Tour Operator Business Analysis

This assignment delves into the world of tour operators in the Netherlands. It examines various types of tour operators, explores their pricing strategies, and analyzes popular tourist destinations such as the Rijksmuseum, Keukenhof Gardens, and Efteling theme park. The case study focuses on a specific tour package with a selling price of €18076.25, providing a practical understanding of the tourism business landscape in the Netherlands.

Tour Operations
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Evaluate the effect of recent and current development and trend on tour operators
organisation............................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Different stages and time-scale for the development of the holiday plans.......................2
2.2 Analyse the sustainability of different ways or making contract for the different factors of
the holiday plan with the different type of tour operator........................................................4
2.3 Calculation of selling price of the holiday package.........................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Appraising planning decision for designing brochure......................................................6
3.2 Analysing the suitableness of alternative choice to a traditional brochure and suggesting
most appropriate brochure......................................................................................................6
3.3 Measuring the suitability of different method of distribution used to sell holiday for
various type of tour operators ................................................................................................7
4.1 Strategic decision made by different type of tour operator..............................................7
4.2 Tactical decision in different situation.............................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
There is increase in the tour and travel industry with that therethere is enhanced in
different operations in that industry, this is the result of increasing competition. The industry
have brought innovative techniques which help to gain customer satisfaction. The mind set of the
people is changing day by day and this is the reason there is drastic change in tour and travel
industry. The report includes different types of tour operations which are engaged in different
activities. It also includes the plan of holiday tour where the total cost and selling price have
been calculated.
TASK 1
1.1 Evaluate the effect of recent and current development and trend on tour operators
organisation.
Tour operators are the people or group of people who combines travel and tour
components in order to create a package of holiday. They produce and advertise different
brochures in order to promote their itineraries, holidays and products. The common example is
these people's products are transfer from airport to the hotel. There are different types of tour
operators that are available in the environmental which includes inbound, outbound, domestic
sell, domestic and specialist tour operators (Bor, 2017). Outbound tour operators are the one who
travel from one country to other, in simple words it is said that when the resident of the country
visit to other countries for the purpose tour and travel. Inbound is when international people visit
the resident country, it helps the country to earn more income. Domestic tour operators is, when
the citizen of the country visit the different designation in their own country's territory and these
people travel for the purpose of tourism (Deichmann, 2017). Specialist tour operators who
provide some holiday package for some special visit like wildlife specialist, safaris, designation
and family specialist, walking and cycling holidays, activity holidays, Canyoning holiday etc.
Current trend and development in tour and travel industry are as follows:
Developed technology: The tourism industry have been developed by the development
of different technologies. All the transaction weather to book the ticket of bus, flight etc. book
the room etc. are made through internet so it has increased the business of tourist people (Jin,
and Sparks, 2017).
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Customised products: This industry is serving customised products and services to the
consumer which are according to the needs and wants of the clients such as holiday packages.
This strategy have more adoptive by the customers as well as it is easy accessible.
Management education institute: The industry are growing because there are many and
efficient institutes which teach tourism management so organisation is finding educated and
efficient employees which help them to gain large customer segment and profitability
(Kallarackal, 2017).
It is very big challenge for the tour operators to define the typical tourism and travel and
hospitality organisation because it has several sub sectors such as services, attractions,
facilitation, accommodation and each of them consist of different groups (Dileep and Mathew,
2017). There are very large type of tour and travel organisations which is influenced by the
different trends towards globalisation of the tour and travel business such as the Star and One-
world which are affected by several issues such as economical, social, political and technological
factors. Generally these factors effect the national and local level. These components are not
subject to variations such as political factors which have created consumer laws. This industry is
generally dependent on the highly volatile demand environmental. Such as people like to travel
more in the holidays as compare to the week days, so the demand is high at the time of holidays.
The tourism industry is the service based organisation and it is very difficult for them to manage
and operate as compare to the industry which is in the production field (Grant and Trautrims,
2017).
TASK 2
2.1 Different stages and time-scale for the development of the holiday plans
There are several stages that are involved in the holiday development, the phases are as
follows:
Research of the project: This is the phase, where the tour operator have to choose
different method to do the research about the destination where the holiday tour is made. There
are several factors that is need to be considered while choosing the destination that are social,
cultural, environmental, social, political and technological. It is very crucial to find the different
suppliers which provides the services for the holiday tour (Kotiloglu and et.al., 2017).
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Tour and Travel plan: It is the stage where the tour operator gather the information and
knowledge at the initial stage. These includes different attraction, visitor points, accommodation,
and different services like food, toiletries etc. such as Las Vegas have lots of choices to explore
different places, so the tour operators have the freedom to choose the different offerings in the
holiday package.
Cost and negotiation: The travel operator need to negotiate with the different suppliers
so that they can arrive at the mutual agreement at the time of competitive prices. The operation
makes the price in order to gain large profit and then make the effective price for the clients
(Lingeberzins, 2017).
Pricing: Pricing is the process where the tour operator finalise the price and that prive is
being offered to the customers. They usually select the markup price where they put some
margin on the cost in order to earn profit and serve customer value. It is very important for tour
operator to consider different factors such as governmental regulation, competitive prices etc. in
order to select the best price.
Human resource management: Some tour require large man power and some require
less and that is according to the different types of events and tours. The people involve are tour
guide, management team etc. Tour operator new to hire more people at the time of season when
they are making the holiday plan (Long and Shi, 2017).
Marketing Mix decision: The next stage is to identify the target market for serving their
products and services. They need to focus on the selling the products and services in order to
generate revenue for their venture
Brochures: It is document which contain all the details about the tour such as price for
accommodation, food, tour guide etc. These brochures should be communicated to the target
market through the different distribution channel in order to create awareness about their holiday
plan.
Operations and implementation: After making blueprint and planning the holiday plan,
it is very significant to implement that plan in the successful manner (Bor, 2017).
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Evaluation and analysis: After serving different products and services of the holiday
plan, the tour operator need to take feedback from the customer to identify where they are
lacking behind and what are the products and services are most preferred by the customers.
2.2 Analyse the sustainability of different ways or making contract for the different factors of the
holiday plan with the different type of tour operator.
In the competitive environment, it is very difficult to outsource some department of the
organisation, in order to focus on the core operations. It is good option to create direct contract
with the airlines with that it is very important to negotiate with the travel agents (Deichmann,
2017). The option which is cost efficient and effective, should be adopted by the tour operator.
The people who entering into this business, at the initial level they should make effective
contract with the travel agencies in order to make effective relationship with them. They should
make contact with those agencies which serve advantage of future booking and bulk booking
(Dileep and Mathew, 2017). They should also make contract with the other parties such as
ground staff, local transport vendors, money exchangers, banks, restaurant, insurance companies,
sightseeing vendors etc. The contract also fluctuates when the activities performed by the
outsiders changes. There are four types of tour operators, that are as follows:
Illustration 1: Types of tour operators
(Source: Tour operators and their types, 2016)
Inbound tour operators: These type of operators directly serve products and services to
the visitors which cover from the arrival to the departure. They provide proper travel,
accommodation, entertainment, insurance services, information support and currency exchange.
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Domestic tour operators: They are the group of different players in travel industry,
contact with each other in the domestic market in order to gain the potential local market. They
provide services to the local tourist.
Outbound tour operators: They are specialised in making the different tour packages
for the people who are coming from the international counties. They promote and develop
special tour holiday packages as well as take care of the different credentials for the people who
are going for the international tours (Grant and Trautrims, 2017).
Ground operators: They take care for the different arrangements in order to support the
travel organisation such as sightseeing, accommodation, travelling etc.
2.3 Calculation of selling price of the holiday package
The tour operator need to consider the different cost involved in it which includes,
prevailing exchange rates, client discount, financial risk, future fluctuation, package etc. other
risk may includes change in the price of airline payment and supplier payment so that they can
make the safe price for the package (Jin, and Sparks, 2017). After considering these factors, the
selling price will be
Price per student
Factors Price
Accommodation and hotel services 1932
Bed and breakfast 529
Transportation 10800
Fees and tour agent 1200
Total 14461
commission 3615
price 18076.25
 Twin rooms which is shared by 2 people cover 1932 euros
 For single person/night bed and breakfast services it charges 10 euros.
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 Luxury coach of 50 seater is booked at price of £10800 (Kallarackal, 2017)
 Local guide will charge £1200
 The selling price will be £18076.25
 After applying the exchange rate, the total cost after exchanging it will be 16630.15
TASK 3
3.1 Appraising planning decision for designing brochure
Brochure plays vital role in enhancing the brand image of organisation. It indicates the
quality and type of services provided by company. The designs and the content of brochure
defines the potential of services that could be provided by tour operators, possibility of
generating revenue, etc. The design of brochure has direct impact on company's product in the
market and influence the decision of consumer. So it is important for tour operator to design
attractive brochures to attract more numbers of customer (Bor, 2017). Tours operators can
conduct planning and framing policies for developing attractive brochures in order to build
positive image of enterprise product and services. It can be considered as effective marketing
tool for promoting of products and services in tourism industry as it covers detail information
about organisation products and services. Sometimes brochure may not contain complete
information about the services provided by travel industry but it contains complete detail about
specific services such as detailed information about holidays packages offered by tourism
company, brochure cover general data related to package offered by organisation that is easily
understandable by customer. The main objective of the objective of brochure is to make
customer aware about the various services offered by tour operators. This brochure assist travel
industry to attract and encourage travellers to purchase various packages of organisation
(Deichmann, 2017).
It has been analysed that It as a tool of marketing is more effective as compared to other
marketing activities. It has more influence on customer specially in case of holiday packages as
using this as a tool tour operator can elaborate each benefit that customer can avail using
particular package (Dileep and Mathew, 2017). The brochure has following content such as
name of the company, details about travel destination, travel tome accommodation, price etc.
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Netherland
Tour plan
7
Keukenhof
Efteling
Rijksmuseum
Selling Price
of the tour is
18076.25
About Netherland
It is informally known as holly
land which is diversely
populated in the Western
Europe. They have various
attraction such as Rijksmuseum
which is the finest art museum
in the world which is packing
worked by the local heroes.

3.2 Analysing the suitableness of alternative choice to a traditional brochure and suggesting most
appropriate brochure
Traditionally there were various method of marketing such as direct selling, door to door
marketing for promoting and selling the product.
Sales promotion schemes, traditional brochures were used by tour and travelling
organisation for promoting their holiday packages. But with passage of time these techniques has
become less effective. Analysing this the tour operator has decided to frame to adopt new
approach of marketing. The tour and travel industry has framed the strategy to adopt modern
technique of marketing. Modern techniques of marketing include use of internet. The tour and
travel organisation has experienced that this technique has very effective (Grant and Trautrims,
2017). Due to this the firm focus has shifted to use of modern techniques of marketing as an
alternative to traditional technique. Various modern method of marketing are as follows:
Audio-visual brochure-This brochure contain detail information about holiday packages
in both audio and video form. The tour and travel industry has used video clips in order to
promote their holidays packages and to attract customers. This modern brochure is more
attractive as well as interactive as compared to traditional one. This brochure provides virtual
experience to travellers. Audio video brochure are suitable for promoting holidays packages on
social media.
Online brochures-The tour operator are making effective use of technology to promote
their various packages. The online marketing platform mare providing them opportunity to
increase their sales and generate revenue. Online brochure is one of the effective way that can be
used by tourism industry in order to promot their packages and services. This online brochure is
effective as it aids firm in reducing cost and assist firm in target wide range of geographical area.
This method enables organisation to target large number of customers (Jin, and Sparks, 2017).
3.3 Measuring the suitability of different method of distribution used to sell holiday for various
type of tour operators
The various methods are used by different tour operator to circulate their brochure to
ultimate customers. The distribution method used for circulating brochure differs according to
the strategy adopt by tour and travel organisation (Kallarackal, 2017).
Some of tour operator hire outsiders for circulating and distributing brochure. Other tour
operators and their manager believes in direct selling. The other methods such as internet, call
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centres, text media, social sites, telephone calls can be used for circulating brochures. Many
other tour operator distribute their brochures to others travel agent, operators and travel agents.
Many of the travel industry frame strategy to directly sell brochure to customers as their
objective behind this strategy is to reach customer and develop understanding among them as
well as gaining their loyalty (Kotiloglu and et.al., 2017).
TASK 4
4.1 Strategic decision made by different type of tour operator
To excel in unpredictable market condition its necessary for a tour operator to be on his
toes, he need to be very fast and active in taking any strategic decision for the growth of its
business. Travel and tourism is a sector which keep changing and demand new strategies every
second to tackle this changes. The surcharge policies, pricing strategies, positioning and
image/branding choice of product in relation to customer portfolio, investment funded by
capitalisation e.g. cruise ships and aircraft. These are the strategies taken by tour operator at
different level in order to gain competitive advantage. They also have to make strategies based
on day to day operation, it includes the job of selecting right supplier. The relationship of
supplier and company depends upon the quality and type of services this suppliers render. In
addition to it the price demand by suppliers play major role in creating tour margin by operator.
As they also include incurred expense spend to meet the demand of supplier. The other part
where the constant need of new strategies and planning require is for the branding activity of
company (Avlonitis and Hsuan, 2017).
These activities include planning of service brochures,in addition to this they are also
responsible for constituting holiday package while keeping the demand and need of the
consumer. For example they can introduce attractive brochures which are easy to read and
provide enticing packages. The company are known for there attractive brochures and array of
packages which attract customer, Its operator job to maintain the brand name while also
including new reforms and offer. The distribution of these brochures is also the job of operator,
they are responsible to come up with strategies which can help company to target there potential
market, and reach appropriate traveller. Having proper promotion activity is also crucial for
operating of tour business. It acts as main medium to reach there customer, the main medium is
not attractive enough to catch there attention, than the remaining whole process is wasted (Grant
and Trautrims, 2017). Based on competition scenario in market and keeping in the mind the
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position of company this operator come up with new marketing strategies such as price
competitiveness which help them to stand in this dynamic market (Types of tour operators,
2016).
4.2 Tactical decision in different situation.
The traveller across the world has increased with the emergence of middle class
population in eastern economies and rise of there disposable income level. With this company
try to introduce different changes and reform in there offers, giving no. of choices to people
introducing different trends in market. This change brought more power to consumer giving
them chance to bargain and negotiate leaving the tour operator with few advantages. The tour
operator because of this dynamic change realize that they need to make tactical strategy to
survive in this dynamic market and also able to make some profit (Deichmann, 2017).
The operator have to act according the situation, his every strategy should meet the
demand at hand. The operator has to choose the best option from the available choices but
sometime these options prove to be unceasing. To surpass everyone in competition its necessary
for operator to take right step and decision. Demand of market keep changing depending upon
the present situation for example Company need to change the price of there packages according
the condition of market. There many factors which impact the decision making process. But the
best tactical decision are made on the basis of situation. Holiday package pricing is e.g. of
tactical decision. The holiday package which include value added services are also a tactical
decision taken by operator to attract more customer as it provide added benefit compare to
normal available package.
These tactics are very useful to work at smaller level. But at global level where they
accumulated thousands of customer travelling all over the world, it may need more effective
strategies. Further more they also have to maintained there margins as the customer from
different countries brought different currency in consideration as the fluctuation of currency can
have drastic impact on price. The cost of packages depend on this fluctuating currency. Price
competitiveness is another factor which operator have to keep in mind before making any
decision, the operator have to adjust the prices of offer package based on the competition it faces
(Bor, 2017). Choice of accommodation partner, transport partner are also included in tactical
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decision. The decision making skill of operator is responsible for the services, quality and image
of company.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the project report that there are different services that need to be
provided by the tour operators have enhanced several opportunities in the tour and travel
industry. They have stared to use new techniques and technologies such as promotion at web,
online booking etc. have help them to attract large number of consumer. With the help of
outsider tour operator, the tour and travel organisation have come up with the different holiday
packages which serve benefits to the company as well as to the customers.
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REFERENCES
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Szpilko, D., 2017. Tourism Supply Chain–Overview of Selected Literature. Procedia
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Tsui, A. S. and Chen, X. P., 2017. Building a Company with Teamwork and Co-operation,
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tourism-industry>[Accessed on 19th September 2017]
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