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Tour Operations Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Marketing, and Strategic Decisions

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Added on 2024/07/29

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This comprehensive guide delves into the intricacies of tour operations management, covering key aspects like holiday package development, marketing strategies, and strategic decision-making. Explore the stages involved in planning a tour, analyze different contracting methods, and discover effective alternatives to traditional brochures. Gain insights into pricing strategies, branding, and distribution methods used by leading tour operators like Trailfinders and Thomas Cook. This resource provides a thorough understanding of the industry's dynamics and equips you with the knowledge to navigate the complexities of tour operations management.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 2
TASK 1- LEAFLET............................................................................................................................. 3
1.1.............................................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 2- REPORT............................................................................................................................. 5
2.1.............................................................................................................................................. 5
2.2.............................................................................................................................................. 6
2.3.............................................................................................................................................. 9
TASK 3- MANAGEMENT REPORT.................................................................................................. 10
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 10
3.1............................................................................................................................................ 10
3.2............................................................................................................................................ 12
3.3............................................................................................................................................ 14
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................... 15
4.1............................................................................................................................................ 15
4.2............................................................................................................................................ 16
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 17
REFERNCES................................................................................................................................... 18
1

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism sector is gaining the popularity in the modern world and as a result, this
sector is growing in terms of the revenue. Tour operator business or companies is the essential
part of the travel and tourism sector. Tour operator is the company that purchases the different
components and items like accommodation, transport and other services that make an
inclusive holiday in bulk and then combines them together with the purpose of selling the final
product to its customers. In this assignment knowledge and understanding of the tour
operators industry within the travel and tourism sector will be discussed. This will be followed
by in context of the effective analysis and description of the recent developments on the tour
operators industry. An understanding about stages involved in the developing holidays will be
dealt. Further, the brochures will be reviewed in this assignment and the distribution methods
used in the selling holidays will also be discussed. At last tactical and strategic decisions will be
reflected for different conditions.
2

TASK 1- LEAFLET
1.1
The tour operator industry is developing
since World War II as a result of this
industry has experienced many effects due
to the recent trends and developments.
Tour operators need to understand the
importance of the recent developments of
the trends (Giaoutzi, M 2017). Attitudes,
behaviour and expectations of the tourist
have contributed to the number of new
trends and developments and some of the
trends have a vital impact on the industry.
Some of the current and recent trends in
the tour operator industry and its effects
on the tour operator industry:
Technological advancements: Due to the
development and advancements in the
technology customers are able to share the
information about the holiday destinations
and many other attractions (Horner and
Swarbrooke, 2016). Travellers are now able
to find the important information about the
particular destinations through the
websites, pictures and social media sites
that help in increasing the popularity of the
destination. Online booking systems also
affecting the tour operator industry as it
minimizes the role of tour operator
companies (Ivanov, et al. 2015).
Changing face of the tourists: Nowadays
the individual travellers, independent
travellers and the mature travellers are
emerging in the travel and tourism industry
that is influencing the tour operator
industry by increasing the base of the
customers (Ivanov, et al. 2015).
Dynamic packaging: Travellers uses the
internet to research their holidays and use
to make their own arrangements for the
travelling direction with the hotels, airlines
etc. This offers people with greater
flexibility than the purchasing the holiday's
packages from the travel agency and this
proves to be cheaper as well. This affects
the travel and tourism industry as it
mitigates the role of the travel agency and
affects their business.
3

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Internet: There is the improved
collaboration between the tour operators
for example, between the service providers
and travel agencies. The travellers are now
able to identify the alternatives that enable
the construction of the holiday packages
that affect the tour operator industry and
minimize the sale of their holiday packages
(Giaoutzi, 2017).
4

TASK 2- REPORT
INTRODUCTION
In this part, many stages and timescales that are involved in developing the holiday package will
be understood. This will be followed by the evaluation of the different contracting methods for
the different holiday components with the different tour operator’s types. The Trailfinders is
focusing on the designing of the holiday packages for the 42 students for the summer vacation
in August 2019. This holiday will start from the London to Brussels and Bruges for 5 nights.
Body
2.1
For the holiday packages development, there are some of the stages that are involved are
discussed as:
Research: This is the first stage that is involved in the planning and developing the holidays and
this will undertake the screening of the unfavourable and favourable factors that are prevailing
in the Belgium market that will affect the holiday trip of the students. This research will include
the economic and political conditions in Belgium (Ivanov, et al. 2015).
Schedule and planning: In this stage, the focus will be on the development of the proper plan
and preparation of the schedule for the holiday trip mentioned. This will include the market
research of the destinations, hotel etc. This stage will also include the determination of the
overall cost of the holiday packages
Contracting: This stage will consider the range of the tour operator’s types and its analysis that
this stage will also include the contracting that will include the negotiation with the suppliers.
This will also help to enter into the agreements about the accommodations and stay and hotel
facilities. (Leung, et al. 2015).
Cost estimation and calculation: This stage is followed by the planning of the five night’s tour
and includes the calculation of the pricing and cost that will be communicated to the students
that will be collected from them (Shi, et al. 2014).
5

Brochures: This stage includes the marketing and advertisements that will be undertaken for
planning the holiday trip from London to Brussels and Brugge. This will communicate the
information of the holiday packages to the students.
Execution: This is the stage that coves the final implementation of the holiday plan that will
take place in August 2019 (Leung, et al. 2015).
Post management: This is the last stage that will follow the plan and discover the mistakes that
may occur during the whole holiday trip.
The timescale for the holiday planning from London to Brussels as under:
Activities August Sept-
Oct
Nov Dec-
Jan
Feb-
March
April-
May
June July Aug
Market
Research
Schedule
and plan
Contracting
Calculation
and cost
estimation
Brochures
Execution
Post
managemen
t
6

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2.2
To face the high competition in the travel and tourism sector there is the need of the rendering
the effective pricing strategies and the prices to be charged from the travellers. There is the
need of the contracting the services of all components of the travel sector. There are the
different methods of the contracting that are suitable for the industry. Some of them are as
follows:
Sales only contract: according to this contract the things are priories as per the needs and this
contract is costly as compared to other contracts. This contract is adopted at the time of the
peak seasons and this is the contract that charges the high prices. This is followed by the leisure
time tour operators (Schegg and Stangl, 2017).
Ad-hoc contracts: This is the risk-free contract that includes the cost administration. This
contract is widely popular for the tailor-made, specialist and luxury travel companies. This
contact is used for the emerging the need of the bed and flights and this involves the low cost.
This contract is adopted by the Virgin Holidays.
Fixed contracts: This contract includes the booking of the seats and rooms in the advance and
the amount is paid in advance. Rooms and coach seats are booked in advance that helps to
tender the discounts and offers by the services mass consumption. With the help of the mass
bookings, the prices can be offered with the effectiveness (Shi, et al. 2014).
Different types of the tour operators:
Ground tour operators: This tour operators book the destinations for the trip, they also book
the hotels, other facilities for the customers. This tour operator example is the ground tour
operators.
Domestic tour operators: This tour operator put focus only on the UK customers and renders
the services in the host county only. They provide the services in the limited area and render
the products like farm holidays, day tours and coach holidays (Schegg and Stangl, 2017).
7

Inbound tour operators: This tour operator render the service directly to the customers like
local tour activities, entertainment, currency exchange etc. Anderson travel is the type of the
inbound tour operator that directs the services to the local customers.
Outbound tour operators: These are the tour operators that sell the holiday packages to the
customers and clients by offers the special kind of the packages to them in the different parts of
the world and this also provides the luxury services (Shi, et al. 2014).
8

2.3
Trailfinders is focusing on the calculating the selling price for the holiday trip from Brussels to
Brugge in August 2019 that will include the 42 students. Per head cost will be estimated as
under:
Expenses Total tour expenses Cost per person
Expenses of room €3864 €92
Local tour guide expenses €1020 €24.28
Luxury Coach €8232 €196
Total €13116 €312.28
Exchange rate for the room is $1.12 per £1
Total cost price= €312.28 per head
The margin of markup profit is 25%.
Selling price per head= €13116 +€312.28
=€390.36
Conclusion
This part aims at the holiday planning which timescales and stages that need to be decided and
with the different methods of the contracting for the tour operators.
9

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TASK 3- MANAGEMENT REPORT
Introduction
In this part of the assignment, the summary of the report will be reviewed with the brochures
and distribution methods by the team of the marketing department of the Trailfinders. The
different methods of suitability will also be analyzed and evaluated. The brochures of the Virgin
Holidays and Thomas cook will be reviewed.
3.1
The Trailfinders marketing team will collect and review the brochures of the Thomas Cook and
Virgin holidays and then the planning decisions will be undertaken for the preparation of the
brochures. With the review of the brochures, it has been observed that content, images and
the colours of the brochures are designed the brochures involve timescale, cost, format budget,
text, and many other things (Standing, et al. 2014).
10

Figure: Brochures
Source: (Veal, 2017)
Cost: The decision for the planning of the designing of the brochures will be prepared with the
estimation of the costs that involves the costs that are spent on the preparation and creation of
11

the brochures. This estimation will help in the effective preparation of the budgets and this will
led to the effective planning decision in designing a brochure (Veal, 2017).
Format: This decision is also important that is undertaken for the designing of the brochures
that include the decision of the theme selection and that is followed by the deciding the page
quality, content, font style, size, font colour and other requirements that are needed for the
preparation and planning of the brochures. The format decision includes the selection of the
images and graphics that will make the effective brochures (Standing, et al. 2014). This decision
also includes the selection of the paper quality with the selection of folds and fonts of the
brochures.
Implementation
This is the other step that undertakes at the time of the brochures designing. This step includes
the final implementation of the brochures and it’s designing. This also followed by the
monitoring of the prepared brochures with its effectiveness (Veal, 2017).
12

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3.2
Due to the high competition, the tour operator industry needs to focus on the high marketing
activities that can be followed by the modern marketing activities. Traditional brochures are not
so much effective so the Tour operators like Thomas cook and Trailfinders need to focus on the
alternatives of the traditional brochures that are the Internet, social media, advertisements, TV
etc. Description of the suitable alternatives to the traditional brochures are:
Applications: There are many IOS and Android applications built for the tour operators sector
that have replaced the traditional brochures. Thomas Cook has built its own application that is
available at the play store of the android and IOS. This application is the suitable alternative of
the traditional brochures that depicts the relevant information about the holiday packages,
allows customers for the instant booking and also suitable for the effective marketing (Veal,
2017).
Internet and social web: Internet and the social web are also the best options that can replace
the traditional brochures. Trailfinders uses this in the place of the traditional brochures as this
is suitable for the reaching the wide network of the customers. Social web and media like
Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and much other social media are being used for spreading the
awareness of the holiday packages of the tour operators (Standing, et al. 2014). Thomas cook
also uses the internet and social media as an alternative to the traditional brochures.
Promotional video: A video can be made or prepared to focus on the different offerings and
information of the holiday packages and other information. A promotional video can be
uploaded on the Instagram and Facebook page, YouTube channel, spread to the society with
the help of the internet. Trailfinders and Thomas cook uploads the promotional video and
consider it as the alternative tool to the traditional brochures (Xiang, et al. 2015).
Advertising: This is among the most popular and best tool for the promotion of the business.
Advertising is done for communicating the marketing message to the target audience and
customers. This can be done through television, print media and mail. Traditional brochures are
also the kind of the traditional advertising but the advertising can be used as the best
13

alternative to the traditional brochures. Thomas cook utilizes this alternative method for the
traditional brochures.
The most suitable alternative to the traditional advertising is the Internet and applications that
can be used by the Trailfinders and Thomas cook for the promotion of the holiday packages.
Thomas cook can take the advantage of the advertising to promote the holiday packages (Yan
and Ho, 2017).
14

3.3
Different distribution methods are used by the tour operator to sell the holiday packages to the
tour operators. The different methods adopted for the selling of the holiday enables the
Trailfinders and Thomas cook to increase the sales and increase the demand of the holiday.
Some of them have been explained as under in context with the Thomas cook and Trailfinders:
Call centres and telephone: This is among the suitable distribution method for the selling of the
holiday packages that are used by the Thomas cook and Trailfinders. Through this method, the
target and potential customers are pitched and convinced with the help of calling and telesales
(Mattiola, et al. 2014). This also includes the assessing the need of customers by evaluating
their requirements. Customer’s database helps in this distribution method of selling.
Travel agencies: Travel agencies is one of the important parts of the tour operator industry.
Travel agencies help them to sell the holiday packages. They design the holiday packages for
the customers as per their need and they also consider their budget. There are various travel
agencies operating online that sell the tour packages. Thomas cook and Trailfinders contracts
with the competent and popular agents that help in selling the holiday packages.
Online selling: Online selling is the selling of the products and services with the help of the
internet media. This modes are the sales through E-mails, social media marketing, applications
and blogs etc. Trailfinders uses the E-mail marketing for selling the holiday packages. Thomas
cook sells the holiday packages through online applications (Freishtat, et al. 2014).
With the help of the evaluation of the various and different alternatives, Thomas cook and
Trailfinders should adopt the online sale for the distribution of the holiday packages.
15

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TASK 4
4.1
Strategic decisions are complex and long-term that is taken by the senior management. This is
related to the overall planning for the implementation of the policy (Mattiola, et al. 2014).
Trailfinders should understand the problem. Following are the strategic decisions:
Pricing strategies: Trailfinders can use the pricing strategy to determining the competitive
pricing for the holiday packages that will offer the attractive discounts. Premium pricing, value
for money, penetration pricing etc. are some pricing strategies. Trailfinders and Virgin holiday
should take the specific decisions for the pricing of the tour packages (Pettigrew, 2014).
Image branding and positioning: Trailfinders also take the strategic decision of the positioning
the brand image in the minds of the customers. Branding aims at the creating goodwill for the
company that will help the company in making profits. Virgin Holidays and Trailfinders aims at
creating the good brand image with the help if various mediums like social media, YouTube
channels etc. (Chang, et al. 2014).
Distribution decisions: Services and products are being provided by the method of
distributions. Distribution decision is undertaken for selling the holiday packages. Virgin and
Trailfinders take the decisions related to the distribution for selling the product.
Marketing decisions: Virgin and Trailfinders aim at the taking decisions related to the
marketing of the services. They are highly focused on the promotion of the service with the
help of the online media and brochures. Marketing department takes the decision for the
promotion and sales increment (Evans, 2015).
16

4.2
Corporate strategies are considered for taking the tactical decisions and taken by the top
management. These are the medium term and semi-complex and taken at the strategic level.
Following are the tactical decision taken by the Virgin and Trailfinders:
Tactical response: This decision is taken to respond to the high competition in the market.
Trailfinders and Virgin holidays take the decision to respond the market like any external
emergency and accidents. This decisions support the organization challenges and financial crisis
(Boyle, 2017).
Tactical pricing: Virgin holidays prepare the pricing strategy that is short term that aims at the
facing the competition. This makes the strategic pricing and includes the set of the prices for
grab the short term opportunities of the sales. Premium pricing adopted by the Virgin Holidays
for selling holiday packages in the cheap pricing and price increment.
Tactical marketing: This includes the 7 p’s implementation for the promotion of the tour
packages efficiently and effectively. Trailfinders and Thomas cook arrange the packages as the
set the prices of the products with the marketing distribution and channels (Hair, et al. 2015).
Tactical planning: This is used by the Virgin holidays for a very short period of time that
includes the methods of achieving the strategy for the goal achievement. This also possesses
the strategy preparation (Couper et al. 2015).
17

CONCLUSION
The aforesaid assignment aims at the tour operator industries and their concepts with the
timescales and stages involve in the development of the holiday. The evaluation of the recent
developments has also been done with the different tour operator's types. Moreover, the
decision taken for the brochures designing planning has been discussed. The assignment also
aims at the selling methods and alternatives to the traditional brochures. In the end, various
strategic and tactical decisions by the tour operators.
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REFERNCES
Boyle, G., 2017. Design project management. Routledge.
Chang, J., Wang, Y.C. and Lin, T.L., 2017. The Impact of Travel Brochures on Perceptions of
Authenticity at Aboriginal Tourist Sites. Tourism Analysis, 22(4), pp.551-562.
Couper, B., Crawford, J. and Young, C., 2017. Strategic sustainability consulting. In
Consulting for Business Sustainability (pp. 71-91). Routledge.
Evans, N., 2015. Strategic management for tourism, hospitality and events. Routledge.
Evans, N., 2015. Strategic management for tourism, hospitality and events. Routledge.
Freishtat, G., Hufford, S., McFall, D., Wilson, J., Hyman, T., Rijsinghani, V. and Kaib, P.,
LivePerson Inc, 2017. Systems and methods to facilitate selling of products and services.
U.S. Patent 9,576,292.
Giaoutzi, M., 2017. Tourism and regional development: New Pathways. Routledge.
Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. and Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Ivanov, S., Stoilova, E. and Illum, S.F., 2015. Conflicts between accommodation
establishments and travel agencies. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 15(1), pp.54-70.
Leung, X.Y., Xue, L. and Bai, B., 2015. Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism:
a review and journal preferences. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 27(7), pp.1556-1572.
Mattiola, P.A., Gershtein, V.Y. and Campbell, K.M., Air Products and Chemicals Inc, 2017.
Methods for managing a product carrier. U.S. Patent 9,783,754.
Pettigrew, A.M., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.
Schegg, R. and Stangl, B., 2017, January. Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2017. In Proceedings of the International Conference in Rome, Italy.
19

Shi, Y., Ji, J.N., Zhang, Z.Y. and Yang, L., 2016. Tourism supply chain coordination with price
discount and quantity flexibility contracts. In Proceedings of the 22nd International
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management 2015 (pp. 229-240).
Atlantis Press, Paris.
Standing, C., Tang-Taye, J.P. and Boyer, M., 2014. The impact of the Internet on travel and
tourism: A research review 2001–2010. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 31(1), pp.82-
113.
Veal, A.J., 2017. Research methods for leisure and tourism. Pearson UK.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V.P. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2015. Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, pp.244-249.
Yan, L. and Ho, H.K., 2017. Impression management of tour leaders. Asia Pacific Journal of
Tourism Research, 22(4), pp.422-435.
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Tour Operations Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Marketing, and Strategic Decisions

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