boston USA By Sea 3.How much insurance will you pay to protect your financial investment (shipping container). 4.What penalties must you pay to the foreign company if your goods do not arrive, are not the right goods, or are substandard goods. I hope you have fun and learn a lot from this Research.
To see how one class of students are coping with this assignment, take a look HERE at what they are finding out. | A note to the Wise:
A good student keeps his eyes and ears open to discover all that is to be discovered. Some students will get nothing from this page. Others will discover a lot.
It all depends on how dedicated you are.
This assignment is definitely not for the lazy. It is not for those university students who still expect just to be given all the answers in life.
Sometimes you have to "make like an archaeologist" and dig through the debris.
Abstract: There are many human resource challenges facing China's hotel and tourism industry. The key issues are: the lack of qualified staff at both operational and managerial levels, high staff turnover rates, the unwillingness of university graduates to enter the industry, and the gap between what is taught in school and college and the realities of the industry itself. The aim here is to explore these issues by interviewing industry executives and academics and via the authors' own experiences of teaching and research in China. It is hoped that these issues will be noted by the Chinese government and by industry leaders, and academics, as it will take a collaborative effort to address them. Text BoxOil prices have soared nearly fourfold since 2000 because of several factors: increased demand from China and India, declining production in Venezuela and Mexico and supply disruptions resulting from political crises in the Middle East and Africa.
Clock 3: U.K. - Clock 4: Moscow
[New York is 12 hours behind China]
U.S.A only
Wikipedia on Petroleum Price
The price of a barrel of oil is highly dependent on both its grade, determined by factors such as its specific gravity or API and its sulphur content, and its location. The vast majority of oil is not traded on an exchange but on an over-the-counter basis
Text Box |
