Tourist Operation Management: Analysing Trends, Planning Holidays, and Strategic Decisions

This assignment delves into the dynamic world of tourist operation management, exploring the impact of current trends on the tour operator industry. It examines the stages involved in developing holiday packages, evaluating different contracting methods and calculating selling prices. The study also analyzes brochure design, distribution strategies, and the strategic and tactical decisions made by tour operators. By exploring these key aspects, this assignment provides a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and challenges faced by tour operators in today's competitive market.

Tourist Operation Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and developments on the tour operators
industry...................................................................................................................................4
LO2............................................................................................................................................6
Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Asses the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays...................................6
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of
the holiday and different types of tour operator.....................................................................7
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information......................................9
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
LO3..........................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Evaluate the planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure................10
3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure for different types of tour
operator.................................................................................................................................11
3.3 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of distribution used to sell a holiday for
different types of tour operator.............................................................................................12
LO4..........................................................................................................................................13
4.1 evaluate the strategic decisions made by different types of tour operator.....................13
4.2 Compare the tactical decisions that could be taken by a selected tour operator in
different situations................................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
This is an assignment on tourist operation management. This assignment will provide quick
insight about the travel and tourism management concept. The first part of the analysis will
try to understand the industry of travel and tourism. In order to do so, the effects of recent and
current trends in the travel industry will be analyzed. The second part of the analysis will try
to understand the stages that are included while creating holiday packages in the Trail-finder
organization. Along with this, the different methods of contracting will also be evaluated in
this part of the analysis. This part of the analysis will also consist of the calculation of the
selling price of a holiday that is provided to a group of 40 students. Various calculations will
be shown.
The third part of the study will evaluate the planning decisions that are taken while
designing a brochure. This study will also carry out an analysis that will tell about the most
appropriate alternative of traditional brochure that can be used by Trail-finders. The various
methods of distribution of brochure will also be analyzed in this part of the study. The last
part of the analysis will evaluate the strategic decisions that different tour operators make.
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LO1
1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and developments on the tour
operators industry.
The operators of tour cover both the travel and tour industry in order to execute holidays. The
tourism industry is drastically growing sue to the increase in product demand and services of
the industry. This industry offer products such as tour packages and services. In retail sector,
the tour industry is increasing its base nowadays. It has started selling its products and
services in the market like any other organization in the retail sector. The growth of tourism
industry has been impacted by emerge of several recent and new trends in the market. Some
of the most important and significant recent trends are discussed below:
1. Business integration: A very significant modern trend in the tourism industry which
has hugely affected the industry is integration of business. The corporate CIO has
been implied with additional roles by it. Among these additional roles, one is taking
additional responsibilities like business process management. The main
responsibilities of the CIOs in the past basically were the processes of IT. But
according to the prediction of various experts, that the increase in technology will
force the domain of the business leaders to handle the information technology instead
of the technology experts (Barratt et al., 2011). One of the most famous and largest
tour management organizations in UK is Trail-finders Ltd. In order to achieve a larger
market base, the organization has integrated itself with several other tour operators in
UK such as Thomas Cook and First Choice.
2. Dynamic packaging: With the passing time, there have been several additions in the
advantages such as smart interface, fast search and better flexible items and natural
products collection. Add-ons as specified by the trip such as airport parking and show
tickets are included in dynamic packaging. Dynamic packaging is used by Travex in
order to attract more and more customers. Travex is basically an online platform for
booking tickets and hotels. The agents and customers are helped by it to store
challenging inventory for travel such as flight, hotel, transfer and other solutions of
travel.
3. Niche Tourism: One of the most important improvement in the in the industry of tour
and travel can be referred to a Niche tourism. Niche tourism helps the industry of
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travel and tourism to compete in this market of increasing competition environment of
cluttered tourism and by differentiating the products of the organization form other
organization’s products (Batabyal&Alao, 2015). The niche tourism rate is hugely
continuous and high. The chances of the risk of misuse of this rise by the providers in
order to make their own risks by the tour providers.
4. Development of technology: The travel and tour industry’s growth has been
increased due to the advancements in technology. All the transactions are executed
with the use of modern technology. Moreover, digitalization has lead to the
increments of tour operation’s quality and reach. The travel industry is also helped by
new and modern technologies in becoming effective in matter of time and cost. With
the help of new and modern technology. The tour operators have become capable of
performing online reservation and bookings. Most of the travel agencies and hotels
have installed high speed hardware and customized programs of software. As a result,
the process of booking has become faster. Nowadays, computer systems are used for
connecting all the branches of the organization, due to which the sharing of data and
files among each other has been enabled (Camprubi et al., 2014). The coordination
between a particular company’s several franchisees has been increased due to the new
technologies and trends.
5. Low-cost industries: Nowadays, several choices are offered by the travel industries
in coach and normal travel of the travellers and tourists. It has become significantly
easy for the travellers to book the travel packages and flights. Travellers are allowed
to travel individually and alone due to this.
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LO2
Introduction
Planning of holidays is a complicated and time-taking process. It basically consists of a
number of stages. The tour provider is required to manage all the products and services that
are required in travel and tourism. They are required of securing the contract with their
suppliers and partners. Normally in order to plan a holiday, a period of 12-18 months is
required before a day of departure. This assignment analyses the various phases that are
involved in holiday planning.
2.1 Asses the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays
The process of holiday selection is very time-taking and difficult. During the preparation of
the holiday packages, a very tough competition is faced by the tour providers from the
international and domestic markets. The following strategies are used by the travel and tour
providers in order to develop packages for holiday:
1. Market research: Market research is the most important phase in development of
holiday package. There is a requirementof considering the conditions of market before
developing the holiday packages. Market research consists of the reports regarding the
target customers, economic conditions of market and rivals in business. A number of
factors such as development in overseas, tourism subsidy, currency exchange rate and
price competition are also consisted in the strategies of market research. Along with
this, the strategies of market research include the research of the product analyzing the
hotels, airlines, market components and the best time for travelling. The system of
consumer research includes the evaluation of factors like life phase, conditions of
market and socio-demographic research. Demand research consists of the report about
the business accessibility of any particular product (Chand &Katou, 2012). Even the
information about the rivals and competitors in terms of its uniqueness, its feature and
the package price.
2. Planning and scheduling: Planning and scheduling in the process in which the
travelling dates, competence, hotel and most significantly, the destination for travel in
decided. Planning and scheduling provides the study for helping the calculation of the
number of tourists that can be incorporated by a package. The information about the
best time for travelling is also provided by this. Planning and scheduling follows the
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policy of 3 A’s that are attractions, accessibilities and amenities (Romero and Tejada,
2011). We can conclude from this analysis that planning and scheduling is basically a
method to compute the customer’s standards of accommodation, the number of
visitors and the fraction size.
3. Contracting: In order to sign a contract with the hotels and airlines, the estimation of
the number of travellers is required to be done by the tour provider prior to the
journey. Contracting is one of the most significant stages in package development this
is because most the rooms are paid for and booked (Robinson, 2011). The tour
operators are required to do the contracting before the vacation dates as because there
are a huge number of travellers who are waiting to visit the same tourist spot.
4. Creating brochures: The brochure help in providing complete package description.
Therefore creating brochures in a very vital task. Different mediums are used for
distributing them to the customers.
5. Advertising operation and execution: This is the process in which the brochures are
endorsed and distributed to the customers.
6. Post tour management: This phase involves the customer feedbacks. These
feedbacks that are provided by the customers during their travel help the organization
to improve the future activity of operations of the organization (He & Wang, 2012).
Therefore it is very crucial to analyse these feedbacks.
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components
of the holiday and different types of tour operator
Contracting is referred to the dealing done to enter an agreement. It is basically a deal done to
fix the value of the products and services. In order to make the holiday successful, different
contracts are required to be made by the travel operator with the organizations of different
sectors such as travel and accommodation.
There are different components of holiday such as transportation, hotels and sightseeing
places that are included in the holiday packages. The tour managers of UK such as Trail-
finders have adopted a number of various methods for contracting. Some of them are:
Fixed contract: A dealing done on the basis of high consumption is referred to as fixed
contracting. Fixed contracting consists of the fixed packages that are offered by the tour
providers that offers fixed priced services for every tourist. When a huge amount of travellers
make huge and bulk consumption, it is effective to have fixed contracting. High offers of
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discount are involved in fixed contracting as because the services or products are consumed
by a large group. In this kind of contract, the rate of booking is fixed by the service providers
based of the customer number or volume that will take the facility. In case of huge amount of
bookings, it is beneficial to used fixed contracting in order to acquire class facilities and
maximum discount at the lowest possible price.
Sale only contract: These contracts are of comparative high price and are very costly. These
kinds of contracts are generally created during the peak season of tourism when there is prior
need to get the facilities and the benefits of these prior needs are taken by the service
providers. The service price is set to a high limit for making huge benefits and generating
extra profit for themselves. In this contract, the prices of the products are way higher than
usual. The main focus of this contract is on the prospective and potential customers
(Deonandan, 2015). However there is a low- response risk in this contract, as the prices of the
products are high and the focus is on a particular segment.
These are the two contracting methods in the holiday components. The service providers
apply these contracting methods during the tours. Fixed contracting is a more suitable method
for contracting. This is a less costly and more reliable method. This method is basically used
for huge number of travellers.
The person who manages and guides the tour and delivers the services and products to the
travellers is known as a tour operator. The tour operators assist the people visiting for
holiday. There are various kinds of tour operators. Some of them are:
Inbound tour operators: The inbound tour operators are basically such operators those
operate in a single nation and provide services and facilities to the tourist in that nation from
the arrival of the tourist till their departure.
Outbound tour operators: These are basically the tour operators which provide their
services and products in their nation as well as some other nations.
Domestic tour operators: These tour operators basically provide services in their home
countries. They are basically a single individual or a group which guide the tourist in the
domestic countries.
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Ground operators: The ground operators are basically those agencies that book the hotels
and destinations from their home place. The booking facilities are provided by the ground
operators in the destination places.
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information
For this part of the analysis, a group of 40 students has been taken in analyses that are to be
taken on a tour for 5 nights. The Grand Casselbergh in Bruges is offering special rate for the
group. They are providing twin room for two adults in 180 Euros. Moreover, a luxury 45-
seater coach is available for 7400 Euros along with two drivers, fuel including all road and
toll taxes with a tour operator. A tour guide for the total duration of the tour takes 920 Euros.
The tour company adds a mark-up of 30% and the exchange rate of Pound to Euro is 1
Pounds per 1.13 Euros.
Sl. No. Item or product Cost Amount
1 Room 40*180/2*5 18000 Euros
2 Bus 7400 Euros
3 Tour Guide 920 Euros
4 Total cost of the tour 26320 Euros
5 Profit margin of the tour operator 30/100*26320 7896 Euros
6 Total sales price in Euros 34216 Euros
7 Total sales price in Pounds 31584*0.88 38881 Pounds
Number of students = 40
Prices of tour per student = 972 Pounds
Conclusion
At the end of this study, it can be concluded that market research is the most important phase
in development of holiday package. There is a requirement of considering the conditions of
market before developing the holiday packages. We have understood from the above analysis
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that it is very necessary for the tour operators to create contracts with the hotel and airlines
industries. We can conclude that the planning process of tourism in time-taking and crucial
process and therefore it must be done 12 to 18 month before the tour date.
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LO3
3.1 Evaluate the planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure
A brochure for the tour is produced for displaying the tour supplier’s desires and views and
understanding the traveller’s demands and preferences. The facts of the packages that are
provided to the customers are completely analysed in the brochure. The tangible goal behind
the creation and distribution of brochures is increasing the brand image of the organization
and planning the products. It also supports the customers to understand the consistency and
strength of the organization. The main motive behind the preparation of brochure is attracts
more clients for ensuring the organization’s existence.
The planning decisions:
Cost: While making a brochure, the first component that is very essential is the cost. This
element is related to all the expenditures that are required for the production and distribution
of the brochures to the public.
Formatting: Formatting is very important component. This is because it helps recognising
the target customers. Formatting segment is essential to recognize the theme on which the
brochure is to be made. It also recognizes the subject on which the brochure is to be made
and the details that are to be involved in it. The cover page of the brochure is also decided by
is this segment. A number of features like the paper quality, font style, photographs and the
brochure size are explored for graphing the format of the brochure.
Budget and target market: The Trail-finders organization is required to recognize the open
market division in which there is requirement of the assigning of the brochures. The
organization is helped by it in recognizing the main customers and purchasers and restricts
the organization from making additional brochure. In order to prepare the brochure, the
budget is required to be explained by the administration and management of the firm.
Consideration of print design: The process of printing is also important in formulating a
brochure. Providing graphics is also important for making the brochure more attractive. The
paper quality of the brochure must be good and there should be photos in the brochure. There
is a requirement of recognising the part of the brochure that requires additional focus and that
is to be highlighted.
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Production steps and timescale: Every process in the production of a brochure is significant
as because the administration of the organization is helped by them in understanding the
goals and aims of the brochure.
3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure for different types of
tour operator
For this particular task, The TUI group and Thomas Cook have been taken in consideration.
The following task will describe the alternatives of using a traditional brochure to promote
and sell the services.
New technologies and online systems have changed various methods and techniques.
Nowadays, information regarding the tours is generally provided by the tour operators on
their websites. Only the modern ways can replace the traditional ways of promoting and
selling the products. E-brochure is an alternative of traditional brochure that is nowadays
used by the Trail-finder organization for attracting huge amount or customers from all
corners of the world (Dodds&Kuehnel, 2010). The use of e-brochure has helped the
organization to improve its communication capability by making it fast and effective.This
availability of new and modern alternatives of brochures has provided a big opportunity for
the Trail-finders organization to attract large number of customers and make higher profits.
The internet has provided the opportunity of using e-brochures to TUI and Thomas
Cook organization for accessing maximum number of customers in the entire world. This
helps the organization in increasing its business and promoting too. In case of Thomas cook
and TUI, it has been seen that the customers are attracted by the e-brochures to their websites
and help them in earning greater profit with low expenditure. The online sites that consists of
the e-brochure has helped the two organizations to access a larger public base with low cost.
These sites help the organizations in attracting them by offering the offer prices of the
products and services. The e-brochure that the organizations are distributing must contain
visual graphics and picture for grabbing the customer’s attention who are visiting the site
(Lee, 2015). The effective visuals are very necessary in a brochure as because they provide
clear understanding of the travel package and offer and hugely impact the customers through
attractive images.
The organizations using e-brochure have a benefit of using those brochures in other
public and social sites grabbing the attention of more future customers. Several video
brochures are used by TUI and Thomas Cook for uploading in different sites like YouTube.
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The visual effects in the e-brochures help the individuals in clearing the image of the
destination in their mind. The different prices and explanation about the destination are
involved in the e-brochures.
Online brochure can be an appropriate alternative for the traditional brochure of the
Trail-finder organization. The marketing department team of Trail-finder organization can
apply the e-brochure facility to enhance the productivity of the organization (Golding, 2011).
The business of the firm can be increased by the adoption of video and visual e-brochures by
the organization. Online technology methods are necessary to be adopted for increasing the
firm’s productivity.
3.3 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of distribution used to sell a holiday for
different types of tour operator
Different tour operators use different methods of distribution of services and selling of tour
and holiday packages. Some of them are direct selling, telephonic selling, online selling and
selling via call centres. These selling processes provide information to the doorsteps of the
customers for increasing the effectiveness and attracting customers with ease. One of the
most popular methods used by different organizations is email marketing in which the
promotion and selling of the services is done via emails. These emails offer the customers
with the complete tour information along with the price involved (Espino et al.,2015). The
brochures and email consist of the complete description of company’s different packages and
schemes.
For the Trail-finder organization, the best method for the selling and distribution of
packages that will be appropriate is telephonic and online selling, as this will help to grab the
attention of the worldwide customers. In order to make maximum profit and create maximum
existence of the business, the best possible method is by taking the business online.
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LO4
4.1 evaluate the strategic decisions made by different types of tour operator
In the industry of travel and tourism, strategic and tactic decisions are very crucial. Therefore
they are required to be formulated in an effective way and implemented efficiently within the
organization. In the Trail-finders organization, strategic decisions are taken in consideration
for the business growth as well as prosperity enhancement. The strategic decisions are of
different types such as purchasing, branding and pricing. There are three main authentic
decisions that are included in the strategic decisions. They are as follows:
Pricing strategy: This strategic decision is taken to determine the package price by
considering the cost of development and designing of the package. In this strategy, the
relevance of discounts is to be taken in consideration by the tour generator before taking the
decision about the holiday package pricing.
Image branding and positioning: Another important strategy followed by the Trail-finder
organization is the strategy of brand image creation.
Choice of services: In this strategic decision, the services that are to be offered are
determined and selected according to the requirements and needs of the customers. In order
to do so, the organization is required to analyse and study the portfolio of the customers
(Gavalas et al., 2015).
Distribution decisions: These strategic decisions work in selecting the method for the
distribution of services, identification of processes of management of the supply chain and
formulating new contracts with different middlemen.
Investment funds: This strategy involves the decision- making of the policies and strategies
for the investment of capital that is available to the tour operators. This strategy helps the
management to understand where the capital is required to be invested and in what amount.
Mode of transportation: This strategy includes the decision making of transportation modes
that should be used for various tour programs depending on the destination. There are several
options for transportation like car, bus, train, plane depending upon the distance and place. If
the destination is far then air travel is most convenient. But for destination which doesn’t
have any airport, air travel is inconvenient.
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4.2 Compare the tactical decisions that could be taken by a selected tour operator in
different situations
The tour operators such as Trail-finder organization take tactical decisions with regards to the
day to day functions and operations for efficient and smooth functioning of their business.
Given below are several tactical decisions that are taken by the Trail-finder organization:
1. Competition: There are various tactical decisions taken by the organization for
overcoming the competition and eliminating the competitors from the market. These
decisions are made for improving the product quality, providing attractive offers to its
customers, gaining competitive advantages in UK’s market.
2. Price wars: These tactical decisions are made for facing the increment in price. It
includes the evaluation of factors that can help to reduce the price of the tour
products. These strategies are made in order to cope up with the huge increment in
prices in the tourism market of UK.
3. Fuel pricing: These strategies are made to cope up with the increased problems of
high price of fuel and oil in the international market. This increase in price of fuel led
to the increment in transportation fare which in turn increases the overall expense of
the travellers (Festa et al., 2013). If the Trail-finder organization doesn’t formulates
the fuel pricing strategies then its tourism business may get affected.
4. Tactical marketing: This strategy takes the decisions regarding the products and
services marketing. This involves monitoring of the effect of different advertising
activities and promotional campaigns that the Trail-finder organization undertakes.
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Conclusion
The above analysis is on tourist operation management. From the analysis we can conclude
that the tourism industry is drastically growing sue to the increase in product demand and
services of the industry. We have understood that the tour provider is required to manage all
the products and services that are required in travel and tourism. They are required of
securing the contract with their suppliers and partners. The study concluded that the strategic
and tactic decisions are very crucial in the industry of travel and tourism. Therefore they are
required to be formulated in an effective way and implemented efficiently within the
organization.
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