Tourism Distribution Strategies & Modern Marketing

This assignment delves into the dynamic world of tourism distribution strategies and how they intersect with contemporary marketing practices. It examines various distribution methods employed by tour operators, travel agencies, and online platforms to reach target markets. The assignment also analyzes the influence of modern communication tools and digital marketing on shaping tourism trends and consumer behavior. Students are expected to research current industry practices, evaluate their effectiveness, and propose innovative strategies for adapting to the evolving landscape of tourism distribution.

Developing a Holiday
Package and Tour
Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Effect of current and recent trends in developing the tour operation industries...................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Assessing stages and time scales involved in developing holidays......................................2
2.2 Different methods of contracting for various components of the holiday by the tour
operators......................................................................................................................................5
2.3 Selling price of a holiday......................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure............................................6
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure...............................................................7
3.3 Suitability of different methods of distribution.....................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
4.1 Evaluation of strategic decisions...........................................................................................8
4.2 Comparison of tactical decisions..........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism plays a major role in increasing global economy of a country and thus it is
important to significantly deal with its constituents. Therefore, tourism operations are globally
enhancing business of travel and tourism by generating a varied scope of employment
opportunities. Tour operators thereby play another crucial function of enhancing their services to
meet recent trends and demand of the users which duly attracts numerous travellers’ to
experience their profound services (Barker, 2014). Basically, they are responsible to create a
travel plan with all other required services of accommodating customers and arranging a prompt
service of catering for supplying food to them. It consists of complete holiday package which
together works as a cost effective method of purchasing in bulk for service users. The below
report showcases the functionalities of such organizations which successfully deals in the
business of tour operations. Thomas Cook is amongst one of the private tour operating firms
which organizes a mass tour operation for large group people. Thus, it is together responsible to
arrange transportation and various other services for its clients and users on large basis which
will be effectually covered in the below report (Becker, 2013).
TASK 1
1.1 Effect of current and recent trends in developing the tour operation industries
Tour and travel sector has gained importance in the arena of serving people by
considering all their recent trends and demand. It is the most successful aspect by which an
industry can largely and successfully meet its stated objectives of raising funds by gradually
increasing its profits and revenues. Tourism is nowadays in high demand by many tourists who
are tremendously attracted towards art and culture of different countries. Thus, it is equally
important for the tourism businesses to enhance their services for effectively meeting forecasted
demand of customer which clearly defines their interest in utilizing an advanced approach
(Carmody, 2013). Some major impacts of the latest trends and development are as mentioned
below- Technological development- Technical advancement has greatly and positively
influenced the industry of tourism with a tremendous rise in its updated methods of
serving the clients. Here, the internet has worked as an active source with its increasing
demand among the users. Thomas Cook too operates its own websites by which the
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clients can easily schedule and manage their bookings. They can also provide an option
of booking cancellation where the clients can make necessary changes, as and if required.
Therefore, such ease and convenience in services to the users is largely responsible for
the growth of tourism sector (Tsiotsou and Goldsmith, 2012). Cost effective packages- The cited firm also provides an overall holiday package which
consists of tour destination with almost all other required services of travelling and
accommodating clients. They too care for serving quality of food at the time of tour by
using varied healthy and nutrient contents. For this purpose, the cited firm has contracted
on the best cater service to work with them (Cheng and et.al., 2011). Other than that, this
methodology also help the users to select from a wide range of services which together
serves them as a cost effective method by buying the services in bulk.
 Measures of promoting services- It is yet another essential factor in which the cited firm
is responsible to broadcast their varied services to its prospected users by together
educating them about famous destinations to visit (Tricoire, Graf and Gutjahr, 2012). The
tour operators usually create relevant brochures and distribute among their agents for
selling it to the customers. The organization is focused to provide an experience of grey
tourism to its service users.
TASK 2
2.1 Assessing stages and time scales involved in developing holidays
Below is an itinerary plan for an African tropical destination of Kenya (Ruan, Lin, and
Kawamura, 2012). It comprises an overall holiday package for the service users of Thomson
Cook. It is a one week plan that consists of a proper scheduling of time with total number of days
and nights in the beaches and deserts of Kenya with some other arrangements of transportation
and flight services. Kenya is an authentic place to spend holiday in major number of attractive
beaches and safaris. Therefore, the traveller's to Kenya often plans to visit both combinations
(Connell, 2013). Thomas Cook too considered similar aspect of creating the below stated travel
plan for Kenya visitors.
“Itinerary plan for Kenya”
Major Highlights
Tour duration- 4 days
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Initial point- Nairobi
Destinations to be covered-
 Nairobi Parks and reserves
 Masai Mara Safari
 Famous Beaches Diani Nakaru Lake
Customised and mixed Accommodation with a luxury level of comfort-
 2 nights at House of Waine
 1 night Mahali Mzuri
Daily activity plan
Day 1
9:30 am- Arrival at the capital city of Kenya, Nairobi with an accommodating facility for 2
nights at the luxurious hospitality of House of Waine.
10:30 am- Breakfast will be arranged at accurate time.
11:00 am- Heading towards the national parks and reserves of Nairobi which profoundly
signifies the simplicity of nature with its varied features. It is basically a safari trip in which one
can spot around 550 species of birds and various other animals that include different categories
of lion, rhino and giraffe, etc.
2:00 pm- Lunch available at the famous Loldia house with an option to visit some other local
nearby attractions of “The Giraffe Manor” and “Karen Blixen Museum”, etc. It will take around
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3 more hours to visit all such places.
5:00 pm- After returning from the trip of Nairobi, an exceptional arrangement of spending an
exclusive evening time with loads of snacks, starters and beverages at the renowned boutique
hotel, House of Waine.
8:00 pm- Dinner will be ready.
Day 2
10:00 am- Breakfast.
11:00 am- Heading for the famous Masai Mara Safari which is famous for its gaming views like
hot air balloon flight and various existent of species including the big cats of Mara.
2:00 pm- Lunch will be arranged at the famous nearby Carnivore Restaurant with few exclusive
variation of different cuisines.
8:00 pm- Returning to the House of Waine for spending one more night of enthusiastic
arrangement of bonfire followed by an absolute dinner and a theme dance party.
Day 3
11:00 am- After followed by a timely breakfast sharp at 10'O clock, we will be heading to
experience an exotic view of famous Kenya beaches like Diani and many more.
2:00 pm- Lunch with an accommodating facility at the splendid premises of Mahali Mzuri with
an option of tented safari camp and major relaxation facilities of pools and spa.
6:00 pm- Exciting games will be played followed by a fascinating arrangement of snacks and
beverages.
8:00 pm- Dinner will be placed.
Day 4
10:00 am- Breakfast.
11:00 am- Aiming to view another tropical scenario of Nakaru lake and other nearby attractions
of churches and site viewing the eye-catching species of flamingo birds, etc.
3:00 pm- A delayed Lunch will be arranged at Mahali Mzuri.
7:00 pm- Departure for the international return flight.
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2.2 Different methods of contracting for various components of the holiday by the tour operators
Different tour operators have different plans to build their packages for the customers.
Below are the two main methods of contracting which includes-
1. Fixed contracts- Such contracts are being used by the Airtours company, where it will
book for the total transportation service. However, it will charge the customer for only
the utilized part of its service (Dickinson, Lumsdon and Robbins, 2011). This kind of
facilities will undoubtedly attract many service users with a benefit of paying only for the
consumed part of their service. Here at the seasonal time, the operators can generate a
huge amount of profits. However, such type of contracts comprises certain risk where the
operator has to bear a loss of non utilized service and receives a payment of only
underutilized portion by customer (Moutinho, 2011).
2. Sale contracts- These contacts are useful for the operators at the lean season where the
risk takers are generally associated to buyers. Here the firm's like Flight centres are
responsible to sell their packages to the customers, whose cancellation does not affect the
firm on a large basis. Mostly, the high end customers are targeted for such contracts.
Both the above discussed methods can be profoundly used by the selected tour operator,
Thomas Cook (Law and Xiang, 2013.). These methods will equally help the cited firm to balance
out its applied costs and expenditures.
2.3 Selling price of a holiday
The price range of a holiday package by Thomas cook mainly refines the costing of
overall acknowledged facilities to its service users. It comprises various fields which mainly
include the cost of transportation facilities, accommodating charges, catering services, and ticket
fares to check into the various places of attraction (Lin and et.al., 2012). The below mentioned
table however concludes a total cost of 3,330.00 EUR for buying the above package of Kenya.
Facilities Charges
Transportation 1,332.00 EUR
Accommodation 999.00 EUR
Meal or Catering 666.00 EUR
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Ticket Fares 333.00 EUR
Total 3,330.00 EUR
TASK 3
3.1 Planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure
Selecting a prompt brochure is of vital importance where it works as the key element to
attract a major number of customer's. Therefore, it is important for the tour operating company to
opt a flaunting look of their brochures. It conducts various levels of planning to recognize the
exact psychology of the recent trends and demands of the customers by determining the latest
use of techniques and approaches (Alampay, 2005). The planning procedure of designing a
brochure initiates with its first impression by working towards the content in regard to audience,
a prompt selection of colours and images, etc. The basic creation of a brochure is to provide the
audience an overall overview of the purpose behind it. One doesn't require to be an affluent
designer to build a prospective brochure (Minca and Oakes, 2012). However, it just needs to be a
vigilant consumer who knows about the ongoing market trends and opportunities to create a
market friendly brochure. Thus, an effective planning of Thomas and Cook depends on the
below mentioned points-
 Fascinated theme- It is the foremost step where the cited firm aims to create a single
effectual message that contains the overall story for its viewers. They ensure its content
to be the most dignified one to indulge numerous audiences to go through the below
points (Mills and Law, 2013).
 Objective of the brochure- It is the next step to plan the certified objectives that the cited
firm is focusing upon. They mainly target the three different kind of objectives which
are-
◦ Learning objectives- It will help the readers to determine the benefits of the package
with the available services and its costing, etc.
◦ Emotional objectives- This will build a sense of feeling among the readers to whether
accept to participate in it or not.
◦ Behavioural objectives- These objectives will showcase the above resultant of
emotional objectives which may be either positive or negative as per the total number
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of participants who took interest to be a part of the package circulated by the cited
firm (Mak, 2011).
 Targeting Audience- It this step, the cited firm is responsible to decide its targeted
customer's which typically defines some segments of-
◦ Families with small children or couples,
◦ Old-age people's,
◦ Oversees visitors,
◦ Groups from schools and colleges, or
◦ Tourists with some special interest of sports activities and wildlife, etc.
Accordingly, the cited firm will be posting some pictures of attractive destination arenas
to largely attract the customers (Weaver, 2007).
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure
A traditional brochure represents the paper format of a booklet where it is quite
impossible to cover all the information of the destination that one wants to convey to its
audiences. Thus, it comprises only of a certain amount of data in it which works just as an
overview of the place. However, internet comes to the rescue of it and effectively cops up with
this traditional form of designing a brochure (Ashworth and Page, 2011). It together shows a
very profound outcome with some expected boom of responses by the viewers. This is a resultant
effect of e-brochures which are now thoroughly available at various sites of internet. Thomas
Cook too owes its website which covers almost all famous destinations around the world.
A digital form thus helps the cited firm to intensify certain inner feelings of its audience
to view the spell bound presentation of each and every corner that one dreams to visit at least
once. It together prompts its services by mentioning all rendering facilities to the customers. It
proves to be beneficial for both the firm and its customers where the cited firm will get a major
number of active online customers with an ease of viewing the required data of both the place
and its travelling costing. As a result, the cited firm will attain more participation of traveller's to
gain a huge amount of income (Brebbia and Pineda, 2010).
3.3 Suitability of different methods of distribution
The circulation of brochures highly reflect the sale of packages by a tour operator.
Therefore, one should opt for an effective method of distribution that attain some fluent number
of potential customers (Tsiotsou, 2014). Thomas Cook too uses several methods of distribution
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that mainly refers to either making a direct telephonic sale by operating a separate call centre for
such specific purpose, by trading online or by making various promotional offers, etc. Direct sale
by the cited firm involves selling through the means of online medium, or by making telephonic
calls to its existing clients by acknowledging them about the current ongoing plan or package
and asking them to give few references of certain prospected customers who are presently
planning for a tour and interested in utilizing the services of a tour operator (Dodds and Graci,
2012). It is a cost effective measure by approaching major number of service users.
Another methodology is email marketing in which the cited firm impersonally
communicate the targeted consumers through mails to broadcast them about their recent tour
packages. It too works as a low cost method where the prospected customer receives all required
data specifying the features of their package which becomes together becomes easy for its
audience to judge and decide. The cited firm also hires some certified agents in regard to sell the
brochures among the targeted segment of customers. They are also responsible to conduct
various promotional activities to enhance their sale that lastly effects the growth of the
organization (Edgell, 2013). Hence, Thomas Cook utilizes a combined form of all these
approaches to successfully reach the stated objectives.
TASK 4
4.1 Evaluation of strategic decisions
A strategic implementation is considered as an important element to attain a major
outcome of positive results. Thus, Thomas Cook too believes in applying the similar approach of
building a strategic plan of operating its business which mainly involves making decisions
regarding the designing of its booklet, by identifying the targeted segment of customers, fixing a
cost effective price to attract more number of people towards its services and choosing a prompt
method to circulate or distribute its action plan by covering major number of audiences.
Developing an effective strategic plan is often emerges a profitable firm with a dynamic nature
of changing the plans by considering outside proposition of demand (Miller and Twining-Ward,
2005). However, the strategic decision of Thomas Cook relies on the below mentioned factors- Segmentation followed by targeting and positioning- The firm starts with a particular
segmentation of its targeted audiences where the cited firm focuses on building a
demographic segmentation. It is done by determining the age, income and interest of its
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prospected customers on which the other factors are being framed. It mainly reflects the
pricing strategy of the cited firm to competitively strike its major competitors. Seasonality factor- It defines a pricing strategy of the cited firm at the peak time of travel
and tourism when there are large number of prospected customers to focus upon. The
seasonality highly states the firm's revenue and thus it is important to take a firm and
effective decision of pricing by together selecting a sound area (Morosan, 2013).
 Promotional activities- This is a factor of broadcasting the services to its prospected
users. It defines the process of selecting an appropriate channel of designing and
distributing brochures to attract huge numbers of public (Sisay, 2009). The cited firm also
provides various discount offers at the peak season to pull more audiences.
4.2 Comparison of tactical decisions
Building a tactical decision involves the functionality of daily operations of Thomas cook
where it is solely responsible to manage all its expenditures. Therefore, it is important for the
cited firm to negotiate with its service providers of accommodation and transportation. There are
various service providers for different facilities of transportation, accommodation, and catering,
etc. The cited firm have to set a pre-defined budget of their own and build an effective proposal
to invite those service providers (Olsen and et.al., 2008). They then selects the most effective
quotation out of the available options which is suiting the most to their pre planned budget. The
main motive of the cited firm is to opt for a minimal cost of plan which together serves at its best
to the clients. The most effective form of making negotiations to select the most suitable
proposal is often done by personal meetings with the service providers. It also helps the cited
firm to make a complete understanding of their policies and procedures by eliminating any
existence of uncertainty (Ritchie, J., 2005). However, evaluating the experience of customers is
also included in building a tactile decision that involves to rectify and resolving any issues or
concerns of the service users.
CONCLUSION
The present report has effectively covered various aspects of a tourism operating firm by
concluding all its major components to always lead a way ahead. It has showcased four major
parts of understanding the formulation of this industry, identifying various stages it involves to
create a profound holiday package for its service users, the comprehension of framing and
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distributing its brochures in the most needed form by using and considering all the latest means
of techniques and lastly by making an appropriate decision of building its both strategic and
tactical action plan that further reflects its day to day operations.
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Edgell, L. D., 2013. Managing Sustainable Tourism: A Legacy for the Future. Routledge.
Miller, G. and Twining-Ward, L., 2005. Monitoring for a Sustainable Tourism Transition: The
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Morosan, C., 2013. An analysis of the relationship between travel preferences and intentions to
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