Analysis of Tour Operation Management for Trailfinders Ltd Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of tour operation management, specifically focusing on the operations of Trailfinders Ltd. It begins with an introduction to tour operation management, its significance, and the role of trade bodies and various types of tour operators, including inbound, outbound, and domestic operators. The report then delves into the impact of current trends, such as technological advancements and environmental awareness, on the industry. Task 2 assesses the phases and time periods involved in enhancing vacation experiences, using an educational tour from London to Belgium as a case study, covering marketing research, planning, scheduling, forecasting, and contracting. It also explores various contracting tools for different components of vacations, like hotels, airlines, and scheduled services. Furthermore, the report computes the marketing costs associated with leisure packages and explores strategic and tactical decision-making processes within tour operations, comparing different approaches. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and insights from the analysis of Trailfinders Ltd's operations.

Tour Operation management

Table of Contents
Tour Operation management ..........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Impact of present and latest trends and improvement in tour operators industry............1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Assess the phase and time period engaged in enhancing vacation...................................3
2.2 Various tools of contracting for several components of vacations..................................4
2.3 Compute marketing cost of a leisure................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Planning decision taken for designing respective brochure.............................................6
3.2 Alternatives to traditional brochure for various tour operators........................................7
3.3 Tools of distributing holiday packages for various types of tour managers.....................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Strategic decision of various tour operators.....................................................................9
4.2 Comparison between tactical judgement which considered by selected tour operator in
various situations..................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Management of tour operations is described as activity that manages all the activities
associated with tour and travel. This help people in preparing holiday packages . After all, every
travel experience comes for first time and therefore, there is need of tour operator who manages
everything throughout a trip. Due to the growth of tourism sector is growing the requirement for
tour operation management is also increasing as it generates the high revenue in the marketplace.
Tour operation management companies are putting their efforts to provide planning and
implementation of certain plan according to the needs and expectations of different clients. These
companies came in inception to assist the trip with a phenomenal experience. The report covers
all of the operations that are performed by Trailfinders Ltd. It include recent trends, stages,
different methods of contract, methods for distribution of sales and decision making strategies as
well as tactics and so on. These all are aspects that are the core part of Trailfinders Ltd. will be
assessed in order to make a unforgettable trip of their clients (Aremu, 2013).
TASK 1
1.1 Impact of present and latest trends and improvement in tour operators industry
Tour operator
The company which take care all of the responsibilities of holidays and vacations of the
people who hire them to do so, and Trailfinders Ltd is performing the same operations in its field
regarding various activities and functions. They are those person who are conduct holiday
packages for the people. It manages the reservations to travel and accommodation plan.
Role of trade bodies
The major trade bodies in United Kingdom directs the regulations for the companies
which are The Travelling Affiliation (ABTA), Association of Independent Tour Operators
(AITO), Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), UK inbound, and the UK Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA).
EU Package Travel Directive
There are some laws and rules which are defined by the government of European Union
and that comes in EU Package Travel Directive, introduced in the year 1990 through package
travel regulations (PTR) (). The PTR and PTD (package travel directives) are responsible to
introduce the rules and regulations between two parties that is the seller and organizer. The rules
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cover trade bodies to secure the customers and the companies in various aspects. The
Trailfinders Ltd should take the approval with considerations of all these aspects.
Various tour operators
Here are several kinds of journey managers such as -
Inbound tour operators – The inbound or incoming operators arranges a trip for the
foreign tourists while visiting their country, eventually they host them when travellers come to
visit in their country. Inbound operators not only assist the visitors to provide the various
services from their arrival to departure rather they taking entire responsibilities to
transportations, accommodation, entertainment, sightseeing, insurance service, currency
exchange, etc. Trailfinders Ltd can also increase the revenue of hosting country while dealing
with foreign tourists (Chan and Tay 2016).
Outbound tour operators – As the name indicates outbound operators, they are
specialised in promoting and creating international tours. The operators can offers a holiday
package to a single person or a group of people within the nation to other countries within a
specific period of time. These operators contract with inbound operators for the transportation,
accommodation, local sightseeing and various services through the trip. The outbound operators
manages the documentation for travelling like visa and other work.
Domestic tour operator – Domestic tour operator manages everything within the
boundaries of the country itself. It aid to promote eco – tourism, beauty, culture and sightseeing
along with the monuments for the residents of the country. Trailfinders Ltd can offer these kind
of packages to the citizens according to their budget and interest ().
Recent trades and development
There are some certain things which effects on the recent trades and development of the
industry. It also impact on the Trailfinders Ltd as it is part of the fertility.
Technological aspects – In the past decades, the customers have to visit to the place for
the reservation or to collect the information about the packages but the internet and mobile app
made it so convenient for everyone. Now, the people can get the information by justI finger
touch and even can book their tickets online. Trailfinders Ltd offers various kinds of packages
and other services with the entire information and this would reduce the hassle to visit to the
outlet and customer relationship management.
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Environment awareness - Trailfinders Ltd can manage the trip of the customers
according to the environment of the destination. The environment can be the climate that can be
hazardous for the clients in the bed weather so its the tour operator responsibility to make them
understand if there is any kind of difficult as per the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) directives.
TASK 2
2.1 Assess the phase and time period engaged in enhancing vacation
According to the acknowledged scenario study, the Trailfinders is creating a indulgence
coach and learning journey for the grownup educatee from London to the United Kingdom to
Brussels and Brugge, Belgium (Changbo and Jingjing, 2011). This plan can be proposed for the
summer vacation in August 2019 for a group of 42 students. This tour would be organized for
five nights and that' why the Grand Casselbergh in Bruges proposed the rates for student visit as
an approximate price. The Trailfinders is developing an effective educational tour package that
can be fruitful and beneficial with some stages that are given below -
Marketing research – The first and foremost step of to develop a holiday package plan
is marketing research in order to identify the needs and requirements of the students and their
preferences. The Trailfinders Ltd. can conduct a market research through internet about the
market trends and attractions of the destinations to know that conditions, accommodation
facilities, major attractions and culture and events that are beneficial for the educational tour.
They would ensure the safety and security of the students that can affect the students along with
the various charges that needs to spend on local transportation and other costs. To accomplish a
deep market research it can take almost take twenty days with analysing the overall aspects.
Planning and scheduling – After conducting a market research the next step is planning
and scheduling the package with the views of clients and according to their needs. Planning can
be define as to prepare a package according to the demands and requirements of the students like
what are the essential requirements of students and their priorities. After knowing all the
requirements scheduling assists to organize the plan in an efficient manner with specific time slot
s. Because this is only five night tour so it is necessary to make a schedule for so that students
can visit to the place within a settled time. There are some place which can be scheduled
according to the seasons to captures the memories of place (Hong-mei, 2012).
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Forecasting – The forecasting refers to organize holiday plan according to the weather of
the particular destination where students would like to go. For an instance, a group of 45 students
are planning to visit Belgium then its up to tour managers to schedule according to the climate
situation because the safety measure should be maintain for the students. After knowing all the
circumstances the plan for a trip can be made with respect to the effective measures of safety
(Jiang, Liu and Hu, 2011).
Contracting – The Trailfinders Ltd can associate with other business through contract
that would help them to provide extensive services to the tourist group that can fulfil their needs.
A tour operator management company tries to contract with other vendors who are working in
local area so like cab facilities, restaurant, hotels and lodges so that they all can gain the benefits
of the bond. When the company establishes all the facilities to make the customers satisfied and
give a successful holiday package.
2.2 Various tools of contracting for several components of vacations
There are contrasting requirements and demand of every traveller so the tour
management companies offers respective packages that deals in adventure trips, educational trips
and marine trips, sports trip and so on. The Trailfinders Ltd. would like to offer an educational
trip as given in the case study and therefore, the firm needs to contract with local service
providers, airways, transportations, hotels, restaurants, etc. The contracting services can be
associate with various components that are given below -
Contract with the hotels – The manager should contract with the hotels in the local area
so that the group of students can stay there with luxury and all the facilities. The tour operators
deals with two types of contracts in which one of that is floating and other is fixed. In floating
contracts, the number of beds are reserved by the operators every week and pay the hotel against
the number of usage of beds. Whereas in determinate agreements, the operators books the fixed
beds throughout an year and pay a fix sum of money to the hotel as mentioned in the contract.
These contracted number of beds can be increased and decreased according to the demand and
season on the arrival of the guests ().
Contracting with air brokers – The Trailfinders can be contact with few airlines for
certain number of seats which can be used as for the customers at the time of sale of packages.
They can reserve the seats during the cheap rates that is most beneficial for the customers and the
firm to maintain a long relationship. In any case, flight would be cancelled then its operators
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responsibilities to arrange another flight or return the money to the clients so that they can they
can book the tickets for other flight. If the flight would get delayed then the passengers are taken
care by the FTO ().
Scheduled services – The operator can contract with some scheduled service that are
time bound. The manager can book restaurant when the students will arrive at the airport then the
manager can take to the restaurant where they already booked the space for a particular time
period. So that they can manage the schedule as per plan and similar to that the cab services are
can also be scheduled so that the tourist can reach to the place and leave the place on fixed time.
Ad hoc – The ad hoc contracts can be flexible in arranging the resources for the packages
to book the facilities that are priorities of the trip. These facilities can be those activities that are
essential to be carried out on hourly or daily basis. The Trailfinders needed to manage the
financial resource services and the information can be get through the e-mails and other
messaging techniques.
2.3 Compute marketing cost of a leisure
There are different tour operators who offers various prices in packages and they are
liable to determine the appropriate price so to give there best to the potential users. The selling
price of the package can be determine according to the per cost and total expenditure on the trip.
The Trailfinders can predict the package the cost for the students according to the proposed rates
of Grand Casselbergh in Bruges for 45 students with 96 Euros per individual for the twin room
( in that two adult students are in sharing) along with the breakfast. The luxury coach costs for
£11200 as that is 48 seater including the two drivers, two managers, fuel and ferry taxes. The
local tourist guide would cost for £945. The company managers adds the thirty three percent of
marking and transaction price of £1.12. As per the given given information, the calculation of
selling price can be done as below with effectual initiation of accumulation and then they can
deliver their foremost to the customer who are planning for trip (Liu and Tsaur, 2014).
Cost of tour package £
Per person 92
Cost of luxury sear per passenger 163.3333333333
Charges of Visitors attraction 46.43
Cost of local tour guide 910.56
Total cost of tour package per £1,212.32
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person
(+) Mark up of 25% £303.08
Selling price of tour package £1,515.40
Note: the exchange rate form € to £ will be £0.8932
This is an estimation of merchandising value per respective for the entire tour that is offering by
the firm to make satisfied the customised. They can add on the services or reduce the services
according to the requirement and the budget of the clients. There are various strategies that can
be give as discount for business to capture the attention of large number of customer to sell their
products and services ().
Profit margins – The profit margins refers profit that are gained on the selling of product
and services in order to manage the level of profit to do not fall in loss situations.
Fixed and variable cost - Fixed cost is includes rent, machinery, building, etc. of an
organisation. Variable cost are that cost which can vary with effective outputs. Basically,
variable value enhancing the constant rate or cost relative to the labour and capital in better
manner. On the other hand, variable cost may includes wages, materials that can used in
production, etc. the variable cost are such cost that depending on organisation manufacturing
values or volumes. The variable cost are different from fixed cost that includes rent, insurance,
machinery, office providers which can tend for remaining the same production outputs and
inputs in proper manner.
TASK 3
3.1 Planning decision taken for designing respective brochure
An individual tour for pleasure or business purpose. Tourism is a collection of human
activity and services which deliver a good experiences that include transportation,
accommodations, eating and drinking , amusement facility, activities with hospitality to person
who are far from their residence. Tourism industry adopt various techniques to increase the sale.
Company can use brochure, social media, complementary offers for products, online booking
software,banners and hoardings to promote holiday packages. Trailfinder uses brochures
technique to promote the tour pack. Brochures are used by the company as it attract the more
customer because of its colour, cost effective, beautiful images and vast amount of
information,personal touch and so on. The travel and tourism industry provide detail content
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about the travelling with expense in brochures which enhance tourist (Evans, Stonehouse and
Campbell, 2012). The different preparation decision for the arrangement of a chosen brochure
are as follows-
Factors affecting planning decision- There are several factors which are to consider while
planning the design of the selected brochure is that target people for brochure, its format, budget
and the time to prepare the brochure (Ko and et. al., 2014).
Brochure format- Format considers planning process to make a attractive and effective
brochures. Pamphlet includes name of the company, destination explanation, time, cost and
many other issues. It should be in a way which able to increase attraction of customers. It is a
most impactful tool through which information can be passed without physical presence.
Advance designing and printing technique can be used to make brochure interesting for
strengthening the travel business of concerned company. The appearance of brochure should able
to attract and motivate the consumer such as college students and adults to undertake tour
programme for getting adventure holiday trip.
Deciding budget- Budget is about spend on the activity according to the requirements
and desires. Where as in this context, it refer to the cost which could be incurred on the design of
brochure. It depends upon the related things which are included in that like paper quality, visuals
used to make it real, tag lines, printing techniques, brochure type and so on. Cost can be reduced
by using low quality paper, producing large quantity in bulk, using persons to distribute etc.
Expenditure is increase when expensive ink techniques and printing techniques is used to make
visual life.
3.2 Alternatives to traditional brochure for various tour operators
Trailfinder uses numerous methods for upgrade its vacation packages. To advertise its
product and services, a organization has basically utilized conventional brochures, besides
different other substitutes. A tour booklet plays a critical role in impressive commercialism of
product and services offered by a company. An appropriate vision and effective drive, the leisure
packages are utilize for promotion through sales promotion, creative advertising and direct
selling. Pamphlet helps to cover the wide area of marketing target of customer groups and
accomplished their objectives in more effective manner. However, a traditional leaflet is
important in achieving the goal that is to attract more and more people towards a company (Tian-
ling, 2012). These booklet are used for new and innovative techniques for attracting and acquired
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minds of high range of people as compared to the old version of pamphlet. The different types of
brochures for different tour operator are as follows:
 Internet brochure: This can be described as an essential part of everyday life for
business and an individuals to attain required goals properly. Use of technology has been
affecting in different purpose such as it helps to eliminate the cost of paper, printing and
mailing. Online brochure is simple and clean to reduce the expenditure. As it is
convenient, tour operator can used it or browse from anywhere and anytime (Jiang,Liu
and Hu, 2011).
 Video brochure: It refer to a visual pamphlet which can attract more and more customer
through an effectual visual graphic which can easily understand by the tourist. Video
pamphlet are impressive and well planned package of travel and tourism company.
Audio and visual brochure: It is used as an effective form for promotion, which attract more
and more people. Visitors are able to know about the whole business enterprise. This is useful on
social media platform which can easily publicity their packages in a global world.
3.3 Tools of distributing holiday packages for various types of tour managers
Vacation packages trends is becoming more acceptable and hence very famous in these
days. The tour and travel industry has been experiencing in increase of number of operators,
resulting the competition which are able to bring innovation in this sector. The European
countries, especially in UK, it is a most popular tourist place that attract customers. As, a result
the tourism sector has seen worldwide growth in last few years. The tour operators usually
integrates various factors in order to form a standardised and convenient for the customers. They
set up tour packages with accommodation, hotel and transport operators including airlines,
railways and taxi services. Trailfinders is one of the most popular travel and tourism company
that provide attractive packages in UK. Tour operators uses various types of distribution
approaches to circulate their brochures to the customers (Potgieter, de Jager and van Heerden,
2012). The main objective of a company is to reach out to the maximum numbers of customers.
For this, organisation uses different distribution methods such as -
 On the basis of websites: Direct online booking is the most important distribution
channel for the modern and digital world. Through this a tourist can able to customize the
pricing, best offers, facilities, easily differentiate the services to tourist and so on. Visitors
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can review the rate, according to past feedback. It provides transparency to people while
showing on their sites (Weikl, Bogenberger and Bertini, 2013).
 Trip Advisor: It refer to travel and restaurant website company. It provides basic
information about hotels and eating house. This is one of the priorities set for tour
operators.
 Social media: Currently, most of the business organisation create their own online
advertising inactivities that used to provide clear and appropriate information to visitors
on the bases of their requirement and need.
 Direct selling: This will increase the stability for a long run. It is a cost effective method
for an enterprise, that increase profitability of firm.
TASK 4
4.1 Strategic decision of various tour operators
Travel and tourisms is one of the fast growing organisation that provide their effective
contribution in economy development and growth. In this process, tour operator organisation
uses different strategic decision in order to attract maximum tourist easily. All these decision are
based on several conditions that uses to make proper changes in target market. Travel and
tourism organisations works to capture visitors attention toward their services and offers. There
are different strategic decisions are determine that uses by different tour operator firms as -
Pricing – Travel and tourism organisations are basically uses different strategic decision
to capture customers eyes easily toward their services. In this process, cost effective method and
fluctuation in cost maximise number of tourist properly. For this, several tour operator firms are
manage their cost on minimum margin to provide higher satisfaction to visitors.
Diversity in packages – Travel and tourism organisations need to offer several packages
to tourist. These services should have to be more attractive and affordable for each group of
visitors. Diversity in these packages assist in maximising strength of visitors toward organisation
and specific country (WANG-Peng and Yuan-wei, 2011).
Channel of promotions – For travel and tourism organisation, it is require to use
different promotional tools and techniques in order to capture tourist's attention toward
organisational services. These are the most specific tools that uses to maximise profitability and
sales of services.
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Designing of brochure – Travel and tourism organisations are basically uses different
methods to offer quality services in target market. In this, designing of broacher technique assist
in providing appropriate information to visitors about specific organisation and its services as
well.
Relationship with customers – Tour operator organisations are basically opt specific
alternative of strategic decision to attract visitors easily toward their services. Through this, such
organisations can easily maximise their profitability.
4.2 Comparison between tactical judgement which considered by selected tour operator in
various situations
For a travel and tourism organisation, it is required to take a most effective and
appropriate decision that assist in maximising structure of these organisations. These business
firms are basically make effective changes in their tactical decision on the bases of different
situations. These decision are very impactful and supportive to resolve problems and issues
within a firm. Tactical decision determine negotiation in services that provided by tour operator
firm as in facilities, pricing and offers. Trailfinders is a well known tour operator organisation
that implement tactical decision in their business firm as -
Existing rivalries – In travel and tourism sector, several business organisations provide
their effective services that be a existing rivalries for Trailfinders. For this firm needs to use
tactical decision in order to build their own image in target market.
Government authorities – In travel and tourism organisation, government authorities
and legal factors has major influence. For this, firm needs to take a specific decision to reduce its
negative impact and maximise profitability easily (WANG-Peng and Yuan-wei, 2011).
Price – In service sector, management requires to fluctuate their cost to provide
appropriate services in target market. For this Trailfinders needs to implement tactical decisions
in order to manage cost of their offers and services on the bases of customer's capacity to afford
them properly.
CONCLUSION
The above report is covered all the responsibilities of tour operators and Trailfinders Ltd
is a company which takes care all the provinces in the favour of the customers. The tour operator
manages their documentation work like visas and all the services from arrival to departure along
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with accommodation and sightseeing. This report comprises of the travel directives, types of tour
operators that works in different segments along with various stages to develop packages and
planing for them. There are different distribution method of sells including the target market,
budget, direct sell, agencies and so on. There are different kind of strategies and tactics that
support decision making.
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