Tourism Distribution Strategies

This assignment delves into the strategies employed by tour operators to distribute their products and services effectively. It examines various distribution channels, such as direct distribution and social media platforms, highlighting the importance of tailored approaches based on target customer segments. The document emphasizes the need for strategic decision-making by different types of tour operators to optimize their distribution efforts and achieve success in the competitive tourism market.

Tour Operation
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Covered in Leaflet..................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................1
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................1
3.1: Planning decisions taken for the design of a chosen brochure........................................1
3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure.........................................4
3.3: Evaluate the suitability of different methods of distribution...........................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
4.1: Evaluate the strategic decisions made by different kinds of tour operators...................6
4.2: Compare the tactical decisions that could be taken by Holiday Inn in different situations. 6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Tour operation management is considered as an evaluation of tour operators and their
related aspects within travel and tourism industry which is one of the fastest growing sector in
UK on the basis of the revenues generated every year. At present, every individual is willing to
visit at particular destination once in a life with their own purpose which can be fulfilled by tour
operator who provides multiple number tourists destination options with an attractive packages
and standard facilities. The present assignment report is based on the development of business
practices of the tour operators and their related aspects in detail. The project report discusses the
key trends and developments which affect the tour operators in the hospitality industry of UK.
The present report is based on the detailed facts and information about the LCB tours which
which is engaged in providing better travelling services to people. The project discusses the
current trends and development on tour operation industry, planning decisions to prepare an
effective brochure, evaluation of distribution channels on the basis of their suitability, tactical
decisions taken by Holiday Inn in different situations.
TASK 1
Covered in Leaflet
TASK 2
Covered in PPT
TASK 3
3.1: Planning decisions taken for the design of a chosen brochure
It is essential for an organisation such as LCB to make an effective plans and strategies so
as to execute activities desired to perform during designing of brochure. There are several factors
which are involved in the process of designing brochure such as cost, format, target market and
budget, print specifications and time scale and stage of production. It requires support from the
marketing department of LCB in terms of deciding the analysis of luxury holiday brochure of
two different tour operators such as Holiday Inn and Virgin group which are mentioned as under:
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Illustration 1: Holiday Inn Brochure
Source: Holiday Inn Brochure, 2018
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Illustration 2: Virgin holidays brochure
Cost: It is an important concept which required to be considered first before printing
brochure for company. To print brochure, the management of Holiday Inn is required to identify
the all costs incurred in the activities and process involved in the making (Aoyama and et. al.,
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2013). For example, selection of designs, testing the reliability of brochure requires huge cost to
incurred. As the brochure of Holiday Inn seen above, the designs and pictures of destinations are
shown due to incurring huge cost.
Deciding the format: The format of brochure used by Holiday Inn is very much similar
to booklet which also contains relevant and useful information regarding their offerings over the
one year of time period. In the above,
Target market and budget: This is the factor which decided the growth in revenue of
company in future time period as the number of customers increases the chances of earning
revenues by Holiday Inn. The quality of Brochure used by Holiday Inn are high as compared
with Virgin Group due to having targeted customers belongs to upper class segment.
Determining print specifications: Brochures of Holiday Inn contains impressive font
style and size as compared with Virgin Group. The main aim of Holiday Inn is not only to
convey information about their offerings but also have motive to grab an attention of maximum
number of targeted people and retail their loyalty for longer period of time. Whereas, Virgin
Group provides the Brochures only with a motive of communicating information about their
offerings.
It is evident from the above information that there are various drawbacks Virgin group
has faced due to their Brochures as they need to focus on quality and information related with the
destination in deals without using much more pictures. As Brochure of Holiday Inn accurately
provides detailed information about their destinations along with some kind of attractive pictures
which can easily grab an attention of maximum number of customers. The quality of Brochure is
based on the aspects such as cost, font, size, images etc. due to which it is required to consider
these aspects while designing Brochures. This will happen due to reduction in cost under budget
thus it they are investing more in formatting and designing of Brochure then the company can
easily compete with the Holiday Inn in this segment (Chand and Katou, 2012).
3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure
Traditional brochure has attained lots of limitations which should be overcome with the
purpose of spreading awareness about something in the market. Such limitations includes limited
scope and coverage. Tour operator has different methods to use in order to communicate people
about their attractive travelling packages. Such methods includes:
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E-brochure: It is the online platform which can help tour operators to search their
customers who are willing to travel and after-which make efforts in influencing their travelling
decisions in favourable way.
Ipad/Android Applications: This will be referred as software application running on
mobile phones It is an effective method of spreading awareness in the market as lots of people
are using smartphones which makes easy for tour operators to reach the information about their
travelling packages towards them. For example, Sky scanner is a famous app which facilitates
customer to book travelling packages (Deresky, 2017).
Social media: It is another effective method which can be used by the tour operators due
to having large number of people shows their presence at such platform on daily basis. Holiday
Inn
3.3: Evaluate the suitability of different methods of distribution
It is essentially required for tour operators organisation to analyse the different
distribution channel and select one on the basis of their suitability. There are different ways
which can be used by LCB in order to sell holidays packages such as direct distribution, two
level distribution, government website. All such methods have their own benefits and drawbacks
which are required to oversee by an organisation before making any decision. It can be further
understood under the following:
Direct distribution: This is the method in which LCB directly communicate with
customers and sell their products and services without using any intermediaries. It is more
suitable for small sized tour operators which are dealing with people in local markets. Such
method will make easy for them to influence travelling decision in favour of their packages.
Through social network website: It is an effective distribution method which is mostly
adopted by large sized organisation such as Holiday Inn whose business operations are at global
level. Using such platform where large number of people of all age groups are active on daily
basis it is more useful for Holiday Inn to reach to maximum number of people and influence
them in favour of their travelling services and resolve all queries through better communication.
Government website: This is the method is quite useful for pubic organisation due to
having responsibilities of maintaining stake of whole nation. It consumes more time but
believable due to having high security on such website. Interference of government ensures
people that no fraud can be happen in future related with their travel (Guo and He, 2012).
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TASK 4
4.1: Evaluate the strategic decisions made by different kinds of tour operators
LCB always tried to expand its business operations to various locations due to which the
management conduct market research in order to analyse the actual needs and perception of
targeted people. The outcomes of research directs LCB to make an effective strategies and
decisions related with location, accommodation services etc. It can be further explained as under:
Pricing strategies: LCB tour operation company need to first identify all costs which are
required to be incurred in providing travelling services and accordingly make an effective pricing
strategies which can satisfy both company as well as tourists.
Surcharge policy: Under this, organisation is responsible to provide full information
related with travelling packages to their customers and must not be hide any hidden cost. This
will help company in developing healthy relations with their customers for longer period.
Positioning and image/branding: It is important for tour operators such as LCB to build
strong brand image and goodwill which can be possible through offering standard of travelling
services.
Distribution decisions: LCB have different methods of distribution out of company
suitable method can be selected by them on the basis of their effectiveness and outcomes
received in future (Kanlayanasukho and Pearce, 2016).
4.2: Compare the tactical decisions that could be taken by Holiday Inn in different situations
There are several organisations which are operating its business in hospitality sector
adopts tactical decisions with a hope of gaining maximum results. It will create a strong
consumer portfolio which support them in achieving desired aims and objectives.
Tactical responses: Under this, the employees of LCB gives efforts in resolving queries
of the customers so as to maintain health relation with them for longer period of time. It makes
positive impact on the customer's mind which brings long term advantages to company (Khairat
and Maher, 2017).
Tactical Pricing: Under this, the management of LCB decided the pricing policies which
can maximises the interest and decision-making behaviour of customers as well as revenues of
company. For this, market research has been done in order to identify the willingness of
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customers to pay for their travelling as well as analysing total cost that will be incurred in
providing travelling services to customers in near future.
Tactical marketing: Under this, the management of LCB should adopt marketing tools
and techniques in order to promote their attractive travelling packages so as to attract maximum
number of people (Distribution Channels, 2016). Such promotional tools includes advertisement
on social media, print media etc.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that tour operation sector is a
valuable part of travel and tourism sector which supports maximum efforts in attracting large
number of people tourist at particular destinations in particular nation. For this, it is important for
the management to develop suitable methods of contracting such as Fixed contract Allocation
Ad-hoc Contract. Along with this, it also needed to make an effective plan to design the
brochures which can easily attracts targeted customers. Methods of distribution such as Direct
distribution and social network website etc. are also required to be adopted on the basis of
suitability along with the implementation of strategic decisions by different types of tour
operator.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aoyama, K. and et. al., 2013. System and method for distribution chain management. U.S. Patent
8.527.371.
Chand, M. and Katou, A.A., 2012. Strategic determinants for the selection of partner alliances in
the Indian tour operator industry: A cross-national study. Journal of World
Business. 47(2). pp.167-177.
Deresky, H., 2017. International management: Managing across borders and cultures. Pearson
Education India.
Guo, X. and He, L., 2012. Tourism supply-chain coordination: The cooperation between tourism
hotel and tour operator. Tourism Economics. 18(6). pp.1361-1376.
Kanlayanasukho, V. and Pearce, P.L., 2016. Thai Tourists on Tour: The Practice of Designing
Successful Tours. In The World Meets Asian Tourists (pp. 111-125). Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Khairat, G. and Maher, A., 2017. Integrating sustainability into tour operator business: An
innovative approach in sustainable tourism. ARA: Revista de Investigación en
Turismo. 2(2).
Ling, L. and et. al., 2015. Availability management of hotel rooms under cooperation with online
travel agencies. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 50. pp.145-152.
Ronen, B., Pliskin, J.S. and Pass, S., 2012.Focused operations management for health services
organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Tejada, P. and Moreno, P., 2013. Patterns of innovation in tourism ‘small and medium-size
enterprises’. The Service Industries Journal. 33(7-8). pp.749-758.
Vellas, F., 2016. The international marketing of travel and tourism: A strategic approach.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Wu, C. L., 2012.Airline operations and delay management: insights from airline economics,
networks and strategic schedule planning. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Online
Distribution Channels. 2016. [Online]. Available through<https://www.feedster.com/blog/direct-
and-indirect-marketing-methods-and-distribution-channels/>.
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