Audley Travel's Resort Operations Management: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of resort operations management, focusing on Audley Travel, a UK-based tour operator. The report begins with an introduction to Audley Travel, its services, and its global presence. Task 1 evaluates the functions of resort activities, examining the roles of travel executives, coordination between tour operators and resorts, and legal considerations. It also explores the structure of resort offices for various tour operators, including full resort, self-catering, bed and breakfast, half-board, and full-board options. Task 2 investigates the influence of effective quality systems and operations on legal and conflict situations, emphasizing health and safety standards, monitoring, and accident management. Finally, Task 3 addresses incident management, analyzing processes for handling incidents, and outlining procedures aligned with trade association guidelines and government bodies. The report highlights the importance of customer satisfaction, quality control, and legal compliance in the travel and tourism industry.

Resort Operations
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Evaluation of the functions of resort activities................................................................2
1.2 Structure of the resort offices of various kinds of tour
operators................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Influence of effective quality systems and operations on legal
and conflict situations............................................................................................................4
2.2 Result of Implementation of the quality systems and procedures....................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Incidents that affect the functions of a resort...................................................................6
3.2 Analyse the processes which is to be implemented by a tour operator to handle incidents..7
3.3 Procedures to be implemented by a tour operator link with guidelines of trade associations
and government bodies...........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Audley Travel is a tailor tour operator based in the UK and was founded in 1996 under
the name of Asian Journeys. They help their clients in planning their tour to 80 destinations
worldwide. They give their services to clients hailing from United Kingdom and United States.
They operate two offices in UK i.e., London and Witney, Oxfordshire. It has set up their
business in US with opening new office in 2014 at Boston (Neck and Manz, 2010). It was
already a well know organisation in UK but with the expansion it has also set his footprints in
USA with generating over 10 percent of its total revenue.
They are known for giving quality services to customers. With specialization in almost
250 countries, people blindly rely on them. This all because of their customer service and the
unique experience provided by them. Following are the some of the holidays provided by them:
 Wildlife & Safari holidays
 Luxury holidays
 Self-drive holidays
 Family holidays
 Outdoor activity holidays
It has received various awards and recognition from different organisations. Audley
Travel was voted Best Luxury Tour operator in the Times and Sunday Times Travel Awards
2016. In the Telegraph Travel Awards 2015-16 it was voted with as best Tour operator (Keller,
Parameswaran and Jacob, 2011).
Mainly different travel and hospitality companies are showing their interest in buying
Audley Travel because right from its debut they had been successful in satisfying their
customers. They take care of their clients and try to do almost everything which can make them
happy.
It gives some services which make it different from travel operators. Audley Travel
Group gives their clients the option of travel insurance and financial aid to the people who was to
travel. It has tie up with big hotels, resorts, clubs, restaurants and etc. and maintain a good
relation with them. Its due to their management and coordination which is helping them to
increasing their profits every year.
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TASK 1
1.1 Evaluation of the functions of resort activities.
Audley travel offers various types of activities to their clients who are on holidays and
vacations. In Indian Ocean and Caribbean islands they has tie up with major resorts like Park
Street, Cape Weligama, Cinnamon Lodge in Sri Lanka and Spice Island beach resort, Bay
Garden Beach resort in Caribbean island. The travel & tourism executive has different roles and
responsibilities which they have take care of because customer totally depend upon them. They
handle customers & suppliers and look for legal activities (Newsome, Moore and Dowling,
2012). Tour operation manager will try to develop contract with the suppliers & customers of the
resort, to develop payment system, to make reservations and to market the tour operation among
the different consumer segments. Almost all the services are offered by tour operation managers
and transportation could be provided from one destination to another. They can take feedback
from the visitors and through this they can know whether customer are satisfied or not. Customer
satisfaction can be achieved from consumer survey. What kind of room will be suitable for the
client can be found out through knowing their demands and requirements.
Clients comes from all over the world and they expect world class facilities. Each visitor
will have a knowledge of their mother language, so the tourism executive should be expert in
two or three languages. This will reduce the communication gap and they will better understand
their demands. The tour operators sets a coordination between the resort and the customer.
Audley tour manager will book the hotel for the customer by knowing the date from him and
availability in the resort on that day (O'Fallon and Rutherford, 2011). They are offered with food,
beverages, specific room setting and any preference by the consumer. To make sure that the
clients gets satisfied Audley tour manager have to build a coordination with the resorts.
Laws related to data protection, profit margin, service provision, health and safety at
work, different kinds of contracts are some of them. The resort owners will provide a written
document about the safety process which are used in the resort. For example; how much ready
the resort is for a disaster. Staff working in the resort should ensure their safety and security.
They should be trained by the owners, so that they can handle any emergency situation because
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resorts mentioned here are out of the city or town. Medical facilities might not be available there
so they should have a doctor and medical kit.
Resort supervisor should research and inspect different departments and identify prone
areas where accident can occur. Health & safety of the clients and as well as of the staff should
be given top priority (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). Effective measures and models
should be adopted by the resorts so that they can avoid any critical situation. There should be a
contract between the employees and the resorts which defines the terms and conditions of
employment. Tour operators at Audley set a formal contract with the resort managers when
holidays are planned for a tourist. They also make travellers aware about the currency rates &
local laws, so that they should prepare themselves according to them.
1.2 Structure of the resort offices of various kinds of tour
operators.
Resorts are the accomodation places and has image of delivering different activties at the
same time. Different structure of the resort involves full resort, full board, half board, bed &
breakfast and self catering. The inclusive resorts will combine all the amount of pickup from the
airport, any taxes imposed by the government, accomodation and food (Egan, 2013). Self
catering involves offering of the villas or appartments to the travellers and all the catering needs
will be fulfiled by them only. This is one of the best way to reduce the costs because they only
have to pay for the accomodation and the rest serving & facilties will be arranged by them only.
Visitors who belives in privacy better prefer this type of structure. Basically people who are on
honeymoon demands for such accomodation or structure. Almost all facilities are available in
such structure from spa to pools etc.
Bed and breakfast kind of arrangement include staying cost and breakfast with them. In
this they will include the accommodation cost with the morning food. Half board structure in the
resort is one of the most preferred resort operation because the main things are covered in them.
It include breakfast, dinner with staying (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts, 2015). All the costs of
these are charged by the resorts of Indian ocean and Caribbean islands. People going for the
vacation will like to have all these things at a single place and different resorts gives the option to
the tourists that they can go for breakfast & dinner option with accommodation. Half board can
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also include lunch in place of breakfast and dinner. When talking about the full board
arrangement, resorts charge for everything and gives all kind of services. The three meals i.e.,
breakfast, lunch and dinner are covered in this. The charges of meals and accommodation will be
included. What kind of structure will be better for the tourists depends upon their demands and
mood (Kubota and Shimano, 2010). Audley tour operator collects information from their clients
which consists of their requirement and purpose of travel. On the basis of that they design travel
plan and packages which suits their requirements.
Everyone wants to get best services and desire for all the things which they mentioned. It
is the duty of tour operator to make sure that all their wishes are fulfilled in the budget. While
staying in the resort the manager should take care that their guests don't feel bore. For this they
can include or start some of the fun and entertainment activities. As Jamaica and Sri Lanka are
two places which are situated near the sea various lots of beaches are there (Marina Pickering
and Buckley, 2010). They can take advantage of this by introducing sports activities like beach
volleyball, wave surfing, diving and etc. are some of them. This will help them in gaining
competitive advantage because their clients are getting more than what they have desired for.
TASK 2
2.1 Influence of effective quality systems and operations on legal
and conflict situations.
Audley Travel is an organisation who has always tried to set new benchmarks in the travel and
tourism sector. They have a positive image and clients blindly believes on them and the reason
behind this is their effective quality system. Audley has been expert in resort operations from
years because they have tie up with various resorts all over the world (ICKERING, Castley and
Burtt, 2010). They understand the importance of execution of effective quality system in resort
activities so they are capable in applying quality process. It is also using this for resolving any
conflicts and legal issues coming in the way of resort operations. For effective quality system
they can exercise various activities like health & safety, monitoring & inspecting, legal
responsibilities, handling with irregularities, contractual obligations and effective services. These
things can be followed in order to avoid any critical or crucial legal implication on them. Any
operations taking place in the resorts follows health & safety standards and the owners of them
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observe every thing to maintain that standard. The codes of safety which was made by them
should be taken in account and ensures that fire safety, pool safety, food hygiene safety and
balcony safety. They believes in training their staff on regular basis, they are made aware about
the ethics & working style of the resort.
To make sure that they attain excellence in health & safety department, regular audits are
done. The role of inspecting and checking the prone areas is given to the manager and this is
given to him because he is well aware about the organisational structure and services (Gill and
Williams, 2011). The raw materials purchased from the suppliers have to undergo inspection and
checking is done before it is served to the customer as the finished food item. Resort make sure
that they deliver hygienic and healthy meals to their guests. Through consumer protection laws
Audley can defend and protect their clients if resort has not served what they promised to them.
Accident monitoring process can be considered and adopted to make sure that there is
proper investigation of the accident. Quality teams made the Audley observe and handles any
situation. Through inspecting all the resorts they have tied up on regular basis will give them
insight that whether these places are safe for the tourists or not. On the other hand resorts in Sri
Lanka and Jamaica should maintain a record of the accidents which has occurred. Such thing will
better help them in knowing what all areas has to made safe (Sparks, Perkins and Buckley,
2013). Accident monitoring process can be considered and adopted to make sure that there is
proper investigation of the accident. Quality teams made the Audley observe and handles any
situation. Through inspecting all the resorts they have tied up on regular basis will give them
insight that whether these places are safe for the tourists or not.
Laws like Unfair contract term act 1997 and hotel proprietor act 1956 prevents hotels and
resorts from delivering quality services. Audley gives their employees all the responsibilities to
take actions during the time of emergency. Frequently, they changes the position of their
employees to prevent any conflicts at the workplace.
2.2 Result of Implementation of the quality systems and procedures.
Audley Travel has taken several effective steps and implemented effective quality system
& procedure to their tie up resorts in Sri Lanka and Jamaica. It has resulted into more number of
customer satisfaction and increased number of clients. There has been a good impact on the
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resorts and more visitor are coming as compared to previous years. Now they are making more
frequent communication with the tour operators, more emphasis could be given on the health and
safety at the resorts. This has been listed in the top priority, so the resort managers are given the
opportunity to take care of the implementation of the health & safety legislation in the resort.
The task of inspecting is given to chairman of the resorts which highlights its importance in the
firm.
Now, they are auditing and inspecting on the regular interval and ensuring health and
safety legislation. Whatever incidents are occurring in the resort has to be addressed by the
process of documentation (Nunkoo, Gursoy and Ramkissoon, 2013). It is the prime duty of the
resort manager to make statics of the incidents, so that he could include into a presentation. The
presentation prepared are further given to the higher officials. They are now become more aware
and follows the guidelines so that such things does not happen again. If they feel that certain
department needs changes and modification they can put that demand in-front of the higher
body.
They have understood that health & safety regulations and legal factors are some of the
things through which they can built a better relation with Audley Travel. It has to show their
liabilities against the goods of the visitors this has brought more guests in this season. The
employees who are part of their business are trained in a manner that they have become flexible
in handling any kind of situation (Coghlan, 2012). Staff has started realize their importance and
delivering better services. In the training process they are trained with the techniques which they
can use when any disaster occurs. In the emergency situation their duty does not ends but they
guides the tourist who are unknown to the area. Unfair contract act with travellers are avoided so
as to safeguard from adverse legal implications.
TASK 3
3.1 Incidents that affect the functions of a resort.
Incidents are the uneven tragedies or disasters which occurs and affects the environment
and its components. In a business environment any incident can lead to a great crisis. These
incidents may affect the resort surrounding such natural incidents, medical incidents, political
problems and accommodation & transportation problem (Pickering, 2011). Resorts taken in this
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scenario are situated near Indian Ocean and Caribbean Islands. So they are prone to various
Cyclones, Tsunami and any other natural disaster. Natural incidents has more influence than any
other and it affects the surrounding area of the resort and visitors experience also. When talking
about the medical incidents can lead to epidemic and guests might suffer from deadly diseases
like malaria, food poisoning, cholera and etc. are some of them (Tan, 2012). Outdated vehicles,
crashes, hijacks comes in transport incidents and this can happen when the driver is not have
much knowledge or there is outdated technologies in the plan.
Political and terrorism related incident are inversely proportional to each other and hit
tourism badly. Many countries has faced this issue for example; Shangrila Resort of Pakistan
was once the favourite destination for travellers all around the world. But as the terrorist groups
like Taliban and Al- Quada spread their footprints in that area tourism industry went so low. If
their has been tension with two countries than things will become more worse (Havel, 2012). If
Sri Lanka and UK will have bitter relation with each other than tourist from Britain will avoid
going to that country. This need to be changed so a friendly relation with all the countries is
necessary if they want to increase tourism. The crime rate of Jamaica is high so resorts here will
be affected.
3.2 Analyse the processes which is to be implemented by a tour operator to handle incidents.
Audley Travel which comes in UK's top travel companies try to give world class
experience to their client, so its their duty to handle any crisis as much as possible. They should
be prepared for any incident and should be ready with the plans in advance. It ensures that all
their drivers who is given the duty for escorting the guests are well trained in driving and should
have a knowledge of machines. Whatever crisis comes may bring a great loss to the resorts and
its surroundings. For that they should maintain a coordination with the local people who will
help them in any disaster. Various teams can be build by them who are assigned different roles
which they have to play during emergency (Palmer and Mathel, 2010). Incident management
team, joint operational incident, HR team and the site response team should maintain a
communication with each other. Resorts might not able to perform their operations during crisis
time so they should be regular contact with the government agencies like fire fighting teams,
police agencies and medical team. These will give their services during the disaster time.
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Health and safety are the priority of any organisation, but situations might go out of control
during the time of incident because they have never predicted it nor they have pre-planned any
strategies. Resorts should make a separate department which will be dealing with disaster
strategies. Sri Lanka is situated near Indian ocean and most of the resorts are also there. In 2004,
Tsunami hits him badly and destroyed various resorts and hotels near the sea coast. Although it
is hard to deal with the natural calamities but preventive methods can be adopted to reduce their
impacts. They should be well connected with the Metrological department of Sri Lanka and
regularly look at uneven movement in the ocean (Beyazıt and Koc, 2010). If the agency warns
them then its their duty to look after the safety of their guests and employees. Both can be send
to a safe place and no other admission should be there in the resort. They should give guidelines
to the people about various preventive methods they can adopt to save themselves.
Political and Terrorism activities can be taken care if the movements of suspects are
observed. Resorts in Jamaica should have security guides and when the tourists visits the local
villages or surrounding they should be escorted with security personnel who will take care of
them. Visitors should be given guidelines about the local laws and rituals so that they can take
care of them and this will not lead them to any trouble.
Medical related incidents can bring lose to lives, so the food served in the resorts should
be properly checked and should be passed only if it is hygienic. Medical team should be
available 24*7 to treat any guest when he is suffering from any kind of disease.
3.3 Procedures to be implemented by a tour operator link with guidelines of trade associations
and government bodies.
Whatever procedures are executed by the tour operators should match the guidelines of
the trade unions and other government bodies. Government has issues whereas notices which
should be kept in mind by traveller and the resort, so that any further incidents can be avoided. In
the case of emergency like fire, cyclones and Tsunamis government has issued helpline numbers
for every people (Chi, Lisic and Pevzner, 2011). Before travelling any country the travellers
should visit their embassy and find about the background of that country. All the things like what
political relation that nation holds with his country. Is the nation is facing any crisis or epidemic
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diseases. There are international agencies like Red Cross and UNICEF which can be contacted
during incidents. They can help them in making contacting with their families and friends living
in UK (Konu, Laukkanen and Komppula, 2011). The resorts who has been hit with the incident
will be provided with the financial support from the local government so that it could stand on
his feet again and run its business. Association of British Travel Agent(ABTA) prepares the
guidelines and try to make communication with the affected and try to airlift their citizens.
CONCLUSION
All report is the analysis of the resort management activities which are adopted by
various organisations. Through the example of Audley Travel which has its tie up with lots of
resorts in Sri Lanka and Jamaica they are able to deliver quality services. Different functions and
structure of the resorts are evaluated here. Through effective service quality how they they can
gain competitive advantage. Service quality system ensures that they maintain healthy and safety
at the resort. Proper examination of the laws and legislation should be done to avoid further
conflicts. In the last task it has been analysed that how incidents can impact the resorts and what
they can do to reduce the impact of those.
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REFERENCES
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