Travel and Tourism Tour Operations Management: A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide delves into the dynamic world of tour operations management, exploring recent trends, package development, marketing strategies, and competitive analysis. It examines the stages involved in creating successful holiday packages, including market research, itinerary planning, contracting, and cost calculation. The guide also analyzes the effectiveness of traditional and non-traditional methods of communication and promotion, highlighting the importance of adapting to the evolving needs of the modern traveler. Through case studies and practical examples, it provides valuable insights into the strategic and tactical decisions that tour operators must make to thrive in a competitive market.

Travel and Tourism Tour Operations Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO 1: Task 1....................................................................................................................................4
LO2: Task 2.....................................................................................................................................6
So the total amount that will be spent will be 645,800 British Pound. This amount equals to
27,769,400 Thai Baht......................................................................................................................9
LO 3: Task 3....................................................................................................................................9
LO 4: Task 4..................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Reference.......................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
The travel and tourism sector is becoming one of the biggest operational sectors in the world
since its advent after the world war two. The reason of the fast growth and steady benefit of this
sector can be both the market and the latest trends of touring around the world or the
international destinations among the people, or it can also be the growing bonds between the
counties which is enabling the tourists the safety and also the security to travel to international
destinations. The growing GDP of the first world countries have made them to be the largest
contributors to the international travel sector.
The projects deals with the evaluation of the latest trends in the sector and the impact of the
trends on the organization by assessing the practices. The trends are analyzed with emphasis and
also the scenario in United Kingdom so that the practical situation can be brought forward.
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LO 1: Task 1
A.Examine the recent trends and developments in the tour operations industry with a brief
analysis of the type of holidays taken, the emerging popular destination and the effects of
current and recent trends and developments on the tour operators industry. (P1.1)
The tourism industry has grown a lot in the last few years. From touring the country, the world is
now making plans for touring to different nations and even different continents. The
advancement of technology has brought the world to literally a palm of an individual. This is
making the people explore the places they hear or see on the television sets or the mobile
screens. The upgraded income rate of the individuals is enabling them to take such decisions and
also the upgraded transport system is helping them to travel through the world in a really sort
time. The people around the world have developed certain trends in their travel in the last few
years. The following is the discussion on the most important of those (Burkhard, S. 2018).
 Adventure Trips:
Adventure is probably one of the most important motivation in the trips that being arranged
nowadays. The dwellers of the cities are tired of the daily monotonous routines and they want to
experience the thrills in their lives. This is also motivating a lot of the travelers around the world.
The jungle safari in the African grasslands, the safari of the amazon jungle, the experience of
diving into the sea with the sharks in Mexico and also in the coasts of Australia and also the
mountain trekking in the Swiss Alps or other mountains around the world are becoming
important destinations. The tourism industries are also packaging for plans who won’t to go
these tours.
 The millennials:
The millennials are the group of individuals who were born between the 1880 and the 2000. This
group has now outnumbered the baby Boomer generation in the population. These people are the
most advance group of people in the given scenario as they are well versed in the language of
technology and also have the highest income rate in the present world. This makes them the most
profitable client o the tourism industry. This group of people has the knack for the uncanny.
They do the research of different tourist destination and the packages online and choose the best
option available to them.This is making the operator to make internet based promotions in the
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social platforms so that they can attract the crowd effectively. Almost every place around the
world, that has something special to it, is the probable destination of this group of clients.
 Female solo travels:
The women in the past were subjected to the decision makings of their male counterparts. But
ever since the empowerment of the women have taken the front seat, the decision making
abilities of the women have surpassed the men. This is making the women to take independent
travel dictions where they are traveling alone without any fear. Thee travelers are also generally
the travelers of the wilderness and the adventure destinations. A research has shown that 72% of
the American women have taken solo travels in the year 2014.
 Food Tourism:
The urge to taste the food from different places have always driven the mankind for a long time.
But in the present world, instead of trying them out in different restaurants, people are trying to
go to the spot of the origin to have the authentic taste of the food. The tour operators have
already identified this and they have started to include the food experience in their packages. The
destinations are more exotic in these kinds of travels (Marianiet al., 2014). If the tourist prefers
spicy and continental food, it can be south Asian countries. It can also be the Mexican or pan
American countries for some travelers.
 Grey Tourism:
The Baby Boomers of the past century are presently in the age group that exceeds the 50s and the
60s. The people in this age group are the main participants of this kind of travel trends. They
tourists travel to laces which are good for healing their physical psychological wounds and also
help them replenish their souls in the process. The destinations in these travels are generally the
calm and the scenic beauty of the destinations the travel agencies choose. The packages are also
being made keeping the needs of the old people in mind.
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LO2: Task 2
A. Assess the stages and timescales in developing holiday packages and prepare an
itinerary for a combined heritage, wildlife and beach holiday and develop a package in
stages.
Ideally, a holiday should be planned by the operator at least twelve months before the actual
commencement of it. Planning a holiday for the customers and the clients to buy is a hectic
things to do. The operator must keep certain important things in mind so that the package can be
interesting and the clients get attracted to it. The facilities must also be of supreme quality for the
satisfaction of the clients and the operator must also keep the financial side of the deal in mind so
that the client feels uneasy in spending a big budget in course of travelling. Keeping thee things
in mind, the planning of the tour can be divided in certain stages (Schuckertet l., 2015).
1. Market Research: the market research depends on the following steps and the efficiency of
the operator.
Economic research: The operator must keep the economic stability of both the countries in
mind while planning an international trip. This will give the operator a clear idea about the
estimated cost that the client and the company would have to bear. The rate of the exchange f
currency should also be kept in mind. Another ting to be considered by the operator while
planning the trip is that the tourist must get the value for the money they spend.
Demand research: The operator must make holiday packages for the target customers and their
choice of the holidays. If this is done properly, the packages will be able to satisfy most of the
clients.
Consumer Research: The operator must have a proper idea of the demographic segmentation of
the target market. This way the priority of the tourist will be clear to the individual and the
process and the priorities while packaging the tour will be easy.
Competitor Research: The awareness about the plans and the packages being introduced by the
competitors in also one of the most important things to consider while doing the research.
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Product Research: The operator must have a clear idea about the products that the suppliers are
going to provide to the travelers and the knowledge will also help the operator to manage the
trip.
2. Planning the trip and also scheduling it:
A complete plan of the trip must be provided to the clients doing selling the packages to the
companies. The operator should plan the time period that the trip will take and also complete
planning must be done about the transport and the accommodation of the tourist so that they feel
at home during the tour.
3. Contracting:
In case of both the fixed and the ad-hoc contracts, the operator should make the contracts and the
agreements at least twelve months before the travel. The suppliers and the transport should be
booked for the travel and this way the clarity is maintained in the working culture with the
clients and the suppliers. The exact number of rooms or beds, the number of seats should always
be in the contract.
4. Financial Consideration:
To have a clear idea of the amount of the money that t=is being spent on the tour and the amount
of money that the operator is getting from the client will decide the amount that the company
will make (Bonifaceet al., 2016). The operator must always keep a close check on the money
that the tourist has to spend and also that the tourist gets the value for the money. Otherwise the
tourists will not be satisfied.
5. Promotion:
The promotion of the organization whenever they make something new is very important. The
brochure must have all the details of the trip so that the customer can understand the minute
details of the trip. The social media platform and the web platforms are the best ways to advertise
the projects and packages they have planned.
The operator in Expedia.com, has arranged a trip to the island of Phuket which has the beauty of
the rainforest combined with the calmness of the sea beaches. The city of Phuket is also a very
old city to visit. The action plan for the tour operator is given below.
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Activity Week 1-3 Week 4-6 Week 7-9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12
Market assessment
Planning the trip
Contracting
Cost calculation
Promotion
B. Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting the various components of
the holiday for different types of tour operators when developing holidays. (P2.1; P2.2)
While planning the tour, the operator must engage himself in making successful contracts with
the suppliers. The different contracts and their methods are discussed below.
Fixed Contracts: the fixed contracts include the exact number of beds, the exact number of the
travel seats and other details that are necessary for the planning of the trip. This can be divided
into two parts.
Room allocation:
 Fixed dates of the trip
 Fixed number of the rooms to be needed
 Booking of the same so that they are available during that time.
Air-plane ticket
 Confirmed seat booking
 Return extra seats to the airlines 2 months prior to the trip.
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Ad-hoc Contract:
The special tourists who ask for tailor made tours for themselves are subjects to the ad-hoc
contracts (Battour, and Ismail, 2016). The agency or the operator can charge more due to the
facilities asked for by the client.
C. Carryout the cost of the components of the package and calculate the selling price of
your holidays (P2.3)
The learner is an operator in the company named Expedia.com. He/she has arranged for a trip to
Phuket. The total amount of 42 tourists are going to Phuket where they will stay for 5 days and 4
nights. The expenses for the trip has been given with important denominations. All the expenses
are in the currency of Thailand named Thai Baht (THB). The currency exchange rate is 1 THB=
0.023 GBP or 1 British Pound= 43.36 THB
Activity Expense
(GBP)
Number of tourists Number of days Total
Flight tickets 3000 42 5 630000
Accommodation 90 42 5 1800
Local transport 50 42 5 10500
Guide 700 5 3500
So the total amount that will be spent will be 645,800 British Pound. This amount equals to
27,769,400 Thai Baht.
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Scotland summer tour
Things to do:
Edinburgh Castle
Loch Ness
Ben Nevis
Urquhart Castle
Arthur’s Seat
LO 3: Task 3
A. Design and plan a brochure and evaluate the process and planning decisions for the
proposed brochure, as well as assess the suitability of alternative methods (nontraditional)
of communication and promotion for different types of tour operator. (P3.1; P3.2)
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In the above brochure, several techniques have been utilized in order to attract viewers. The
major technique is excessive use of images and low use of textual contents. In this brochure, the
tourism destinations of Scotland are highlighted in order to increase awareness among the
consumers.
A brochure is a particular kind of a publication that includes all the packages arranged by the
tourist organization so that the clients can read one brochure and understand the facilities
provided by the agency (Corrêa, 2016). This way the employees will be relieved of the extra
work of making the clients understand the best things about their package. There are multiple
new ideas about making brochures in the present day world. The new age brochures are
CD-ROM: one of the most important inventions of modern day is the CD-ROMs. The CD-
ROMs can be spread with the help f the agents and the newspapers. The CD-ROMs can also
have pictures of t destination and pictures of the destination. This makes the clients attracted
towards the offers of the agency (Brito and Pratas, 2015).
E-brochure: one of the most trending thing about the internet that the user can come to know
about different things on both the internet and the social media. Since the target audience are the
millennials, the approach should be to attract the younger generation to travel. The organizations
can make use of the internet platforms as the means of spreading their brochures (Anon, 2018).
Magazines and the newspapers: even with the resurgence of all the new technology, the
newspaper still remains to be one of the most authentic mediums of advertisement. So the
newspaper can be used as another alternative of the brochures.
B. Analyze and evaluate the non-traditional methods of distribution that can be used to
sell holiday packages for different types of tour operator (P3.3)
The brochures which are created must be distributed in order to be advertised in a proper
manner. The non-traditional methods of distribution are distributions through travel agents,
through telephones, internet and text messages (Xianget al., 2015).
Travel Agents: the companies have understood the need of identifying the clients who are
interested but do not have the time or the will to approach the agency of the operator to plan a
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trip. The agencies are therefore hiring skilled employees who go to meet the interested
individuals to sell them the holiday packages.
Telephonic Conversations: the call centers also approach the individuals to know if someone is
willing to go on a trip. Although this process is not so successful, but still the companies are
willing to carry on with this as this also brings in a few clients (Amin, 2014).
Internet: internet is the easiest way of these all. Whenever the company understands that
someone is interested in a trip, they send the brochures through email. And the brochure reaches
the individual without any harassments.
Teletext: the brochures are also being sent as cellular messages to the individuals whom the
company wants to deal with.
These are the methods of the modern day distribution and the evaluation of their effects on the
tourism industry.
LO 4: Task 4
A. Using the findings from task 1 in assignment 1, analyse the emerging trends in the UK
tour operations sector and evaluate how the various tour operators (competitors)
responded to these trends (P4.1).
UK is one of the foremost countries in the world as it is mentioned in the first task, the citizens
of the first world countries are the biggest investors in the travel agencies in the last decade
(Mauya, 2015). The country have a steady growth in its economy and has a good standard of
living. Two of the biggest travel agencies in the country are Expedia.com and Thomas Cook.
One of the most important trends of the present day world is the resurgence of the internet in the
organizational structure. Therefore Expedia.com has taken a giant leap and has used the internet
platform to go viral in the social media and every other possible web platform to use it to their
advantage. The company also promotes and offers various adventurous packages for the people
who want to go on active vacations in the wildernesses (Trinkūnienė et al., 2017).
Thomas Cook on the other hand uses the strategy of grey tourism and offers exclusive products
for the old and the ill people who want to travel around the world. They also use penetrative
ricing on their products so that the competition can be averted (Lester and Scarles, 2016).
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B. Briefly examine the differences between tactical and strategic decisions, identify and
compare some of the tactical decisions that could have taken by your chosen tour operator
in different situations
To understand the very basic difference between the two terminologies, one can think that,
strategic decisions is doing the right thing and as opposed to that, tactical steps men, doing the
things in a right way.
Strategic decisions are based on the clairvoyance of the leaders of the company. The managers
take the strategical decisions to choose the goals and the way the company would operate in the
future. But on the other hand, the strategic changes deal with the changes that needs to be done
in the exact hour.
Strategic decisions are taken for long term objectives. Whereas the tactical changes are brought
in order to achieve some immediate goals.
Strategic changes are the long lasting and future plans of the company but the tactical changes
are the small changes that the leaders have to take in order to bring that strategic change into
effect.
In a situation of high competition expedia.com uses an intelligent pricing strategy that enables
them to offer packages in a very low cost and they are able to keep a firm hold over their
customer base. The competitive pricing can be used in a way to attract the clients and to hold on
to the old ones by providing them with exciting offers (Surana and Anadon, 2015).
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Conclusion
The most important thing that can be learnt through his project is the understanding of the
growing market of the tourism industry and the planning the tourism companies are going
through in order to stay ahead of the market and the competition and hold on to the customer
base. This way they can make use of the customer base to grow around the world. The project
also sheds enough light on the present culture of UK and the growing trends of international
tourism in the country that has led to the growth of the companies such as Expedia.com where
the student works.
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