Tour Operations Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning and Management

Tour Operations Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1.......................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.....................................................................................................................................13
Task 4.....................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
References list....................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Travel and tourism operators industries involve planning for operation
before they can launch packages into the market. The price determination
for packages, selection for tour destinations, availability of facilities and so
on are decided by studying the recent trends in the market of tour
operation. This assignment, with the help of a specific planning and
management plan for Trailfinders Ltd, has explained the role of planning
and management in tour operations, their steps and procedures, their
significance, and more.
The assignment has taken into account the different types of contract
methods, components of a travel plan, stages and timescales, costs and
management and more of a tour operation plan to establish an in dept
understanding of the whole process. The various stages involved in
planning a travel package is explored through counting of costs, planning
of alternatives, suitability of distribution and more.
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Task 1
P1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and
developments on the tour operators industry.
Tour operators study, examine and analyze the current market trends
before planning a tour package for their customers (Nagle and Müller,
2017). They treat their travel packages as a product of their industry;
hence plan its basic components like destination, costs, transport and
more.
The current trends and developments the current global tourism industry
has been discussed with their effects in the following points:
 Technological development – The advent of technology has led
to digitization of processes like ticketing, advanced booking,
selection of seats and more (Gurvey, 2018). This has brought about
a change in the quality of travel operations, and has made it easier.
 Personalization and optimization - Customers of tour operations
are increasingly looking for personalizing their tour plans by
planning their routes, transports and more with the help of
customization facilities offered by tour operators (Hoffman and
Offutt, 2015). Holiday packages of tour operators are often filled
with variety of options that can be designed according to the needs
of the customers.
 Increase in disposable income – The economic growth of
developing countries has had a positive effect in increasing the
disposable income of the customers of tour operators (Mason,
2015). The standard of living of people in general has increased,
leading to enhanced growth in tour and travel business.
 Marketing and advertising – With so many varieties available in
the market, travel companies are looking for defining tools and
techniques to market their products and services (Scott, 2015).
Some of the most popular tour operators like Expedia, TUI and so on
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are taking the help of social media marketing to make their
marketing strategy more attractive for customers
 Improved FDI rates – Due to rapid globalization in the past few
years, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounts have increased,
leading to the business growth of industries worldwide. Now,
countries have more capital and investment to make on their
individual companies, and tour operators are making the most of it
by expanding their travel packages to the countries they are
receiving the maximum FDI benefits from (Sassen, 2016)
 Online reviews – As travel companies go digital with state-of-the-
art websites and mobile apps to organize travel packages, their
online reviews and testimonials matter a lot in influencing behaviour
of potential customers.
 Increase in adventure trips – According to the Travel Trend
Report (2018), people are increasingly looking for more fitness-
based travel plans. They are preferring options of active and
adventure travel like an African safari, hiking the Swiss Alps and
more.
LEAFLET:
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