The Travel and Tourism Business Toolkit

This document discusses various aspects of the travel and tourism industry, including revenue management, financial statements, HR life cycle, and legal issues. It provides insights into the principles and rationale of revenue management, different types of financial statements, and the importance of budgets for controlling business performance. Additionally, it explores the stages of the HR life cycle and provides techniques for resolving negative behavior and improving staff retention. The document is relevant for students studying travel and tourism or related courses.

The Travel and Tourism
Business Toolkit

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Define the concept of Revenue Management and discuss the rationale and principles of
revenue management for the travel and tourism industry......................................................3
Investigate how you could apply the revenue management tools in your travel and tourism
organisation to generate and maximise profit........................................................................4
Explore the different types of financial statements and reporting mechanism for organisation
within the travel and tourism industry....................................................................................5
Explain the importance and value of budgets for controlling business performance and
identifying variances..............................................................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
Explain the Human Resource life cycle and review the different stages of the HR life cycle
applied to a specific travel and tourism job role.....................................................................7
Develop a performance management plan for the travel and tourism job role along with
techniques to resolve negative behaviour and to overcome issues of staff retention.............8
PART 3............................................................................................................................................9
Explain how legal issues affect travel and tourism industry and explore specific legislation
that organisations in the travel and tourism industry have to adhere to.................................9
Illustrate how company, employment and contract law has a potential impact on business
decision-making in the travel and tourism industry.............................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The travel and tourism industry is a leading industry which contributes in the overall growth
of the economy. Various activities are included in this such as accommodations services,
transportation services, restaurants services and many more (Fuchs, Höpken and Lexhagen,
2015). The organisations operating in this industry aims to improve the satisfaction level of the
customers. With the help of this they can accomplish their goals and objectives of higher profits.
It can be done by them by offering services as per the taste and preference of the customers and
by adopting the prevailing trends. For this report the company that is chosen is Cosmos
Holidays. It is a UK based tour and travel company that provides their services across nations. In
this report various aspects related to this industry are discussed such as rationale principles of
revenue management, various stages of the HR life cycle along with a performance management
plan are discussed. Apart from this various legislations related to the travel and tourism industry,
different types of financial statements and its importance in the industry are discussed.
PART 1
Define the concept of Revenue Management and discuss the rationale and principles of revenue
management for the travel and tourism industry
Revenue Management: Revenue management is a concept which is used by the travel and
tourism companies for controlling the cost related to their business. With the help of this Cosmos
Holidays can effectively undertake strategic distribution and determined their pricing tactics.
Also it enables the management of the organisation in analysing the behaviour of the customers
and modifies their services so that they can maximize their revenue growth (Hunt And et. al.,
2015).
Rationale of revenue management:
For the travel and tourism industry is important to manage their revenues by identifying
various sources. The rationale considered by Cosmos holidays are:
 Attracting Ideal guest: For maximising the revenue is important for the organisation to
maximize its occupancy rate. This can be done by providing better Quality Services to
the customers upon their visit and for this effective marketing and promotional campaign
must be organised.

 Facilitate reducing the cost: The concept of revenue management facilitates the
organisation in introducing innovation in their services. This enables them to charge
effective prices from the customers thus making their business more profitable than that
of the competitors.
Principle of revenue management
 Market segmentation: The organisation needs to classify the customers into different
segments qualifies and non-qualifies. With the help of this classification a variety of
services can we planned by Cosmos Holidays on the basis of characteristics of the
customers. This will facilitate them to improve their sales and thus the profitability.
 Optimisation: The revenue management focuses upon integrated planning of various
tactics, promotions and management of the resources which facilitate smooth operations.
This leads to better services to the customers and optimum utilisation of the resources of
Cosmos Holidays which contributes to better profitability.
 Historical demand and booking pattern: With the help of this principle Cosmos
Holidays can forecast the demand for their services on the basis of past booking patterns.
It will enable them to procure resources as per the requirement and to cater to the specific
needs of the customers effectively. This increases the chances of increasing revenues for
the company.
Investigate how you could apply the revenue management tools in your travel and tourism
organisation to generate and maximise profit
For enhancing the revenues of the companies it is important for different departments to apply
various revenue management tools so that they can improve their profitability. Some of such
revenue management tools include:
 Discount allocation: This is the strategy with the help of which the loyal customers of
the origination must be provided various discounts so that better relations can be
maintained with them. This will attach the customers with the organisation and it will
lead to increase in their sales because customers will choose their services over others.
 Late Booking Strategies: This is the tool with the help of which the Cosmos Holidays
can provide better services to the people who made last minute bookings which are
generally not provided. Due to this the customers will book their services as even on
comparatively lower prices they will offer them better services (Hur, 2017).

 Rate shopper: This is tool which is used by the Cosmos Holidays with the help of which
the customers of the organisation can evaluate the prices of different organisation. This
tool enables them in comparing their prices with that of the others for the similar services
so that they can make adjustment in their rates. It will facilitate the managers of the
company in justifying their services than the competitors from each and every aspect.
Explore the different types of financial statements and reporting mechanism for organisation
within the travel and tourism industry
After spending time with the financial department of the Cosmos Holidays it was identified
that there are different types of financial which are prepared by them. With the help of such
financial statements the company can bring efficiency and effectiveness in their operations
related to the financial activities.
Different types of financial statements
Financial statements are those which give a clear picture of the performance of the
organisation. With the help of such statements the stakeholders of the company get to know the
actual position of the company i.e., their profitability, amount of debts they have taken, the assets
they hold etc. On the basis of such financial statements the investors invest funds in the
Company. Various types of financial statement prepared by Cosmos Holidays include:
 Balance sheet: Balance is the statement in which all the assets and liabilities of
companies are reflected that depicts the financial position of the company. On the basis
of this the investors take the decisions for investing the company (Lin, 2015).

 Cash flow statement: This statement of the company reflects the inflow and outflow of
the cash within the organisation. With the help of this the company can analyse their
operations on the basis of cash. It is divided into three activities financing, investing and
operating. Cash flow statements enable to understand the sources from where the cash is
received and to whom it has been paid.
 Income statement: The income statement of the company is a statement in which all the
incomes and expenses of the company are included by putting them in different
categories. With the help of this statement the actual profits of the company can be

determined. Such statement is issues by all the public enterprises as in them the funds of
general public are invested.
In addition to this various reporting frame work must be adopted by the company which will
enable Cosmos Holidays in presenting themselves before their investors and other stakeholders.
Some of the reporting framework which they have been following includes:
 Financial Reporting: This reporting framework enables the management and others in
determining the financial position of the company.
 Operational Reporting: With the help of operational reporting the management of the
company can take necessary decisions as this they will get to know the current efficiency
of the organisation (Oppewal, Huybers and Crouch, 2015).
 Business Intelligence Reporting: This reporting framework has become as very crucial
for the travel companies as with the help of this the data can be gathered from various
software and tool. Along with this effective analysis can be made.

Explain the importance and value of budgets for controlling business performance and
identifying variances
Budget is estimation of money that are allocated for a particular purpose and which
provide the summary of intended expenditures and the incomes. With the help of these budgets
an organisation can plan their activities and can use their resources efficiently. For each and
every organisation finance is considered to be an important resource which has to be managed in
an appropriate manner so that organisational objectives can be achieved. Different type of budget
which are prepared by Cosmos holidays are:
 Operating budget: This budget is prepared by the managers for supporting their day-to-
day activity. In this budget income and expenses are planned for a specific time period. It
helps in allocating the cost, material and other resources of the organisation among
different activities per day requirement (Pappas, 2017).
 Master budget: Another budget is prepared by them is master budget which is a total
budget of various other divisional budgets. With the help of this budget the manager of
Cosmos Holidays can effectively manage the funds among different divisions.
The budget plays important role in the success of the organisation which is given below:
 Budget facilitates an organisation in mitigating the financial risk by avoiding the situation
of improper utilisation of financial resources.
 Another most important advantage of formulating budget for Cosmos holidays is that
with the help of this they can manage expenses which are done by different department of
the organisation. It helps them to reduce your overall cost which helps them to increase
their profitability by managing and reducing total expenses.
PART 2
Explain the Human Resource life cycle and review the different stages of the HR life cycle
applied to a specific travel and tourism job role
Human resource life cycle is a concept that describes various stages of the life of an
employee within the organisation. Different stages of life cycle reflect different roles and
responsibilities that the employee has to execute (Du Cros and McKercher, 2014). Various stages
of human resource life cycle for the job role of tour coordinator are given below which are taken
into consideration by the Cosmos Holidays:

 Recruitment: This is the first stage of the human resource life cycle for the job role of
tour coordinator, in which employee is taken into your organisation on the basis of
abilities and skills required for the particular job. For this the candidate has to go through
with various tests such as aptitude test, interviews, screenings etc. This enables the
organisation to procure suitable candidate for the job on the basis of their capabilities.
 Education: This is the stage in which roles and responsibilities are allocated to the tour
coordinator which is to manage the services to be provided to the customers upon their
travelling also it depends upon their level of understanding. The managers of Cosmos
Holidays will organise the training and developmental sessions for the tour coordinator so
that they can improve their competence of undertaking higher level roles. In addition to
this detailed understanding of the department created they can be made productive
(Rancati, Gordini and Capatina, 2016).
 Motivation: Employees selected for the job role of tour coordinator in Cosmos holidays
are motivated and encouraged for achieving their goals and objectives. For improving the
performance of the employees they link their performance with incentives as this
motivates their employees to perform better. Also various activities are organised which
increase their understanding.
 Evaluation: In this stage the performance of the tour coordinator will be evaluated on the
basis of level of satisfaction and time delivery of the services to them. This will facilitate
them to identify the requirement of improvement in the employees or the need of
promoting the employee to the higher designation.
 Celebration: This is the last stage in which employees such as tour coordinator are
rewarded for their hard work and better performance by Cosmos Holidays. Such rewards
can be in term of monetary benefits, promotion of the employee etc. that are based on the
review of the happy clients from better coordinated services provided to them. This leads
to empowerment of the employee that enables them to improve their performance in
future.
Importance of HR life cycle in retaining and developing talent
 Employees motivation to attain goals: The managers of the Cosmos Holidays
encourages their employees to be with organisation as this will lead to their internal
growth as offer various opportunities to their existing people in filling up the vacancies.

Also they provide various rewards so that they can retain them for a longer period of time
(Rogerson, 2015).
 Retain top talent: The Human resources department of Cosmos Holidays engage their
employees to take part in the decision making and other internal activities of the
organisation which make them feel integral part of the organisation. Thus it motivates
them to motivate them and retain them for a longer period of time.
Develop a performance management plan for the travel and tourism job role along with
techniques to resolve negative behaviour and to overcome issues of staff retention
A performance management plan is a plan with the help of which the organisation can
improve the performance of the employees so that they can achieve their goals and objectives.
Cosmos Holidays need to align the level of knowledge of the workers and available resources
with their objectives and goals. With the help of this the managers can provide support to the
employees and enable them to take necessary actions for achieving their tasks (Cohen, 2017).
The marketing executive of the Cosmos Holiday is not satisfied with their role and the
circumstances in which they have to perform which has impact on their performance. Due to
which a plan will be formulated for them which is given below:
 Plan: In this step of the performance planning the role and responsibilities of the
marketing executive will be identified along with requirement of the capabilities of skills
and knowledge. It will enable them to identify various policies and strategies that can be
adopted by them so that they can make their marketing executive more effective.
 Implement: Once the policies are identified and determined they must be implemented
within the organisation so that the outcome can be achieved. For improving the
performances of the marketing executive they must be provided various trainings as
planned. This will make them confident about their capabilities which will help them to
feel satisfied (Ali, Ryu and Hussain, 2016).
 Evaluate: After implementing the strategies the performance must be evaluated as with
this the managers of Cosmos Holidays can identify the effectiveness of formulating the
plan. Such steps are taken in the initial stages so that the outcomes can be improved.
 Feedback: The feedbacks are given by the superiors to the marketing executive so that
they can be motivated to perform much better. With the help of feedbacks they can take

necessary actions for dealing with the changes and its requirements which will improve
their level of satisfaction.
A performance management plan will be formulated on the basis of various identified steps
above for the job role of marketing executive by the Cosmos Holidays. The three steps of plan
include:
Measurable performance based objectives: For the marketing executive the performances can
be measured on the basis of better relations with the service providers, awareness of the packages
of the company among the customers, effectiveness of the promotional activities and they will be
measured through reviews on social media pages and on the website of the company.
Plan for improving the actions: The actions for improving the performances includes the
trainings for improving communications skills, arranging various sessions for making them
understand the prevailing trends in the industry and among the customers. This will improve
their ability to efficiently attract the customers.
Review: The performance can be reviewed by analysing the completion of their target and the
reviews of the customers.
PART 3
Explain how legal issues affect travel and tourism industry and explore specific legislation that
organisations in the travel and tourism industry have to adhere to
It is important for each and every organisation to understand the implications of various
laws so that they can execute their operations effectively by complying with such laws and
regulations. As the Cosmos Holidays are operating in travel and tourism industry so they have to
meet up with various laws as to protect the interest of the customers this industry is highly
regulated. Some of such laws and acts are given below:
The Tourism Act 2011: This act was enacted to promote the welfare of the tourists by
managing, developing and regulating various activities of travel and tourism industry. The
Cosmos Holidays must comply with all the implications of the act so that they can operate
efficiently and ensure that the services provided to the customers are in good faith.
Food Safety Act 1990: The food safety law was enacted by the UK government with the
aim of ensuring the quality of the food that is offered to the customers. This law implies various
regulations regarding the quality standards that have to be maintained by the service providers.

The Cosmos Holiday belongs to the travel and tourism industry and they also offers various food
services for which they must ensure that they are complying with all the requirements of the law.
This will also ensure the company has a better brand image as they will offer better and safe
services to the customers (Shin, Kim and Hwang, 2015).
On the basis of these acts it is identified that implication of such acts and legislations
facilitate the Cosmos Holidays in improving the overall quality of their services and ensuring a
better image of the organisation by way of better products and services.
Illustrate how company, employment and contract law has a potential impact on business
decision-making in the travel and tourism industry
The imposition of various regulations and legislation has direct impact on the organisation
as they provide various guidelines that the business must follow so that they can operate in an
effective manner. Each and every act has their own positive and negative impact on the
organisation as their implications may not be favourable to the working environment of that
particular organisation. Due to this sometimes organisation avoids to follow such implications. It
can be illustrated with the following examples:
 KFC is considered to be a leading food retailer but they were fined with £ 1.5 million
when two of their staff member faced burn injuries.
 Another example of a decor company named Wilko, they were charged £ 2.4 million
when a container of paint fell down 35 year old employee due to which he was paralyzed.
For avoiding and managing such situation various laws related to employment, contract, food
safety etc. are imposed. This ensures that safe and better workplace environment is provided to
the employees. Cosmos Holidays is a travel and tourism related service provider in which they
have sufficient number of employees who has to be managed effectively and in this employment
act facilitates them (Urry, 2016). This is because it provides various regulations regarding
remuneration, leaves, working conditions and various other benefits provided to the employees
so that they can be benefited to greater extent. If such implications are not fulfilled when it leads
to dissatisfaction among the employees and has direct impact on the overall performance of the
organisation which is not good for their objectives.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the organisations leading travel and tourism
industry must take into consideration various rationale principles with revenue management tools
so that growth can be achieve in an effective manner. The analysis of Human Resource life cycle
enables the managers identifying the needs and wants of the employees on different stages which
facilitate the managers to formulate various policies to deal with them. With the help of
performance management plan images of the employees can be managed effectively and various
legislation so employed by the government enables the organisation to bring positivity in the
organisational culture is all the employees feel treated equal.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ali, F., Ryu, K. and Hussain, K., 2016. Influence of experiences on memories, satisfaction and
behavioral intentions: A study of creative tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism
Marketin. 33(1). pp.85-100.
Bayliss, J. and et. al., 2014. The current and future value of nature-based tourism in the Eastern
Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Ecosystem Services. 8. pp.75-83.
Cohen, S., 2017. Decline, renewal and the city in popular music culture: Beyond the Beatles.
Routledge.
Du Cros, H. and McKercher, B., 2014. Cultural tourism. Routledge.
Fuchs, M., Höpken, W. and Lexhagen, M., 2015. Applying business intelligence for knowledge
generation in tourism destinations–A case study from Sweden. In Tourism and
leisure (pp. 161-174). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Hunt, C. A. And et. al., 2015. Can ecotourism deliver real economic, social, and environmental
benefits? A study of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
23(3). pp.339-357.
Hur, K., Kim, T. T., Karatepe, O.M. and Lee, G., 2017. An exploration of the factors influencing
social media continuance usage and information sharing intentions among Korean
travellers. Tourism Management.63. pp.170-178.
Lin, Y., Wan, H., Jiang, R., Wu, Z. and Jia, X., 2015. Inferring the travel purposes of passenger
groups for better understanding of passengers. IEEE transactions on intelligent
transportation systems. 16(1). pp.235-243.
Oppewal, H., Huybers, T. and Crouch, G.I., 2015. Tourist destination and experience choice: A
choice experimental analysis of decision sequence effects. Tourism Management.48.
pp.467-476.
Pappas, N., 2017. Effect of marketing activities, benefits, risks, confusion due to over-choice,
price, quality and consumer trust on online tourism purchasing. Journal of Marketing
Communications. 23(2). pp.195-218.
Rancati, E., Gordini, N. and Capatina, A., 2016. Conceptualizing and Measuring Content
Marketing in Luxury Firms: An Exploratory Analysis. In Global Marketing Strategies
for the Promotion of Luxury Goods (pp. 109-132). IGI Global.
Rogerson, C. M., 2015. Restructuring the geography of domestic tourism in South
Africa. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. 29(29). pp.119-135.
Shin, D. H., Kim, H. and Hwang, J., 2015. Standardization revisited: A critical literature review
on standards and innovation. Computer Standards & Interfaces. 38. pp.152-157.
Urry, J., 2016. Mobilities: new perspectives on transport and society. Routledge.