Report: Developing Holiday Packages for Trailfinders (Business)

This report delves into the development of holiday packages, focusing on the tour operation industry and the strategies employed by Trailfinders, a UK-based tour operator. The report examines the effects of current and recent trends, such as the increasing importance of technology, globalization, and safety concerns, on the tour operation industry. It outlines the stages and time scales involved in developing holiday packages, using a sample itinerary for India, including cost breakdowns for transportation, accommodation, and sightseeing. The report also explores different methods of contracting, types of tour operators, and brochure design and promotion strategies, including traditional and non-traditional marketing methods. Furthermore, it analyzes strategic and tactical decisions that tour operators, particularly Trailfinders, can make to improve their business performance and attract new customers. The report concludes by providing a comprehensive overview of the key elements of successful holiday package development in the competitive tourism market.

Developing a Holiday Package &
Tour Operation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A. Effect of current and recent trends on tour operation industry..............................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
A. Stages and time scale involved in developing holidays.........................................................2
B. Suitability of different method of contracting and different types of tour operator...............3
C. Cost of the components of package and their selling price....................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
A. Designing & planning of brochure and various methods for promotion of tour operators....5
B. Non traditional method to sell holiday tour packages by different types of tour operator.....6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
A. Strategic decision made by different type of tour operators. ................................................6
B. Tactical decision that could be taken by Trailfinder tour operator........................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
.......................................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
When people want change in their life from mundane routine they explore various
options for entertainment and fun. Holiday package is a collection of transportation and
accommodation which is advertised and sold by tour operators. It is difficult for a person
to plan a trip of a place where they have never been because they do not know about
travelling distance and modes, places to visit, hotels and restaurants etc. These
informations are necessary to get the most out of a tour. Trailfinders is a UK based tour
operator, they mainly have their presence in United kingdom and Ireland but their they
operate across the globe. Their vision is to provide better service than the expectation
of clients. They also focus on keeping healthy relationship with their staff and supplier
because they consider them as an important part of the organisation. Their mission is to
find new places of travelling with better accommodation and transport so new
experiences can be given to their customers (Abrate, Capriello, and Fraquelli, 2011).
This report will focus on developing various types of plans which can attract new as well
as existing customers. Recent trends and plans will also be a part of this file, there are
some strategic decision which is needed to be taken to promote the packages of
company and improve their overall performance.
TASK 1
A. Effect of current and recent trends on tour operation industry.
Market in hospitality and tour operation industry is changing rapidly because of
various issues like more use of technology, entry of new players in industry etc. Most of
the companies in this sector believe that latest technology and invention can give them
some extra edge on their competitors but now a days high-touch is considered more
important than high tech. Globalisation made a huge impact on this industry in a positive
senses. Number of customers are enhancing with an enhancing rate, people in
developing economies like Asia and Africa are travelling more often which is assisting
many companies in expansion of their business. Safety and security is another area
where changes are happening on a continuous basis, travellers are now getting more
aware of the incidents like robbery, kidnapping, etc. so they do not like to visit a place
tour operator do not assure of safe. This became the main reason that many tourist
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locations are loosing their permanent customers and people are going to the destination
which provide high security (Alegre, Cladera and Sard, 2013). Diversity in tour operation
industry is also growing because companies what to find new location for their clients
which are present in different countries and culture. In order to set business in new
destinations they have to appoint new employees from local areas because they
understand the place better than anyone. When workers from different places and
customs join an organisation it made a huge impact on whole industry. Quality of
service is also improving on regular because service user are ready to pay more money
but they want best service available in market. Technology is considered one of the
most important factor which is changing the way of doing business. Many players in this
sector are attracting clients by using new innovations.
TASK 2
A. Stages and time scale involved in developing holidays.
Developing a holiday tour is not an easy task because lot of work is needed to be
done in order to provide effective services to the clients. India is becoming one of the
best palace to visit, specially in Asia. It has high diversity and many locations to visit.
Another advantage of visiting India is that it is very cheap and proper mode of
transportation is available. Following are the activities and places where clients will be
going in this tour.
ITINERARY
DAY 1 (Heritage)
 At 10 a.m. Group will sit in a flight from New Delhi and they will reach Jaipur at 1
p. m.
 Check into the hotel and after having lunch, group will leave to visit heritage
places like Hawa Mahal, City Palace etc.
 At 9 p.m. - Return to hotel
DAY 2 (Wild life)
 6 a.m. - leave for Gir National park
 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Explore wild life
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 2 – 3 p.m. Rest in hotel
 3 – 6 p.m. Visit remaining part of national park
 6 – 9 take rest in hotel and have dinner
 9 – 12 Bone fire with music and games
DAY 3 (Beach)
 7 a.m. - leave for Goa
 10 a.m. - check into a hotel
 10:30 – 11:30 Brunch
 12 – 6 p.m. spend time on beach and taste sea food
 6 – 8 p.m. Take rest and have dinner
 8:30 – 12 take part in local events and explore night life around sea.
Holiday package by Trailfinders will include 3 days and 2night visit to India. It will
cost 3065 GBP, accommodation will be provided in 5 or 7 star hotels and all the
charges of travelling internationally and locally are included in it (Carlisle and et. al.,
2013). Charges of breakfast, lunch and dinner is included in package but any other
demand of food has to be paid by person who order it.
B. Suitability of different method of contracting and different types of tour operator.
Generally people do not want to visit a place which is similar to the location
where they are living. Clients choose their destination according to their need like if
someone want to go on an adventure than he/she would like to do sky diving or scuba
diving. Some travellers like to travel in spiritual places than they would prefer location in
Sri Lanka, Vatican city etc. Inbound, outbound, ground and domestic are some types of
tour operators. Inbound tour operators deals with foreign tourists, they provide services
of transportation, accommodation, sightseeing etc. They make packages on their own
level but sometime they may collaborate with foreign tour operator. Outbound tour
operators specialize in making packages for foreign country. They make plan for
individuals as well as for group of customers of domestic country so they can visit
destinations which are out of the country. This package is made for multiple days and
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for different locations. Domestic tour operators operate with in a country, international
locations are considered as a high profit generation places but this type of tour
operators generally do not make plan for foreign countries (Falzon, 2012). Ground
operators provide land arrangements at a particular location. They do not make any
packages, their main focus is on giving services to the operators who do not have local
contacts. They with hoteliers, car rentals and so forth. Their are various types of
packages like on board, in board, etc. In these types of packages a customer have to
buy something, sometime transportation is not covered in plan that client is purchase so
they have to arrange without any assistance from tour development manager.
C. Cost of the components of package and their selling price.
Following are components of a package and their cost:
Transport – It is one of the main element in a tour package, total charges of
various modes of transportation include fights, trains, buses, and taxis, will cost around
1200 GBP (Swarbrooke and Page, 2012). Flights cost the most because total charges
of travelling by air will be around 600 GBP in peak time. Buses and taxis are cheap as
local mode of transport in India is affordable. Quality services can be provided in very
low rate.
Accommodation – The hotel in which travellers are going to stay are either 5
star or 7 star. Around 1000 GBP will be the total cost of booking room and meals for
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hotel in Jaipur are know for their royal service and variety
of spicy foods, on the other hand Resorts in Goa are popular for their sea foods and
bars.
Sightseeing – Prices of tickets to visit historical and cultural places will cost
around 500 pounds. Most of the money will be spend on visiting various historical
location, Fees of entry in natural park is also expensive.
Itineraries – It plays an important role in helping the customers at the time of
time of decision making. They can select appropriate plan according to their need.
 Pace : It means how fast or slow itinerary moves (Filimonau and et. al., 2013).
This trip moves quickly as clients will be visiting three different states and
location in only three days. Short tour always cost less compared to a long
trip, this is mainly reason that cost of this package will is not too high.
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 Routing : Route of the trip is very interesting and entertaining so people do not
get bore at the time of travelling.
Selling price of the package will 3065 GBP which is negotiable, company has to do
different type of promotion in order to enhance the sale and attract more and new
clients. This promotional cost is also included in this price because it can not be shown
in package. The last rate at which this package can be sole will be 2950 pounds.
TASK 3
A. Designing & planning of brochure and various methods for promotion of tour
operators.
In old time printed brochure were used as a tool of marketing in tourism sector
because of its intangible nature, this is the main reason that package tour development
manager can not give them a demo like in electronics or vehicle industry. But in recent
decades technology has completely changed the way in which promotion s were done
(Goodall and Ashworth, 2013). Now Trailfinders is using social media and television
advertisement and other marketing tools which help in convincing more potential
customers in very short period of time. The process of making a brochure starts by
doing research about the places which buyers are going to visit. Quality of the material
by which brochure is made is selected because it makes first impression in mind of the
potential customer. Planning of front cover is important because it play a huge role in
selling the brochure, attractive pictures and logos help in distribution of more brochures.
These are some of the important elements process of designing a brochure:
 Identification of market and product.
 Designing of mock up by taking help of computer
 Selecting professional photographs of destinations, services that company is
going to offer, hotels etc.
 Brochure layout is made by using desktop publishing system.
Now a days organisation are making mobile applications for promotion and booking of
plans (Page, 2014). Leaflets and various pamphlets are also available on apps and
most of the companies are doing major promotion by online marketing.
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B. Non traditional method to sell holiday tour packages by different types of tour
operator.
Non traditional ways outdated methods of promoting tour packages. Innovation
and technology has change the style of doing business and sales is considered as one
of the main function of the organisation (Guo, and He, 2012). In case of outbound tour
operators, they can adopt television advertisement because it has reach in foreign
countries and in various part of a country. Cost of this type of method is bit high
compared to others but it is the only tool for promotion of holiday package at such a
large extent. Advertising on radio is another non traditional methods which was very
popular, a significant number of people did not have television in old time because they
can not afford it but radio was a cheap source of entertain and information. This will be
a proper tool of promotion to the inbound tour operators. For domestic tour operators,
newspaper will be best option because they main target is local residents of a country.
They don not put lot of energy in convincing foreign clients. Newspaper is considered
one of the best tool for promoting and selling a holiday package.
TASK 4
A. Strategic decision made by different type of tour operators.
In recent trends customers are looking for personalized travel experiences.
People are ready to pay more money but they want best service that is available in
industry (Jaafar and Maideen, 2012). Their was a time when people like to spend
holidays with their families but young generation with disposable income is changing the
trend. Either they visit with their friends or they like to go alone at different places which
are completely unknown to them. Their is a massive enhancement in number of
travellers who are now going on adventure trips, they want to get surprising and exciting
experience. Number of female solo traveller in UK is also increasing, they travel for
months on order to explore various places.
People firmly believe that trends are set by younger generation, in a search it
was found that their was a significant number of youth who want to travel in their whole
life. Some were ready to go on a tour for more than a year. They want to explore
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different culture that exist in UK, taste variety of food and share their pictures on social
networking sites (Jacobse and Munar, 2012). Photography played significant role in
growth of this sector, professional photographers travel for a long time at various places
and take mesmerising photos which convince more people to visit that destination.
Business and leisure travel is also increasing which provide great assistance in
maintaining high growth in this industry.
Outbound tours operators get decent benefit from recent trends because they have
started to make plans for new location like Asia, Africa. Large number of tourist from UK
want to visit unexplored places in China and India (KhairatP0 and Maher, 2012). They
made new connection and contacts in these places so quality services can be provided
to the clients. Inbound tours operators is earning lot of money because of recent trends
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because travellers from different countries are visiting UK to visit popular destination like
London eye, The Eden project, Durhum castle etc. Tour operators are finding various
spot so professional photographers can take mesmerising pictures of that destination.
They are using technology in booking of tickets by going on website or through
application (Kozak and Martin, 2012). Most of the payments are done by mobile and
promotion is also done on social media. Tour operators are changing according to the
development in trends which is the main reason that tourism sector is going with a high
rate. Domestic operators did not get much benefit but still there is gradual growth in
their business. They did not earn like outbound and inbound tour operators but they are
earning is constant and impressive.
B. Tactical decision that could be taken by Trailfinder tour operator.
People often get confuse between tactical decision and strategic decision, earlier
one is related to middle level management and later one is taken by top level
management. Strategic decisions are related to forecasting demand, building corporate
plans, promoting brand, making different type of commercial relationship etc. On the
other hand tactical decisions deals with day to day operations like fluctuation in
exchange rate, price of fuels, regulatory framework etc. Difference between tactical and
strategic decision:
Strategic decision Tactical decision
 Its purpose is to find clear goals
which assist an organisation in
achieving set objectives and
manage resources efficiently.
 This type of decision are
responsible for overall performance
of an organisation.
 It is for long duration and changes
infrequently.
 Experience, research and analytical
thinking is used to to make a
 Its purpose is to exploit specific
resources so small targets can be
achieved in order to reach defined
mission.
 Accountable for specific resources
which are allotted to accomplish a
task.
 These are short term target, they
are flexible in specific condition.
 Best practice, plans and teams are
used for tactical decision.
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strategic decision.
Trailfinder tour operator can take some small decision in order to provide quality service
to their clients (Manente, Minghetti and Mingotto, 2012). They can find new locations in
various location so customer can visit new destination and make different kind of
memories. They can use different kind of vehicles which are made by innovative
technology is order to reduce cost and maximise profit of the organisation. They should
focus on specific segment instead of trying to capture whole market because it will
assist in providing a sound base to the company (Rosselló and Riera, 2012). After
sometime they can think about entering into new segments. Prices of the packages
offered by Trailfinder should changes according to demand and supply so they can take
advantage of peak season as well as off season. Technology can be used in managing
crisis which arises on daily basis. This will help organisation in focusing on individual
clients which is necessary in retain a customer for a long period of time. They can start
discount offers in favourable time of business so more travellers can be convince to opt
Trailfinder as their tour operator. They should focus on finding new hotels and travel
agents so overall cost of operation can be decreased by a significant amount.
CONCLUSION
From the above it can be concluded that recent trends are in favour of tourism
and hospitality industry because profit of most of the tour operators is enhancing at a
high rate and they are expanding their business rapidly. Technology played a crucial
role in achieving this type of success because it reduces cost of operation which
ultimately help in increase profit of many organisation. Their are various methods of
promoting a package made by tour operator, some are traditional other are non
traditional. Proper marketing of plans is necessary to convinces new clients because
they are not aware of new and popular destinations. Tactical decision play an important
role in efficient use of available resources so overall effectiveness of company can be
improved on continues basis. In emerging trend, organisation has to take various
decision in a very short period of time so different kind of problems relating to travellers
can be minimised.
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