Tour Operation Management Assignment : Lcb tours

TOUR OPERATION MANAGMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Effects of current and recent trends.......................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Stages and timescale for developing holidays.......................................................................3
2.2 Methods of contracting..........................................................................................................4
2.3 Calculation of selling price....................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Evaluation of planning decision............................................................................................6
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure...............................................................6
3.3 Different distribution methods to sell product of company...................................................7
4.1 Strategic decision of tour operators.......................................................................................8
4.2 Tactical decision....................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tour operation business have high contribution in tourism industry. There are various types
of operators such as inbound, outbound, domestic. They all arrange different travel packages for
consumers as per their requirements (Lin, Yu and Chang, 2018). Lcb tours operates its business
sin tourism industry and it works as tour coordinator in UK. Current study will analysis recent
trends in this industry. Furthermore, stages of developing a holiday will be assessed. Selling
price calculation will be done in order to set the price of particular holiday. In addition,
suitability of several distribution methods will be explained in this assignment.
TASK 1
1.1 Effects of current and recent trends
Effects of current and recent trends
Tour operators are
the companies those
which provides different
kinds of holiday
packages to customers.
Description of various
kinds of operators is as
below maintained:
Outbound operator
They are the
operators those which
arranges travel for the
residents from their own
nation to any other
foreign location. Such
companies sell their
holiday packages in their
own region to the people
those who like to go
outside. Lcb tours works
Inbound operators
These organisers provides trip to
consumers within the nation. They also offer
local assistance to travellers so that
individual does not get any issue in their
country. Such operator arranges facilities of
airport pick up, local guide etc. for the
visitor.
Current trends
Over a period of time there have
been significant changes occurred in tourism
industry (Chan and Tay, 2016). Recent
trends and developments in this sector are
Domestic operator
They are
another kind of trip
organiser those
who organise trip
within boundary of
country for the
local residents.
They have good
understanding
about season,
culture, food thus,
involve all these
things in
appropriate
manner in order to
provide amazing
services to
consumers.
Rise and fall in
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as outbound operator.
Responsible tourism
This is recently
in trend, as most of the
tour operators now
concentrate on protecting
natural resources and
improving
environmental
conditions. Thus, they
responsible tourism is
being encouraged. Due
to increasing tourism
activities traffic related
problems, overcrowding
issues are increasing that
affect atmosphere greatly
(Mamhoori, 2015).
described as below:
Advancement in technology
Now internet is available for
customers, they search necessary information
about travel package and select the best
option. Apart from this, internet helps people
in finding out all necessary detail about
accommodation etc. before planning travel to
any location. Furthermore, mobile
application assists Lcb tours in order to make
effective coordination with its clients and
informing them timely. This assists in
developing healthy relationship with
consumers and making them positive towards
brand (Tirasattayapitak, Chaiyasain and
Beeton, 2015).
inflation
Economic
condition of nation
gets changed
frequently, if there
is rising inflation
then it may
decrease value of
currency
(Sangpikul, 2017).
In such situation
people do not
spend much
amount in tour
whereas if there is
falling inflation
trends then
travellers like to
spend money into
holidays. This
impacts on demand
of Lcb tours to
great extent.
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TASK 2
2.1 Stages and timescale for developing holidays
In order to develop a holiday package Lcb Tour has to ensure following stages and have to
design package for specified timescale. Stages involved in this development are as below
maintained:
 Researching
 Planning and scheduling
 Contracting
 Costing
 Financial evaluation and pricing
 Brochure creation
 Advertisement
 Operations and execution
 Post tour management
Lcb Tours company will has to conduct first market research in order gather insight detail
about market condition and needs of buyers. This supports in designing the holiday package as
per the specific requirements of consumers. Planning is another phase in which Lcb tours have to
plan the activities that would include in planning and have to schedule the days accordingly.
Next phase is to make contract with suppliers. Lcb tours will have to negotiate with suppliers
and will have to deal with hotels, airline companies in order to provide accommodation and
transportation services to consumer (Lindsay and et.al., 2018). Once contracting has been done
then company will have to set the price and have to evaluate the entire financial plan. This helps
in analysing unnecessary cost. Once all these things have been completed then entity will have to
create brochure in order to make consumers aware with the new holiday package. Advertisement
has to be done then in order to promote the services and products of company. After
advertisement, Lcb tours will have to execute this plan and have to take feedback from customers
and have to manage post activities. This is the entre process of developing holiday package.
2.2 Methods of contracting
Companies are required to make agreement with suppliers. They have to first negotiate
with all hotels , airlines so that company can provide holiday package to consumers at reasonable
rates. Several contracting methods are as below maintained:
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Fixed contracting
In this type of contracting method agreement held between stakeholder and tour operator.
Stakeholders are such as transportation supplier, hotel for accommodation etc. Lcb tours first
look upon such supplier which can offer firm products at reasonable prices. Then it makes
contract with the most suitable stakeholder (Hsieh, Hsieh and Chu, 2014). Entity has to pay
amount to these suppliers in advance for pre-booking of hotels, airlines for their holiday package.
Lcb can make contract with the supplier that offers high quality at affordable rate thus, this is
quite cheaper. This is beneficial in order to raise profit of business unit and assured providing
luxurious services to clients.
Allocation
This type of contract is generally form by such operators those who arrange travel for
consumers throughout season. They book the seats, hotel of travellers in advance. Negotiation is
possible in this type of agreement thus, entity becomes able to generate high profit.
Ad-hoc
Such kind of contract are generally form in certain situations. This helps the tour operator
in dealing with any kind of sudden issues properly. If travellers demand for additional services
then Lcb tour operators have to immediately contact with relevant supplier who can meet with
need of consumers and can offer them sudden services. But this is little costly because entity has
to pay high amount to supplier as negotiation is not possible in this type of contract(Chang and
Katrichis, 2016).
2.3 Calculation of selling price
Selling price can be defined as amount at which product is sold in market. For calculating
the prices Lcb tours has to add all its expenditures first. Entity takes support of mark-up pricing
strategy in which it add all expenses and add required profit margin into it. This is the best way
to calculate the selling price for holiday in company. Calculation is illustrated as below:
Supplier charges £25 per person
Staff wages £50
Cost of loading £10
Rent £15
Miscellaneous cost 8
Mark-up 10%
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Total cost 108
Selling price 108*10%=£118.8
Thus, if Lcb tours offers its holiday packages to consumers at £118.8 then it would be
able to gain profit of 10%. This is the best way of generating revenues in business. Overall
expenditures are 108 and after adding mark up the selling price has been calculated.
Conclusion
From the above study it can be concluded that mark-up pricing strategy is effective in order to
calculate selling price
Entity has to make fixed contract with its suppliers that helps in generating necessary profit and
offering quality services to consumers.
TASK 3
3.1 Evaluation of planning decision
Lcb tours always ensure to take adequate decision so that customers complains can be
minimised. For that it makes effective planning that helps in identifying consequences and
opportunity of any judgement. In order to design a brochure entity considers various things:
 Cost: It takes decision of designing of brochure. Company ensures that its cost remain in
budget and designing should be appropriate. Then Lcb tours also decide copies that need
to be made and overall quality of brochure. All these decisions are helpful in creating an
attractive brochure within budget (LANE, 2016).
 Format deciding: It has to plan weather brochure would be single or double folds. There
are many companies that provides booklet type of brochures. It plans for the format
according to its consumer’s demand and entities objective.
 Target market: According to target market Lcb tours makes planning decision related to
quality, budget, volume of its brochure. If consumers are not ready to pay high amount,
then firm has to plan for designing simple but attractive brochure.
 Print specification: It has to decide style of font, colour, nature of destination specified in
brochure that can make it more attractive (Lindsay and et.al., 2018).
 Timescale: furthermore, deadline of launching etc. needs to be decided carefully.
All such kind of planning decision help Lcb tours in creating an attractive brochure that
can gain attention of mass audience and can help firm in generating demand for its holiday
package.
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3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure
There are many tour operators those which are using traditional brochures for attracting
consumers towards the company. But in the technological era physical distribution of brochure to
target audience is time taking process and unable to aware people for services of business unit.
Thus, there are many alternative options to a traditional brochure (Chang and Katrichis, 2016).
E-brochure is the most commonly and effectively used method. In e-brochure firm can
add multiple pages with attractive images and artistic work. This can be distributed through
websites, email, online banner etc. This is cost effective and time saving technique. By this way
entity can reach to mass audience and can make them aware with its new products and services.
Increasing use of internet has created opportunities for business to distribute e-brochures to
customers. There are around 11.4 million people in UK those who are accessing internet
frequently. Furthermore, it is environmental friendly way to distribute the news (Hsieh, Hsieh
and Chu, 2014).
Another method of distribution is social networking websites. Faceboook, Twitter are
highly used networking sites. Firm can make connection with the consumers through these social
sites. This aids Lcb Tours in uploading images, videos in order to make people aware with its
holiday packages. It is fast and cost effective to distribute holiday packages information. Being a
outbound tour operator this distribution method would be more suitable for organisation because
by this way it would be able to make connection with mass audience. It also give facility to give
immediate response on consumer’s quarry (Takamatsu, 2014). This is the best way to identify
needs and requirements of travellers. This may support business in offering satisfactory services
to consumers as per their needs.
3.3 Different distribution methods to sell product of company
Here are some non-traditional methods for distribution of holiday packages for Lcb tours.
Direct Distribution- In this method, the company direct send mails to their visitors, it is
very effective method because company provide facility of cancel the services, discount, special
offers , family packages. Direct mail is individualized, highly flexible and Lcb tours company
can include some picture and information about visiting place in mail to look more effective.
Direct distribution method helps company in dealing with consumers directly (Distribution
Channels, 2018). If there is no intermediary then it would be better for consumer to get low price
goods because no additional charges would be taken by intermediary. Furthermore, entity would
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also be able to get immediate reviews of clients whether they are satisfied with services or need
any kind of additional services.
Through social network website- social site is best place, to find large number of people, to
communicate about holiday packages like twitter Facebook or any other social site. Tour
operator can impart the feedback of tourist, information of package. A lot of people can be
infused at the same time through the social site. It also affects visitors to buy holiday package.
Lcb tours can sell its holiday packages to consumers through social sites. People also get quick
response on it, if they have any quarry for the product then can ask to firm directly. This helps
the entity in offering high quality products at reasonable rate to consumers (Tirasattayapitak,
Chaiyasain and Beeton, 2015).
Travel Agencies –this is the best method in which Lcb tours can keep touch in with travel
agencies through phone or by internet. travel agencies can give brochure to their passengers
while traveling and can be promote the services given by tour operators. These travel agencies
have direct relationship with customers (Chan and Tay, 2016). They work as intermediary. Lcb
can make connection with these travel firms and can give them additional benefits for selling its
products and services.
Government website is another great way to sell products. This is generally applying by
the specialised tour operator that organises particular tours only. They have to make connection
with government of that nation and authorities give them permission to upload their detail on its
websites (Sangpikul, 2017).
4.1 Strategic decision of tour operators
Positioning and image/branding- This is a policy in which the tour operator identifies
consumers in an efficient manner, and helps in establishing those products and services. It helps
in market segmentation. An important decision by tour operator to create brand and image of
their tour products. Lcb tour operator implements cost positioning strategy in order to develop its
image in market. Furthermore, branding is done through social networking sites. This is the best
way to create unique brand image in the mind of customers (Chang and Katrichis, 2016).
Pricing Strategy - Considering the cost involved in the design and development of the
package, decision regarding the price of the package is a strategic decision. During the decision
of amount of tour program and the holidays package, tour operator must think about the discount
on the package. Lcb tours provides attractinve discounts to its consumers and it takes support of
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skimming stratgey. that aids business in attracting more people. Because it offers low cost
products to them that helps in influencing mind of travelelrs (Hsieh, Hsieh and Chu, 2014).
Choice of product in relation to customer portfolio- In this type of strategic decision, it is
important to determine the products according to the needs of the customers. Lcb designs holiday
packages to customers as per their requirements. That aid firm in enhancing satisfaction level of
them and making them positive towards brand.
Distribution Decision- It selects the delivery tasks in decisions related to distribution and
identifies the chain management as well and enter the contract with the middleman. Lcb always
prefer to distribute its products directly. This helps in generating high profit and resolving issues
of consumers quickly (Takamatsu, 2014).
4.2 Tactical decision
Strategic decisions for execution of operations can be understood by the tour operator on
regular basis. It is essential for tour operator that to make tactical decisions in different types of
situations that can support firm to sustain in market for longer duration.
Tactical Responses- If needs of consumers get changed and they are moving towards other
competitors then entity can give them response by offering additional services. Lcb can offer
free insurance to customers during tour booking. This response may influence the mind of
travellers (Lin, Yu and Chang, 2018).
Tactical Marketing- If economic condition is not good or there is changing demand of
consumers then in such kind of situations Lcb tours is required to implement effective marketing
strategy. This would be better for the firm in gaining attention of customers. It can market its
products through social networking sites.
Tactical Pricing- In high competitive situation Lcb tours has to ensure attracting more
people towards brand. Thomas cook, TUI are the big organisations that are operating across the
world. These firms creates competition of Lcb . They offer different holiday packages to
consumers that influence their mind (Chan and Tay, 2016 ). In such situation Lcb turs has to take
tactical pricing decision. It has reduced its rates of products as compare to other tour operators.
By this way it would be able to gain attention of more people that will aid in sustaining in market
for longer duration
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that tourism industry always concentrates on
recent trends and offer customers products accordingly. Holiday planning always require to
make effective negotiation with suppliers and come into right contracting. This supports
companies in offering quality services to travellers. It is essential for tour operator that to make
strategic and tactical decisions for satisfying consumers and retaining them in business for longer
duration.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bashkova, K., 2017. Visibility of environmental sustainability in destination: Monaco.
Chan, J. K. L. and Tay, K. X., 2016. Tour operator perspectives on responsible tourism practices:
a case of Kinabalu National Park, Sabah. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and
Hospitality Research. 10(2). pp.121-137.
Chang, W. J. and Katrichis, J. M., 2016. A literature review of tourism management (1990–
2013): A content analysis perspective. Current Issues in Tourism. 19(8). pp.791-823.
Hsieh, T. K., Hsieh, C. C. and Chu, N. Y., 2014, May. A study on identity and trust management
of real estate Agent. In Electronics, Computer and Applications, 2014 IEEE Workshop on
(pp. 526-529). IEEE.
LANE, B., 2016, August. Chapter twenty implementing sustainable rural tourism: lessons from
rural rail-based slow tourism. In Meeting challenges for rural tourism through co-
creation of sustainable tourist experiences (p. 441). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Lin, L. P. L., Yu, C. Y. and Chang, F. C., 2018. Determinants of CSER practices for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions: From the perspectives of administrative managers in tour
operators. Tourism Management. 64. pp.1-12.
Lindsay, D. and et.al., 2018. Perils of speed dating: an Australian success story in Chinese
outbound tourism. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. pp.1-22.
Mamhoori, A., 2015. Sustainable Tourism developmen a stakeholders analysis with special
reference to tour operators in India.
Sangpikul, A., 2017. ่ Ecotourism Mix, Good Practice, and Green Marketing: An Approach
Towards the Quality Tourism Business. Journal of Community Development Research
(Humanities and Social Sciences). 10(1). pp.1-15.
Takamatsu, M., 2014. The Okinawa Tourism Crisis Management Initiatives. International
Journal of Event Management Research. 8(1). pp.19-34.
Tirasattayapitak, S., Chaiyasain, C. and Beeton, R. J. S., 2015. The impacts of nature-based
adventure tourism on children in a Thai village. Tourism Management Perspectives. 15.
pp.122-127.
Online
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Distribution Channels. 2018. [Online]. Available through <
http://www.marketingmo.com/strategic-planning/how-to-develop-your-distribution-
channels/>
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