Tourism Operations and Management

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of the study on tour operators, including their various methods of contracting holiday components, selling prices of packages, planning decisions, distribution methods, tactical, and strategic decisions. It covers references from books and journals such as 'Tour Operators and Operations' by Holland and Leslie, and 'Applications of Legal Aspects in the Hospitality Industry' by Ko and Tavitiyaman. The study also explores the impact of e-business on tour operators' green practices, and the effect of detailed contracts on interfirm conflict in cross-border package tours operations. A summary of the key findings and analysis is provided.

Tour Operation
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
A. Assessing the stages and timescales in developing holiday packages and prepare an itinerary for
a combined heritage, wildlife and beach holiday and develop a package in stage..............................4
LO3: TASK 3 ..........................................................................................................................................7
A. Evaluating the process and planning decision for the proposed brochure .....................................7
LO4: TASK 4...........................................................................................................................................8
Evaluating the recent trends used by different types of tour operator.................................................8
b. Comparing the tactical decisions that could be taken by a selected operator in different situations
..............................................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business in tour operation is an important constituent of the tourism industries. The
partner in the distribution channel for catering to outbound, inbound and domestic tourists is
known as tour operators. Thomas cook is the tour operator organization which was formed in
1871 by Thomas cook and son. Present assignment is based on the tour operation business.
The assignment will provide the information about the recent trends and the developments of
the tour operations industries along with detail about the stages and timescales required in
developing holidays packages. The study will provide the deeper insight of various methods
of contracting the different components of the holidays along with the selling price of various
holiday packages. Later, the report will cover the various process of planning decision,
various distribution methods, tactical and strategic decisions taken by the tour operators.
TASK 1
A. Examining the recent trends and developments in the tour operations industries.
According to world trade organization, growth in domestic as well as international
tourism sector would keep its pace and maintain standard annual growth rate of over 4%.
Due to the technology development like e-commerce has proved very beneficial for
international tourism to expand itself at geographical location where physical presence of tour
operators was not possible. It has been observed in year 2017 that increase of more than 1.9%
in arrival providing total of 992 million international tourist arrivals on comparing to the
entire tourist arrival in year 2016 (Fei, and Sun, 2017). In 2017 the total tourist grew to $944
billion with the rise of 1.8 % in real terms on compared with the amount of receipt in 2007.
The major trends in present time consists of niche tourism, changing demographic
conditions, market research, mass market tourism, customized holidays packages and
PESTLE factors. The recent trend in the tourism industry is mass market tourism in which
large number of people travel along on a tourism destination for their leisure. Due to
economies of scale, the overall of cost for tourist would reduce because of large number of
people travelling together. The main reason to visit in the destination is interest of tourist in
flora and fauna or other artistic work, culture and heritage etc. for these type of tourist the
tourist operators designed the special packages by keeping in mind about the preferences
(Okharedia, 2017). For such type of tourist, tourist operator provides the premium services

and for this they charge high cost. In current market scenario, the trend for niche tourism is
increasing at rapid pace where people are willing to visit distant places of their choices.
Demographic factors for UK, France, USA and Australia includes high population
where youth are more interested in fun & sports activities instead of interest in cultural
aspects. Due to dynamism in demographic factors, there is a high demand for the place
offering such type of activities.
PESTLE factors which effect tour operator industry worldwide includes the Political,
economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors. With regulation in
ecological structure, stability in political situation the political factors have motivated the tour
operator industry (Li and et.al., 2017). Social factors make the adverse effect on to the travel
industry because of the development of the local life and community mobility. Economic
factors act both negative and positive factors as tax and global buy and sell concern poses the
challenge while factors such as increasing spending power etc. technological factors plays an
important role in tour operating industries as increasing communication, industry
enlargement and modern reservation system are helping tour operation for search of
customers. From the above analysis it can be said that growth of tourism industry would be
fuel through supporting factors such as technology and economic factors.
TASK 2
A. Assessing the stages and timescales in developing holiday packages and prepare an
itinerary for a combined heritage, wildlife and beach holiday and develop a package in
stage.
Following are the stages and timescales involved in the development of holiday packages
of Thomas cook
For better planning of tour, it is very important to develop timescale of holidays in
order to better utilization of holidays. The timescale provides effective management of time
duration in the holiday. The given holiday time can be effectively utilized by the timescale.
One of important timescales involved development of the holidays for are discussed below.
Analysing the destination
One of the important activity that timescale include is the investigation of the
destination for the sound understanding that culture, weather and various places of the
particular destination to visit.

Research
The research process involves the investigation of the different features that can be
offered to the tourist of the selected place. To provide the better tour to the visitors the
research is the best option for Thomas cook.
Negotiation
The tour planner of the Thomas cook has the option to negotiate with air carrier
directly or to the travel agency (Tsaur, and Chen, 2018). It is an important activity performed
by the tour operator from the service providers.
Financial evaluation and pricing
In the planning of the holidays the evaluation of the finance can be done. The
estimation of financial planning is a very necessary task performed by the tour operator of
Thomas cook in order to identify the profit and loss obtained from the tourist (Holland and
Leslie, 2017).
Tour operator’s brochures
While planning of the holidays the brochure of the tour Thomas cook have to be
considered important because it consisted of all the information of the holidays packages.
B. Evaluating the suitability of various methods of contracting the various components of the
holiday for different types of tour operators when developing holidays.
The deal and enters into legal agreement refers to the agreement. The deal done for
the agreed value for the product and services is termed as contracting. To make the holiday
success and plan facilities there are various holiday contracts are to be made by the Thomas
cook. The following are the methods which tour operator used re discussed under-
Fixed contract
These are the dealings done on the high consumption basis. In fixed contract there are
fixed packages of holidays with same offerings on the fixed prices provided by the service
providers (Jin, and Sparks, 2017). This contract method is effective in the case of bulk and
high level of consumption by the large number of people. in fixed contracting the service
provider provides the large number discount offers on the packages because it is assumed that

large number of group will consume the product and services. In fixed contracting services
the service provider fixes the rates of the books on the basis of customer’s volume or the
number of people availing the facility. It is beneficial for the order of large number so as to
take the advantage of maximum discount and class facility.
This contract by the Thomas cook is better because it provides the fixed packages of
holidays at fixed prices. Because these contract provide the discounts when are considered in
bulk. Tour and travelling mostly visited by lots of people in groups.
Sale only contract
These are those contracts which are relatively high in prices and costly. These
contracts generally done in the peak seasons of tours where the requirements are getting high
facilities are prior and the service provider takes the benefits of these priorities. To generate
the extra profit and create the maximum benefit the cost of services (Masele, 2018). The high
cost is being charged to earn the maximum benefits. Sale only contracts bears the risk of less
response due their high cost and put higher emphasis on the particular segments.
Therefore, these are the contracting methods for the various components of the
holidays used by the different tour operators used. It can be effective because at peak time
people used to visit for tour and travel which provide huge profit to Thomas cook.
3. Carrying out the cost of various components of packages and calculating the selling price.
No of days for entire tour = 5 days
No of students travelling = 15 students
Details Costs
Cost of accommodation(60 euro is the
cost of a twin rooms which is shared by
two adults
For 15 students , 8 rooms are booked for
5 days and 4 nights (8*60*4*.78)
1497.60
Cost of transportation 1000
Food and beverages (10*15*4*.78) 468
Cost of guide 200
Total cost 3165.60

Add-10% profit 316.56
Selling price 3482.16
1 euro = .78 pounds.
LO3: TASK 3
A. Evaluating the process and planning decision for the proposed brochure
To attract the customers and visitors and determine the travelling features tourism
sectors uses the various brochures and pamphlets. The providing brochures consisted of detail
information of travelling and its expenses of Thomas cook (Ngandu and et.al., 2017). For
making the brochure, design of pamphlets should be kept in mind to attract the customers.
There are some planning decisions for the design of the selected brochure are:
Identify the factor affecting planning decisions
The factors that should considered while planning the design of the brochures of
Thomas cook is aim to give the information, time to prepare the brochure, format and target
of the preparing.
Brochures format
The format should be kept in mind while the preparation of brochure. Name of the
company, destination explanation, transportation, cost are some main points of the brochure’s
which should be considered while making it (Dror and et.al., 2015).
Identifying the target market
Budget and the target market also affects the planning decision of designing the
brochure. The target market and the budget should be kept in mind by Thomas cook in order
to identify the cost incurred and the market which should be focussed.
Stage the time limit
On completing the designing of the brochure the time limit should be considered in
planning the activities in the brochures by Thomas cook and the stages which should be
accomplished within the time limit.

B. Assessing and evaluating non-traditional methods of distribution that can be used to sell
holiday packages for different types of tour operators.
There are various types of methods of selling the holiday for various types of tour
operators. These methods include the telephonic selling, direct selling, online selling,
promotion and selling through call centres (Ko, and Tavitiyaman, 2015). These are some
methods of selling which help company in attracting the customers because these methods
provide the information at the door step in order to increase the effectiveness and rendering
ease to the company (Pasman and Rogers, 2015). One of the popular method for the selling is
email marketing by which company gets sales through emails. The entire information for the
holiday packages is being provided by the emails with the prices. For Thomas cook tour the
best method of selling the holiday packages will be the online and telephonic selling (Fei, and
Sun, 2017). For the promotion of tour, it is very necessary to grab the attention of the mass
public in entire world. To create the maximum benefit, the very important aspect for the
business is online selling. Online method is one of the popular method for the promotion of
Thomas cook tour business to sell the holiday packages.
LO4: TASK 4
Evaluating the recent trends used by different types of tour operator.
For the present age of consumers visiting an attraction has become a part of the
lifestyle and hence the high competition is there in between markets for tour operators in
order to attract the consumer basis. The consumer’s basis is being attracted by several factors
of their preferences such as price, premium, services customization and personalized services.
Thomas cook are required to build a several strategic decisions in managing the business for
tourism. In recent trends there are some trategic decisions which are being adopted by the
tour operators like changing destination to be offered, designing mass packages to attract high
number of customers, development of customized packages to cater need for small group of
tourists.
The research has been conducted by the tour operators in tourism market and it is
obtained that offering same tourist destination over and over would not be beneficial,
therefore Thomas have to keeping changing the tourist destination so that tourist can be
attracted towards newly offered places. tour operators to attract new customers designs the
new brochures for the destination places and hence they get attracted by seeing the

destination brochures online. Therefore, changing the destination places as per the
requirement of the tourist is one of the strategic decision taken by the tour operators.
Selection of target market is another strategic decision which is essential from the tour
operator’s perspective. For tourist market it is very import to make selection between mass
market segment and niche segment market by achieving the economies of the scales Thomas
cook try to adopt the mass market to attract the large number of tourist by reducing overall
cost of the tour. The purpose of such tour involves leisure includes place which have sand,
water, sea and sun (Okharedia, 2017). On the other hand, some operator’s choses the niche
market segments in order to attract the customers who are having particular interest such as
heritage tourism or ecotourism. Selection of target market by keeping the customer’s
preferences in mind is one of the important strategic decision made by the tour operators.
There are many more strategic decisions taken by the tour operators which includes
investment in technology. Investment in technology is also one of the important decision
made by the tourist operators. As technology is proving one of the important factor affecting
customers towards the tourism worldwide. Tour operators takes the decision to regarding the
investment in technology or not to invest in technology is very essential strategic decision.
For earning revenue through investment in technology is the decision based on the future
potentials. In order to understand the situation for the generated income versus expenses
incurred in the investment of the new technology such as reservation management systems
involves the deep analysis of the financial.
In order to build the customer base in a particular region is another strategic decision taken by
the tour operators is geographic market (Kallarackal, 2014). Tour operator made the criteria
of the geographic region which is based on several factors like gender, income, age, range,
education and interest levels of the customers. It is essential to understand the market factors
which are driving tour operator’s industry in newly proposed location required the deep
understanding which would be based on the sustainability of the factors for which decision is
to be taken.
b. Comparing the tactical decisions that could be taken by a selected operator in different
situations
The difference between the tactical decisions and strategic decisions includes the following –

Different purposes
One of the important difference between both the decision is difference in purpose.
Strategic decision helps organization to look outward while tactical decisions on the other
hand primarily looks on the current situation (5 Major Differences Between Tactical and
Strategic Intelligence, 2017).
The present vs future
The strategic decisions in the organization are made to look at the future in order to
discern emerging trends and patterns while tactical decisions are done on immediately basis
or in present course of action.
While dealing with the several situations in various context every, tour operator is
required to adopt several tactical decisions. Taking the case of Thomas cook which one of the
very popular tour operators organization in UK. Some the tactical decision which should be
taken by the organization is mentioned under.
Credit card not allowed
Utilization of credit card is not allowed by the Thomas cook. They also recommend
their customer to not use the credit card while making the purchase of holidays.
Lower pricing
In spite of having premium tour operator’s organization Thomas cooks tries to show
themselves a lower pricing organization where company tries to sell their packages at lowest
prices. On the comparisons of the tour packages which are being offered by the Thomas
cook it still seems to be at good value offering as comparing with other tour operators in UK
(Djouder and et.al., 2015). To gain the higher market share Thomas cook have to performed
in lower prices of holidays packages prevailing the competitors price such as Thomas flight
centres and first flights.
No fee for children
To attract the customers and build the strong base of customers Thomas cook do not
take the charges for the children of particular age.
Additional value offerings

Thomas cook offers additional offerings to attract the customers as if any customers
paid advance for one month they allow free insurance for that particular customers on the
entire tour booked by them.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that tour operation management is an
important part of tourism industry. It plays a vital role in assessing the various constituents of
travel and tourism. The assignment has provided the information about the recent trends and
the developments of the tour operations industries. The report has given the detail about the
stages and timescales required in developing holidays packages. The study has also provided
the deeper insight of various methods of contracting the different components of the holidays
along with the selling price of various holiday packages. Later, the report has covered the
various process of planning decision, various distribution methods, tactical and strategic
decisions taken by the tour operator

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dror, I.,and et.al., ., 2015. Humidtropics innovation platform case study: WeRATE
operations in West Kenya PAUL L. WOOMER, WELISSA MULEI AND CELISTER
KALEHA. In Innovation Platforms for Agricultural Development (pp. 128-146).
Routledge.
Fei, H., Li, Q. and Sun, D., 2017. A Survey of Recent Research on Optimization Models and
Algorithms for Operations Management from the Process View. Scientific
Programming, 2017.
Holland, J. and Leslie, D., 2017. Tour Operators and Operations: Development, Management
and Responsibility. CABI.
Jin, X.C. and Sparks, B., 2017. Barriers to offering special interest tour products to the
Chinese outbound group market. Tourism Management. 59. pp.205-215.
Kallarackal, T.K., 2014. Motivational Behaviour of Tourism Industry Employees in Relation
to Organisational Culture. Atna-Journal of Tourism Studies. 9(2). pp.89-112.
Ko, H.C.A. and Tavitiyaman, P., 2015. Applications of Legal Aspects in the Hospitality
Industry in (No. 2). Working Paper.
Li, Y., and et.al., 2017. The concept of smart tourism in the context of tourism information
services. Tourism Management. 58. pp.293-300.
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Sourcing, Operational Practices and End-of-Life Management among Tanzania’s Tour
Operators. ORSEA JOURNAL. 7(2).
Mwesiumo, D., Halpern, N. and Buvik, A., 2017. Effect of Detailed Contracts and Partner
Irreplaceability on Interfirm Conflict in Cross-Border Package Tour Operations:
Inbound Tour Operator’s Perspective. Journal of Travel Research,
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Ngandu, S., and et.al., 2017. Strategic framework for Tourism Human Resource and Skills
Development in South Africa with implementation plan & M&E plan.
Pasman, H. and Rogers, W., 2015. The bumpy road to better risk control: A Tour d'Horizon
of new concepts and ideas. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries.
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Online
5 Major Differences Between Tactical and Strategic Intelligence. 2017. [online]. available
through. < https://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-major-differences-between-tactical-strategic-
intelligence-18117.html>