Tour Operations Management Report: Current Trends and Effects

This report, prepared for LCB Tours, provides an overview of tour operations management, focusing on the effects of current trends within the industry. It examines various types of tour operators, including inbound, outbound, specialized, and domestic operators, highlighting their roles and challenges. The report explores the impact of factors such as BREXIT, currency fluctuations, technological advancements, and increasing environmental awareness on the tourism sector. It discusses how these trends influence customer preferences, market dynamics, and the strategic decisions of tour operators. The analysis covers key issues like the rise of online booking platforms, the importance of sustainability, and the need for operators to adapt to changing economic and social conditions to remain competitive.

Effects of current trends on tourism
1.1.1 Tour Operator Types
Inbound Tour Operators
 These tour operators are more engaged in
promotion of destinations and work with
local resident travellers and destinations.
 The inbound tourism organisations represent
about 11% of the total tourism flows in
Malaysia and it accounts for about 18% of
the total tourism expenditure (Brito & Pratas,
2016).
 All expenditures made by local and foreign
tourists in Malaysia tourism do not count as
revenues for the industry.
 The recent development in web technologies
have lead to the emergence of great numbers
of tour operators hence leading to increased
competition.
Domestic Tour Operators
o These tour operators work with local
travellers
o Since the tourism industry acts as a vital tool
for economic growth in Malaysia, domestic
tour operators are constantly increasing and
supported by the government (Becker et al.
2017).
o Travel by the local residents in the country is
often ignored by most operators.
o Rapid growth if international tourism,
however, creates much less employment rate
improvements in the economy.
Outbound Tour Operators
o These operators work with more international
travellers.
o The recent BREXIT vote has created a weaker
pound value which makes the sales cost rise up in
Malaysia (Avraham, 2016).
o Travel operators are frequently engaged in money
transfers and handling in different currencies.
o The UK bound tour operators are hence
experiencing hardships in finding more customers
since the prices have gone up considerably.
Specialised Tour Operators
o These operators specialise in certain travel regions
of the world.
o Due to the consequent mergers in the UK tourism
industry, the market is being dominated by large-
scale operators who tend to buy up smaller
organisations frequently (LCB Tour, 2018).
o It is ambiguous if the customer's prefer mass
tourism over specialised tourist packages.
o A survey carried out by Responsible tourism
showed that travellers usually don’t like mass
tourism. More than 76% of the customers opined
that they prefer specialised tourisms more (Choe
et al. 2017).

Current trends
● Technological advancements
The advancements in technology allow the
operators to reach much more customers than
before.
Websites and smart phone applications have made
the process of tour planning and booking easier
than ever (Elliott et al. 2016).
The recent trends included in travel and tourism
industry services are AirBnb homes, Wi-Fi
availability on Flights, Mobile phone boarding
passes and online flight check in.
● The effect of BREXIT on Tourism
The number of tourists from UK is the maximum in
Malaysia.
More than 400000 tourists travel from UK to
Malaysia each year mostly for holidays and leisure
purposes (Rodríguez et al. 2015).
○ The numbers were even more in the
past years since the price of the
packages was less.
○ The deterioration in the value of the
currency will led to even more reduction
in numbers.
○ However, for Malaysians travelling to
UK, it is a beneficial time.
● Increased environmental awareness
○ To support the sustainability in tourism
practices in Malaysia, the government is
always making moves under the
Government transformation Programs
(Fransen et al. 2015).
○ Incorporating environmental awareness in
the industry is expected to aid economic
growth as well as attract more
contributors towards the Malaysian
tourism.
○ This will in turn lead Malaysia to become
a higher revenue earning country in
future.