Tour Operations Management

TOUR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Operating a tour is the imperative task in a tourism industry. The tour operators are
those business organisations that merge tour destinations and tourism together in a
package. This package comprises of accommodation, sight-seeing, travelling,
camping etc. These are designed by keeping in mind the choice of places that the
tourist wants to visit. There are four most important types of tour operator which
are mentioned below :
Inbound Tour Operator – These are those operators who manage directly inbound
foreign tourists, and render them various services on their arrival and departure
such as accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, entertainment, currency, etc.
These tour operators develop tour packages individually or in collaboration with
foreign tour operators. Inbound tour operators are the image builders of a country
as they convert all touristic resources of a nation into a saleable commodity.
Outbound Tour Operator - These operators conduct tours for an individual or a
group of peoples of their own country. They provide those packages that emphasize
upon sending the people of native country to foreign destinations They form
collaboration from a central point where the tour starts and contracts with
inbound/ground tour operators of other countries to give information about the
different aspects of the foreign countries that an individual or group of tourists are
visiting, like accommodation, travelling, transport services etc. They act as the
mediator between the operators of the foreign country and the tourists.
Domestic Tour Operator - Domestic tour operators operate within the boundary of
home country and provide the various needs of individual and group travellers.
They promote tour packages both through their own outlets and other retail travel
agents. These tour operators work within the national boundaries of a country.
Leading tour operators usually focus on the global market where rates are higher
and in UK, USA, Japan, India and China, many tour operators are specialized in
domestic holiday packages.
Specialist tour Operator – Specialist are the tour operators that create a tour
package for the customers on the basis of their choice of transportation, locations,
food, facilities, sight-seeing and accommodation features. They offer a wide range
of packages especially focussing upon the untouched travelling destinations. They
are also known as tailor-made operators because of the option of customisation that
they offer to the tourists. These operators design a package, keeping in mind the
special features of some dream locations and the customer choice
Trailfinders Ltd is a specialist tour operator having a customer centred approach.
This approach allows them to gain a competitive advantage as they have the option
of customising the holiday packages as per the preferences of the customers.