Tourism and Hospitality Industry Analysis

This assignment examines the tourism and hospitality industry through various lenses. It analyzes industry trends, promotional strategies, competitive landscapes, and the influence of technology. The assignment encourages critical thinking about sustainable development, cultural impacts, and the evolving nature of tourism in a globalized world.

Tour Operations Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
Assignment 1........................................................................................................................................4
1 Analysing current trends and developments in the tour operations sector...............................4
2 Prepare an itinerary for a holiday and develop a package.......................................................5
3 Calculation of cost and determining selling price....................................................................7
4 Designing brochure and assessing alternative methods of communications and promotion for
Thomas Cook..............................................................................................................................7
5 Evaluation and discuss non-traditional methods of distribution..............................................9
ASSIGNMENT 2...............................................................................................................................10
6 Emerging trends in the UK and evaluation as to how tour operators responds.....................10
7 Examining difference between tactical and strategic decisions as well as identifying tactical
decisions of Thomas Cook........................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................13

Index of Tables
Table 1: Itinerary..................................................................................................................................5
Table 2: Cost Calculation.....................................................................................................................7
Table 3: Brochure.................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
A tour operator is a travel agent or a travel company which provides specialised travelling
services to the customers. They provide services like accommodations, tickets and recreational
activities (Brown, Bessant and Lamming, 2013). Tour operators provide products on cheaper rate
and also add customization in the packages. The present research discusses about new and emerging
trends in destinations of the travel and tourism industry. The report also evaluates effectiveness of
various traditional methods used by the travel agencies or companies. Further, it will explore
various components which are taken into consideration before preparing a tour package. The
research also identifies different ways in which competitors work to achieve competitive advantage
in travel and tourism industry (Buckley and Shakeela, 2015). For better understanding of this report,
Thomas Cook has been selected.
ASSIGNMENT 1
1 Analysing current trends and developments in the tour operations sector
Recent trend and developments in the tour operations sector
As per the latest development, the travel and tourism industry has seen a great boom. This
industry is expected to earn good profits through online bookings (Witt, Brooke and Buckley,
2013). As more and more people are using internet, it will be easy for the travel companies to grab
money making opportunities. On the other hand, regional airports are also expanding day by day.
This shows that companies can target new destinations. Operators are referring customers directly
through online website. This is done so as to increase independent travellers in the United
Kingdom. Apart from this, cost of travelling is also increasing due to hike in the prices of hotels and
airlines. This is due to various economic and monetary changes in the country.
Analysis of the type of holidays taken
Holidays can be divided into different types; this is done because each holiday type serves
for a different purpose. Various types of holiday are history tours, family adventures, safaris, luxury
travel or honeymoon tours. History tour holiday’s main attraction is to visit those destinations which
have historical significance attached to them (Blanke and Chiesa, 2013). On the other hand, luxury
tours are for those people who prefer to spend a lot of money and want superior services from
Thomas Cook. Family adventure holidays are generally in groups where the operator provides fun
and adventurous experience to the group. Safaris are generally done in areas where there is rich
source of wildlife, while honeymoon holidays are specially designed for the couples.
Emerging popular destination
The emerging new destinations are those places which are getting popular and establishing

as the most preferred destinations in all around the world. Rise in the promotional and
advertisement activities of the destinations is also a reason for attracting customers to a particular
destination (Holloway and Humphreys, 2016). The emerging destinations are as followed.
 Madagascar
 Iran
 Porto Cervo, Italy
 Palau
 Romania
 Buenos Aires, Argentina
 Cape Town Central, South Africa
 Maldives
 Reggio di Calabria, Italy
2 Prepare an itinerary for a holiday and develop a package
Tour package comprises of the information on the services provided by Thomas Cook. The
tour operator have developed a package worth 687 € (Standing, Tang-Taye, and Boyer, 2014). The
package time scale is of 10 days and the destination opted are Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cape Town
Central, South Africa and Maldives. The packages consists of an itinerary and components to be
purchased with the package.
An itinerary is a planned route for a journey prepared by a travel agent or a travel company.
Table 1: Itinerary
Day 1:
Arrive at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires airport. Check in the hotel and relax.
Have a light breakfast. In the afternoon have a delicious lunch at Don Julio, Palermo. It is a
great palace to taste the traditional and indulgent food of Argentina. After this, check back in
the hotel, rest for a while. In the evening enjoy at Teatro Colon, an opera house. This opera
house is a great source for ballet and classical music (Leung and Baloglu, 2013).
Day 2:
Start your day with great coffee at Cafe Tortoni, the most famous cafe in Buenos Aires.
After this move to Recoleta/ La Recoleta Cemetery, which is a colonial church. In the
afternoon head back to the hotel and have lunch specially arranged by chef's recommendation.
In the evening visit, Puerto Madero a shopping district of the destination. It has various great
restaurants and pubs to enjoy the night life of Buenos Aires.
Day 3:
Reach at Cape Town Central, and rest. You must be feeling exhausted and jet legged.

Day 4:
Early in morning head to Robben Island and the District Six Museum to understand the
history of Africa. This is na award winning community museum. For the adrenaline junkies
dive into shark infested water at Gansbaii. Dine in the hotel itself.
Day 5:
Visit the table mountain through rope way. This is among the worlds highest absiel. Here
you will witness breath taking beauty of Africa. In the afternoon enjoy the famous African
Addis. Enjoy a wildlife experience at Aquila Private Game Reserve. In the night head to
Gibson’s Gourmet Burgers and Ribs to have the best in town beef, fried chicken and etc.
Day 6:
Head to Maldives and enjoy an aromatic massage to relax you down (Bianchi, Pike and
Lings, 2014).
Day 7:
Start your day with a lovely breakfast at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant to witness the under
water experience with fishes swimming over your head. After this spend your day on sight
seeing to Alimatha island, Veligandu isand Beach and Hukuru Miskiiy. End the day with
dinner at Sala Thai.
Day 8:
Visit the national museum, HP Reef and enjoy a luxurious dinner at The Sea House. In the
night return back to the hotel.
Stages of package
Stages of package consists of market research, planning, scheduling and creation of a final
package. Package is created by conducting a research about the destination chosen for the same.
After this planning is done. This consists costing and forecasting time scale of the entire package.
Planning is done to analyse all the requirements and needs of the customers. Decision related to
destinations, places to be visited, food, hotel and etc (Kruger and Saayman, 2014). Scheduling is
done about each element of the package. For example how much time will be required by the entire
package or how to divide the itinerary. The final stage comprises of creating a final package. This
package has all the details included like the price, date, flight time and etc. After this Thomas Cook,
creates brochures and advertises about the package to the customers.
Evaluation of destinations and attractions
The destinations selected are viable as they have sunny beaches, rich heritage and wildlife

attractions. The places are very beautiful and have greater sigh seeing places associated to them.
The attractions decided in the itinerary are selected on the basis of their popularity (Van Niekerk
and Saayman, 2013). Each place selected is recommended by the natives and visitors as well.
Time-scale
The time scale for the entire package is of 10 days. Each tourist will spend 2 days each at
Cape Town Central, Maldives and Buenos Aires (Pandy and Rogerson, 2013).
Components of Package purchased with the contracts
The components of package consists of travel tickets, accommodation, air transfer charges,
food charges, sight seeing charges, insurance and taxes. These components are all inclusive of the
package charge (Castley, Bennett and Pickering, 2013). Apart from this other expenses incurred by
the tourist like shopping, personal visits and etc. are to be paid by himself/herself.
3 Calculation of cost and determining selling price
Table 2: Cost Calculation
Package Cost Cost in Euro (£)
Prices of Air ticket 80
Booking charges 30
Food 150
Sight Seeing ticket 120
Two Wheeler transportation during the stay 80
Insurance 60
Tax @ 1.4% 8
TOTAL 528
Total Cost price 528
Desired profit @30% of Cost 159
Total selling Price 687
4 Designing brochure and assessing alternative methods of communications and promotion for
Thomas Cook.

Table 3: Brochure
Enjoy the beauty of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cape Town Central, South Africa and Maldives at
687 € for 9 nights and 10 days.
Methods of promotion
Promotional methods are created to communicate and inform consumers about different
products and services developed by Thomas Cook (Davison and Ryley, 2016). They are as
followed-
 Use of Mass media- The promotional activities can be communicated through radio

channels, TV or newspaper. They are easily accessible in the public. Through this Thomas
Cook can directly communicate with the customers. These methods are very cheap and does
not require modification as per different requirements (Pham and Thirumaran, 2016). Each
medium of promotional displays the advertisement of Thomas Cook at various intervals of
time.
 Sales Promotion- This is among the most popular methods of communicating about
packages of Thomas Cook. The travel company provides various discounts, sweepstakes,
contests to the customers. This is done so as to attract and aware the consumers about the
latest deal provided by Thomas Cook (Sobocinska, 2013). Window banners, flyers,
newsletters, sponsorship, greeting cards and package demonstrations are provided to create
curiosity among the consumers.
 Holiday Promotions- They are very successful in the United Kingdom. Customers prefer to
spend their time around the holidays. This is because the college attending kids and office
going individuals easily are able to get leaves from their works (Badcock, 2014). Thus
Thomas Cook customizes its services and targets individual at festive times.
 Publicity- Thomas Cook recruits celebrity and sport professional to endorse for their
products. It is the easiest way to target customers attention. This is because celebrities or
sportsmen and VIP persons have a connection with a customers (Buckley and Shakeela,
2015). By noticing them in companies ads customers are encouraged to opt for Thomas
Cook.
 Social Media Channels- This the most used methods of communication. Thomas cook
provides information about its products through social media sites. This way customers are
easily engaged with the services provided by the company (Wickramasekara, 2014). Thomas
Cook regularly updates the latest trends and development in the services created by the
company.
5 Evaluation and discuss non-traditional methods of distribution
Distribution channels are those tools that help Thomas Cook to make products or services
available to the consumers. In simple terms, distribution channels are considered as different paths
through which vendors sell their services to the consumers. Here, non-traditional methods of
distribution are as followed.
 Direct Selling- In this type, marketing is done through direct methods. Direct selling refers
to offer straight merchandising services of travel and tourism to the travellers or tourists.
These are done by giving one to one demonstrations or by making personal contact with the
customers (Media and Hose, 2016). A travel agent or company contacts customers through
personal demonstration or counselling. By doing this, Thomas Cook tries to personally cater

the needs of customers. Customization and personalization are also included so as to attract
customers.
 Selling through travel agents- Travel agents are one among the most traditional methods of
communication. Customers contact travel agent to purchase services, while companies
interact with travel agents to sell their services. Customers prefer travel agents as they easily
understand their needs and provide expert advice to them (Bianchi, Pike and Lings, 2014).
On the other hand, Thomas Cook tries to sell their services through travel agents as to seek a
large market share. This is due to the fact that agents can lure customers to purchase certain
company’s products in an easy way.
 Call Centres- They are the third party operators who provide calling or vocal services to the
consumers. They help customers in booking tickets or finding about the availability of hotels
at particular destinations (Louviere and et.al., 2013). Call centres receive remuneration
amount from travel agents or companies to bring customers for them.
 Internet- It is the most easily available and accessible method among customers. This is due
to the fact that customers can access company’s services 24/7 from all around the world.
Internet is cost saving method as all the information can be provided through websites and
social media (Van Niekerk and Saayman, 2013). Consumers can find any package or book
services with just one click.
ASSIGNMENT 2
6 Emerging trends in the UK and evaluation as to how tour operators responds
Emerging trends in United Kingdom
UK is among the most visited and recommended destination among travellers and tourist.
The latest trend is to increase employment opportunities for individual an travel and tourism
industry. UK itself caters to various tourist and travellers each year. The industry experts of the
travel industry expect a hike in tourism in 2016 (Travel in the United Kingdom, 2016). Inbound or
domestic tourist is also expected to rise. Promotional and advertisement activities are done by the
travel companies in order to attract new customers. Apart form this loyal customers and frequent
travellers also prefer united kingdom as their firsts choice. Food industry is also expanding, it is
expected that food related tourism will also hike. This is due to the fact that United Kingdom
provides various continental and traditional cuisines to the customers (Townsend, 2012). Thus it can
be said that the emerging trends in UK is about rising customer traffic towards the country.
Evaluation of strategies of different tour operators
Strategy is a plan which is designed to achieve an objective. Competitors on the travel and
tourism industry create strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the market. This is done so as
to achieve higher market share in United Kingdom (Coleand Ferguson, 2015). Competitors or tour

operators of Thomas Cook create various strategies to hamper the growth of other rival in the
market. Different strategies created by competitors are as followed.
 Cost leadership strategy by Intrepid Travel- Most competitors use this strategy to reduce
cost of goods sold. This is done to achieve a cost leadership advantage. Comnpetitors like
Intrepid Travel reduce cost of their product (Media and Arbuckle, 2016). On the contrary
Intrepid travels do not reduce the selling price. Instead of this they make reasonable profits
by achieving low cost of products and services.
 Promotion and advertisement by Kuoni- Competitors try to attract customers by increasing
their promotional and advertisement activities (Brown, Bessant and Lamming, 2013). Kuoni
develops new tactics and methods to lure customers. In many cases tour operators like
Kuoni also tries to copies the promotional or advertisement activity used by Thomas cook.
 Channel of distributions by Tucan Travel- Tour operators at many instances change their
channel of distribution. Channel of distribution is a process of providing final product to the
end user through different mediums. These mediums are travel agents, call centres and tour
operators. In the wake of competition Tucan Travel changes the way they provide products
of the customers (Witt, Brooke and Buckley, 2013). This is done to divert the mind of
customers from Thomas cook.
 Differentiation by Riviera Tours- The rivals of Thomas cook provide different services to the
customers in order to attract customers towards their brand. Riviera Tours provides extra or
free of cost services to the customers in order to achieve their loyalty. Product differentiation
is also done by adding new features in the product (Blanke and Chiesa, 2013). Customers
compare products of different companies. This is achieved only when companies provides
differentiation in their products.
7 Examining difference between tactical and strategic decisions as well as identifying tactical
decisions of Thomas Cook
A strategy is a plan carried out to achieve long term objectives or vision. Whereas, tactic is a
way to conduct or carry out a strategy. Strategies are created in respective to the long term goals. On
the other hand, tactic is used for a shorter period of time (Tani, 2013). For example, a travel agent
created a strategy to sell more packages among the resident of South London. Due to this, he/she
targeted only the citizens which were living in South London. Thus, in order to execute the strategy,
he/she decided to provide discounts and lower the prices of travelling tickets. This way, the
individuals could be motivated to undergo a holiday. In this case, a strategy formulated by the agent
was just to attract and find more customer to increase the business of enterprise. But, in order to
make strategy work out, agent lure customers by applying a tactic (Holloway and Humphreys,
2016). Thus, it is evident that a strategy is different from a tactic.

Thomas Cook has been chosen various tactics from time to time. This is done so as to
engage customer’s interest towards the company. Management at Thomas cook is focused on
various tactics, one among them is the use of social media. Company is actively promoting its
services and products on the social media platform (Standing, Tang-Taye, and Boyer, 2014). These
are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and etc. Here, Thomas cook uploads pictures and snaps of
beautiful destinations. The organization also adds video content on YouTube featuring customers in
them. The audience is easily able to see the content as it floats all around the world. At many
instance, Thomas Cook has encouraged its customer to visit their review on the above social media
platforms. Another tactic used by Thomas Cook is to promote customers through using electronic
customer relationship management (Leung and Baloglu, 2013). Thomas cook provides various
online services to the customers where they can easily book and cancel such bookings also.
CONCLUSION
From the above research it can be said that travel and tourism industry is an emerging sector
for United Kingdom's economy. Tour operators play a vital role in this particular sector. Their
responsibility is to conduct market research and analyse the latest trends in travel industry. The
research states that Thomas Cook provides premium services to the travellers or tourists. The
research have proposed an itinerary and brochure on the behalf of Package Tour Development
Manager of Thomas Cook. The research evaluates the non traditional methods used by tour
operators to attract customers. The report also analysed various methods used by competitors of
Thomas cook ion achieving competitive advantage in the market.

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