Tour Operators and Sustainable Tourism

This assignment examines the role of tour operators in fostering sustainable tourism. It delves into how they influence traveler choices towards eco-friendly options and encourages responsible behavior. The focus is on understanding the strategies tour operators employ to minimize environmental impact and support local communities while delivering memorable travel experiences.

TOUR
OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Covered in Poster...................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays..................................1
2.2 Evaluation of suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of
holiday and different types of tour operator...........................................................................2
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information......................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Evaluation of the planning decisions taken for the design of the brochures....................4
3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional printed brochure ............................5
3.3 Evaluate the suitability of different selling methods of holiday distribution ..................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
Covered in Draft Article.........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
In the present scenario travel and tourism sector are considered to be very rapidly
growing business sectors. It is thus important for travel and tourism industries to have a proper
knowledge of management of tour operations (Byrnes, Buckley, Hower and Arthur, 2016)
This study involves deep investigation on the tour operators industry of the travel and tourism
sector. This study includes different types of tour operators depending on their origin, scale of
business, etc. Also, this assessment determines the impact of recent trends and development
on tour operators industry. Furthermore, this assessment will acquaint us with different stages
involved in creating holidays and different stages associated with holiday creation. Further,
various strategic and technical decision making for tour operators are present in this study.
Moreover, this study provides tour operators with planning decisions taken for the design of a
brochure and also, enables review of brochures and methods of distribution used to sell
holidays.
TASK 1
Covered in Poster
TASK 2
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays
Depending upon different age groups of people, various holiday plans are there for
tour operators ensuring all customers' needs and desired are fulfilled. For example young
generation will prefer adventurous holidays, middle aged would like to have historical tours,
whereas old ones will prefer pilgrimages. (Buultjens and et.al, 2016) In this way, tour
packages can be broken in various segments based on different age groups. Thus, the holiday
packages varies widely. Packaged holidays are combination of at least two components of
holidays development tools, such as transportation, accommodation, other services for tourists
that make up a significant proportion of the package. These component may be of different
type depending upon the customer choice, days of package, season, existing place and scale of
tour operators. Developing holidays are integral part of tour function industries and there are
many steps to be considered while developing holidays such as market research, planning and
scheduling, forecasting, contracting, etc.
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There are basically three stages of developing holidays in tour operator industries. In
the first stage of holiday development, a detailed research of available competition, supply,
products, etc. is undertaken by the tour managers. (Needham, Mora ,Lesar and Anders, 2017)
Second stage involves the actual activity of the package by capacity planning, financial
planning, sales and marketing and administration. Whereas, the last stage of developing
holidays involves a proper and effective holiday management system, satisfactory care
provided to the customers and payment to suppliers. IT also allocates the resources of tour
operator industry.
In the present context, a tour of 5 days tour from London, united kingdom to Paris,
France is organized by Thomson group. This holiday package is developed for the chinese
students who are going to travel Paris from London. The five day chart is as follows-
Day 1: Taking coach from Hammersmith, Great Portland Street, London in morning and will
reach Amsterdam, Netherlands in afternoon. After rest of half an hour we will do lunch
following that visit to The Rijks Museum and The Anne Frank museum and checking back to
hotel for dinner and some activities will be held in hotel.
Day 2: A visit to Van Gogh Museum to experience the best paintings of him. We will then
reach to Amsterdam's West church having the highest tower of city. After the museum, a visit
to The Royal Palace will take place, standing on 13,659 piles. In night, a pool party at hotel is
organised.
Day 3: Leaving the hotel at 10 A.M. to visit the Beginhof, to experience the views of well-
kept green lawns, the courtyards and old houses. Later then, a visit to the old church will take
place.
Day 4: A visit to the port of Amsterdam for cruise experience. And in night, explore local
markets of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is famous for beers, chocolates, experience some.
Day 5: After breakfast, we will leave hotel to visit Rembrandt house museum after that we
will reach to Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam.
Day 6: This day we will enjoy the canals of Amsterdam which were built during 17th century.
Day 7: The last day will be spend on Kalverstraat and Vlooienmarkt, along with famous
botanical Gardens and zoos and then departure from Amsterdam to London.
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2.2 Evaluation of suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of
holiday and different types of tour operator
Depending upon different components of holiday and different types of tour operators,
different contracting methods are used. (Chan and Tay, 2016) Different methods of
contracting along with their suitability for different holiday packages and tour operators are as
follows-
1. Commitment- In this contracting method, the pre-ordering of products are done. Suppose, a
tour operator has ordered certain number of rooms before starting of holiday season, now he
has to pay the money, irrespective of this thing that whether that tour operator actually
managed to sell. This contracting method has high level of risk associated with it. But, this
method is very effective in season of holidays.
2. Rack rate- Rate which is payable by the public for accommodation is rack rate. It is the
standard rate defined by hotel management for particular services. In order to make profit, a
tour operator should set its price higher than that of rack rate. By setting high rack rates, more
profits can be earned adding benefits to the industry.
3. Commercial rate- These are the rates offered to industries that provide frequent business for
industry.
4. Ad-hoc rate- Ad-hoc rates are the one time rates. They are usually, non-standard rates
displayed on the websites during booking procedure. (Shi , Ji, Zhang and Yang, 2016) These
rates varies a lot due to variations arising in tour planning, sometimes the customers have to
pay more than the ad-hoc rates which results in poor interaction with customers.
5. Allocation- This method is used to assign a certain block of pre-negotiated services for a
specific period. This method is used by mostly larger tour operators for accommodation of
their customers. But, with delay in booking operator has to face loss.
6. Free sale rate- It is also known as sell and report rate, in this method operators simply
reports the sale in due class.
It is essential for tour operators to consider various factor while contracting for
accommodations such as price, quality, safety, etc. Price of accommodation is the key factor
which should be taken in consideration while accommodation contracting. All the factors like
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technical capability, attitude and culture, supporting services, resources and capacity,
management skills, safety, reliability, regulatory mechanism of the accommodation providers
should be checked by the tour operators.( Bruni, Cassia and Magno, 2017) An effective
price set is required. Also, the quality of the accommodation must match the price paid for that
accommodation and also the accommodation needs to have all the safety measures with it.
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information
In order to calculate the selling price of a holiday package, the selected organization is
the 3-star West Cord Art Hotel which is situated on the side of the historic centre of
Amsterdam. Now, depending on the contract between hotel and tour operator, the selling price
of the holiday tour will be calculated by considering the contracting done with the hotel. The
selling price is setted such that, tour operators gain profitability and also, they are attractive to
customers. (Hsu, King, Wang and Buhalis, 2017) The calculation of selling price of a tour
operator with having St. Michelle as hotel partner is done below-
Components Cost for two persons (In Euros)
Travelling expenses for 46 students £10800
Travelling expenses per student £234.78
Accommodation per person £84
Food charges per person £11.50
Guide £1200
Per head contribution for guide £26.08
Total for an individual £382.36
Profit @ 25% £95.59
Selling price £477.95
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Table: Showing the total expenses for holiday package with selling price.
The above table states about the total expenses of per person in food, travelling, guide,
accommodation, etc. are £382.36, now after adding a profit of 25% on these expenses for tour
operator, the selling price of the service to an individual would be £477.95.
TASK 3
3.1 Evaluation of the planning decisions taken for the design of the brochures
Market expansion is the main aim of an industry and in order to attain this, promotions
plays an important role. There are many promotional tools present in the market and one of
them is brochure. (Hardeman, Font and Nawijn, 2017) An effective brochure always attracts
tourists. Thus, all the measures should be taken in consideration while designing a brochure. A
brochure should contain all the details of the industry and of all the services they are providing
to the visitors. In the present context, brochure designing steps for an adventure holiday will
be studied. With the below listed components, brochure can be appealing:
 Pictures of attractions- A good brochure always contains the attractive snapshots of
famous and attractive spots along with some description of that place, Tourists will
find this approach so tempting and they will definitely wish to travel that place. Also,
in case of adventure holidays, electrifying pictures of the adventures should be there to
attract the adventure-lovers. (Robinson, 2016) A complete description of that
adventure should be present there along with the charges. Further, different combo
offers of adventures would be a good option to encourage the visitors.
 Attractive presentation- Brochure should be well designed with effective sorting and
should use attractive colours. Also, a table of contents along with page number will be
a good option to add in brochure. Overall a good presentation is required for a proper
designing of brochure.
 Using colours that enhance the image- the colour selection of the images should be
impressive enough to draw the attraction of people towards it. Background colours that
complement images will be effective. in Also, highlighting of the important figure will
be a good option.
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 Safety measures-In case of adventure holiday package planning, brochure should
involve all the safety measures associated with the adventures. These safety measures
helps tour industry to provide the satisfaction of visitors and thus, proved beneficial to
the industry.
Details which are to be contained in an effective brochure includes-
 Name of the tour and travel agency- The complete details of the tour and travel agency
should be included in brochure.
 Transportation- It includes the mode of transportation used by tour and travel agency
either it is by rail, flight, coach or ferry. Entire details of the transportation mode along
with arrival and departure timings should be there in the brochure.
 Details of the destination- It is the most wanted part in a brochure, details of the place
where visitors are going to. This part should contain attractive pictures of the tourist
spots of the place.
 Duration of tour- In a brochure it is mandatory to contain the curation of the complete
trip to make is convenient for the visitor to plan their trip accordingly.
 Prices- This is the most crucial thing which is to be explained in a brochure. Prices of
every single expenses like transportation, meals, rooms, hotels etc. should be present in
it.
 Facilities- The facilities which are provided by tour and travel agency should be
mentioned to make the brochure mire attractive and satisfy the customers.
 Insurance- Insurance of security to the visitors will attract customers towards them.
 Booked meals- Meal packages for the trip along with the menu, price should be
included in brochure.
 Documentation Required- Further, necessary documents required in the entire travel
should be listed in the booklet to avoid any future inconvenience to the customer.
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3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional printed brochure
With the advancement in technologies, the traditional printed brochures are going
outdated. There are various platforms which are nowadays used in holiday packages by tour
operators that are replacing the traditional promotional source, "printed brochures". Major
replacements of traditional printed brochures are company websites, internet, you-tube, CDs,
etc. These replacements are proved to be more effective as comparison to traditional methods.
The main objective of these replacements are to develop their roots in this digital oriented
world. These methods enable the digital format information to the customers. Further, these
brochures can be accessed anytime in every corner of the world providing a great facility of
accession to the customers. (Lozano, Arbulu and Rey, 2016) These brochures are cost-
effective too. Also, these methods are way cheaper than the printed brochures as they just take
the designing cost, printing costs, cover cost, distribution cost are not there and also, they have
evacuated use of paper resulting to contribution in environment safety policies.
These brochures are effective for travels agents also, they need not to carry heavy
weighted printed brochures along with them which occupies more space, they just need a very
less space for CDs or pen drives. Furthermore, e-brochures are more time-effective source of
promotion along with productive facilities of quick responses. They also have high quality
look to impress customers and they can be modified easily according to the requirements of
tour operator, no further expenses are needed in their modifications. Furthermore, instant
publishing can be done by using e-brochure tool, less time is needed in procedure and
distribution. E-brochures are more flexible and can moulded anytime according to the
requirement of changes. Also, these brochures can cope up with the complex structures of tour
industries, resulting in impelling bring off complexity. Company websites are also significant
mode of promotion, enabling increase in customer figure with fewer expenses. Also, e-mails
with detailed information and contact numbers can also be used for promotion instead of
printed materials. (Gonzale, Valeria, Sacoto and Eduardo, 2016) All these methods are thus
way more advanced and effective in terms of profitability and they are good replacements of
old less-effective methods of promotion. Hence, above were some alternatives to the
traditional “printed brochure” along with their suitability in present context.
Alternatives of traditional printed brochures taken by Thomson holidays are company
websites and e-mails. Suitability of them are as follows-
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 Websites- TUI mainly uses company websites for its promotion. These websites
contain all the details about the company and of trip along with the booking facilities.
It facilitates convenience to the customers and is an easy-to-access procedure.
 E-mails- e-mails to all the members or registered customers of TUI group are sent.
These regular e-mails keeps customers updated with the recent trip schemes, offers,
etc. and attract them.
Recent methods used by Thomas Cook on place of brochures are as follows_
 E-brochures- Thomas COOK briefly TC uploads e-brochures on the internet and their
company websites to enable customers to avail their services. These methods allow
visitors to save this brochure in their storage which helps them in getting entire idea
about the trip.
 Campaigns- Thomas Cook organises timely campaigns to promote their industry and
to draw the attraction of customers towards them.
3.3 Evaluate the suitability of different selling methods of holiday distribution
To generate a link between producer ans consumer, a channel of distribution is
developed. These distributions channel permits the transaction of services between producer
and consumer. (Granville, Mehta and Pike, 2016) There are many distribution channels
present in the tour operator industries which are listed below:
 Online travel agencies- All tour related activities are present on websites by online
travel agencies for developing distribution channels to create link between producers
and consumers.
 Government websites- These are government managed websites that focuses on
destination.
 Direct sale- in this method of selling, the customers and the operators links directly
through online media for selling holiday distribution.
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 Telephonic conversation- in this method the communication takes place on telephone.
By adding a call centre feature in the industry, the sales executive can convey the
information.
 Visitor information centres- Visitor information centres briefly VIC are the centres
which organise accommodation, tour, and transport bookings, these centres are the
place where visitors often go to seek information, thus it is considered to be a very
effective channel of holiday distribution.
 Daily deal websites- This distribution channel involves attractive deals for customers
by providing them with vouchers and coupons, are very effective to complete the
spaces during laggard period. Also, these sites enhances the interest in business.
(What is the role of a tour operator?, 2017)
 Concierge services- With these services, concierge present at hotels will assist the
visitors.
 Email- Through emails, complete information of holiday packages are sent to target
customers enabling distribution of holiday packages.
 Social media- Social media is an effective way to access new customers.
 Agents- Agents are hired to create and maintain link with the customers.
These channels helps in determining the need of resources. Also, they prevent any error to
occur during booking process.
In context to Thomson holiday, a unit of TUI group which is a big name in our and
travel agency, the channels of selling method includes websites and social medial. Their
renowned name is enough to make customers access their websites. They always update their
websites timely and attract customers by prompting offers. Whereas in case of Thomas Cook
agency, various supply agents are their which promotes the services and convince public to
avail their services.
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TASK 4
Covered in Draft Article
CONCLUSION
This study has presented various aspects of travel and tour business. The tour
operations contributes to the economic development of a country by increasing it's GDP. In
this study, evaluation of different methods of decisions and their suitability for tour operators
is done. This study also provide us with the ideal planing of holiday packages. Further, this
assessment helps in determining the calculations of selling price of the holiday packages.
Various means of promotion and distribution are defined in this study. Moreover,
determination of effective method of contracting is present in this assessment. Also,
significance of brochure in promotion of tour operators and evaluation of suitability of present
brochures over traditional printed brochures is done.
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