Tour Operations Management Report: Emerging Trends and Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of tour operations management, focusing on the case of Trailfinders Ltd. It begins with an introduction to tour operations and the company, highlighting its role in the travel and tourism sector. The report then delves into the effects of emerging trends and developments in the industry, such as technology advancements, the impact of Brexit, and changing traveler preferences. It examines the stages and timescales involved in developing holiday packages, using an educational tour to Brussels as an example. Furthermore, the report explores different methods of contracting and the suitability of various types of tour operators. It also covers planning decisions, brochure alternatives, and distribution methods. Finally, the report evaluates strategic and tactical decisions made by Trailfinders Ltd in different situations, offering insights into the company's approach to tour operations management.

TOUR OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Effects of emerging trends and development on industry of tour operations...................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Stages and timescale involved in development of holidays.............................................2
2.2 Suitability of different methods and different types of tour operators.............................3
Different types of tour operators............................................................................................4
2.3 Selling prices of holidays for the given information........................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Planning decisions that are taken for selected brochure...................................................5
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure..........................................................6
3.3 Effectiveness of different methods of distribution...........................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Evaluation of strategic decisions formulated by different tour operators........................7
4.2 Tactical decisions taken by Trail finders Ltd in different situations................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Management of tour operations is a most essential and imperative activity that is to be
done various types of tour operators and enterprise having their business operations in travel and
tourism sector (Robinson and eta.l., 2016). Holidays packages are developed by these tour
operators to attract the travellers and their clients at competitive prices. Present report is also
based on analysis of Trailfinders Ltd which is a famous tour operator company, started in
Ireland, UK. It is British Travel Company that operates in five main divisions, UK, Germany,
Central, West and northern Europe by having more than 29 travel centres. Along with this it is
also specialised for tailor made services in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Asia, North,
and South America & Africa. It has played an important role in increasing the growth travel and
tourism sector within UK. Further, this report covers effects provided by recent trends and
developments in tour operations industry. Along with this, there are some important stage and
timescales have been discussed which are involved the in development of holidays. Different
types of tour operators analysed in order to provide an understanding about their role in
increasing the growth and development of travel and tourism sector. Various important have
been discussed by development a holiday package as an employee of product development
department in Trailfinders Ltd. At last, strategical and Tactical decisions taken by company in
different situations are also discussed.
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TASK 1
1.1 Effects of emerging trends and development on industry of tour operations
From the effective research practices, it is identified that
tour operators and organization are those who covers both
travel and tourism services in order to execute the number
of holidays. They have also achieved a continuous growth
in their business with the raid expansion of overall
services in other overseas nations. Trailfinders Ltd is also
major travel and Tourism Company that is responsible for
increasing the number of travellers in UK as they develop
some important tour packages for the people. There are
some important trends and development occurred in
travel and tourism sector are mentioned above:
Technology advancement: Continuous
development and growth in digital services has
provided a major influence on tour operations
industry. Rise in technicality in operations of
organisation like Trailfinders Ltd have raised the
standards of quality of services and along with the
major facilitation to the users of Travel Company.
This technological advancement has enabled the
travellers to make enquiry of various tour
packages developed by different tour operations
online. Further, tour operators are also facilitated
by this technological development as they have
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achieved various important communication
channels to promote the business operations
Impact of Brexit on tourism: Most emerging trend
which has created a threat for organisation is travel and
tour sectors of decreasing their market share and business
operations due to exit to UK European union member
countries. This major step taken by political parties and
authorities will create restrictions on trade and business
relationship between the companies in UK and Europe.
Tour operations industry will also get affected due to
restrictions on getting visas to people of Europe, rise in
tax rates and decrease in number of tourists etc.
Changing life style: With the continuous
economic development of countries, life style and
preference of people is also changing
continuously as they prefer to travel at more
existing and unique places. Tour operators like
Trailfinders Ltd are more focused towards
development of holidays by analysing preference
of people.
 Changing face of traveller: With the continuous changes in face of tourists has also
provided major impact on tourism like increase in mature travellers, minority groups,
Independent travellers, individual traveller. This has increased the level of customers
satisfaction along with the impact of major satisfaction.
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 Dynamic packaging: It is when the travellers use internet to research their holidays and
make their own travel arrangements directly with their airlines and hotel etc. It has also
increased the relationship of people with the hotels.
 Information communication technology: The competencies to turn the concepts in to
the marketable innovation for achievement of wide range of customers. Increased speed
to market and access to new product offerings via the internet.
TASK 2
2.1 Stages and timescale involved in development of holidays.
As an employee within product development department of Trailfinders Ltd, it is the
responsibility to design educational tour package fort adult students from London, UK to Brussels
Belgium which has to be industrial visit for them and a sightseeing tour in Brussel. It is needed to
analyse the timescales and clear through different stages at the time of tailoring these tour packages
(Medlik, 2016).
As per effective research, there are some industries have been selected for students for industrial
Visit on July 2019.
Tour which is developed will involve following things like:
 Pick up facility for students from their college in London and the accommodation
facilities in Hotel.
 Daily Visit of places around the Brussels.
 One local guide is also provided to the students.
 A luxury coach is also provided to the students and stay in a five star hotel will be
planned for 5 days. In addition to this, daily pick up and drop facility is being provided
by luxury coach for visit to industry and its nearby places.
Stages involved in development of holidays:
 Market research: it is the stage at which the company will undertake effective research to
analyse the demands of potential buyers. In this, Trailfinder Ltd needs to analyse the
market requirement and holidays packages which are already available in market.
 Planning and scheduling : After market research, company will define the places which
are to be included in new holidays packages. Further, they will also plan and make
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schedules of all the activities that are included in business contexts. It also involves
takeing decisions like destination hotel selection, capacity and dates etc.
 Contracting (negotiation with suppliers): Negotiation with the suppliers will be done by
enterprise in this stage along with development of contract in order to proper proposal to
clients.
 Costing the holiday: In this task, the company will identify the overall costs of holidays
packages after determining all the expenses.
 Financial Evaluation and Pricing: This stage, involves evaluation of funds require
accomplishing the activities of holiday packages and making decisions regarding setting
up of prices of holiday packages for customers.
 Creating the brochure: An appropriate brochure will be created by enterprise at this stage
which involves overall activities, scheduled and prices of holiday packages. Also,
involves different tourist destination in order to proper and information to clients.
 Advertising: It is major part that implies to the use of appropriate channels of
advertisements for customers. In this , company will use different medium of
communication like
 Operation and Execution: Implementation of tour plan by following all schedules which
are made before the implementation of plan. Visit to all the tourist destination and
programmes.
 Post Tour Management: after completion of tour, the overall tour program and functions
will be evaluated to understand the issues that occurred during holidays and what changes
are required in procedure of development.
Times scales involved in creation of holidays.
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It also plays an important role in plays an important role in making budget of the holiday
package.
 Airlines Booking: Rebooking for flights needs to be made as the whole groups needs to
be travel together. There will a group of 42 students for whom the company will make
booking in British Airlines. It will directly affect the budget of tour package therefore
advance bookings needs to be made by Trailfinders for due rush in summer season.
 Hotel bookings: Budget of the Holiday package also depends on season of the trip. In
July, hotel tariff of Belgium will also at time tourist season. Therefore, timescale plays an
important role.
 Guide facility: A tourist Guide is also provided to the student which provides them
information about tourist and stories of Historical monuments.
 Luxury coach: Pre bookings of luxury in Brussel are also need to be made for students
for regular visit to industries.
2.2 Suitability of different methods and different types of tour operators
There are some important methods of contracting has been adopted by the tour manager
of Trailfinder Ltd. Further, these methods are as follows:
 Fixed Contract: In this type of contract deal has done by companies with their client on
the basis of highest consumption. Under fixed contract, all the services which are
provider by the tour planner will consists of fixed cost which was mentioned in tour
package (Redjem and Marcon, 2016). It is considered as effective in the bulk
consumption and high level of consumption done by a group of travellers. In this type of
contract, Trailfinders is able to provide higher discount to customers as the large group
42 students will make booking for travelling Brussels, Belgium. In this, company will fix
the prices of bookings on the basis of number of takes the facilities. It is also considered
as beneficial for larger number of bookings in order to achieve maximum discounts and
facilities at lowest price. More beneficial for the suppliers as it means that if the
accommodations is not sold they will still be paid. Therefore, tour operators will have the
flexibility to move the guests, reduce the prices, or make changes at their own
responsibility.
 Ad-hoc contracts: In this, tour operator often make the contracts when the beds are
required. It involves no risk and cost administration. It is also considered as popular tool
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in case of overbooking tour operators use it when they require arranging extra
accommodation.
 Sale only contract: These are contracts which are analysed as high in prices as compared
to the fixed contract (Grant, Wong and Trautrims, 2017). Further, Sale only agreements
are basically done by tour operators in peak season of Holidays in which the needs of
getting high quality service is situational and companies will take benefits of those prior
situation. High cost has been charged by tourist operators from the clients by taking
advantage of season. Further, these contracts are also analysed as less effective as they
bear the risk of less response from customers.
Thus, it can be said that fixed contract needs to be made as it will suitable for the company to
make effective Budget for students and also contains no risk of less response. It is also beneficial
for students as company will provide discount offers for them.
Different types of tour operators
Tour operators are considered as person or organizations that guides and manages the
tour as well provide services. It is also considered as assistant of the people that visit for
Holidays. Below give are different types of tour operators like:
 Inbound: Companies that provide travel and tourism services for people in home
countries are considered as inbound tour operators (Sahin and Matta, 2015). For example:
companies like A&T travel, Ac Travel group, active England tours etc. categorized in the
form of inbound tour operators.
 Outbound: Tour operator or planners, having business operations in overseas nations and
develops tour packages for people of different countries (Tour Operations, 2018). They
usually take residents of one country to another for purpose of tourism. Trailfinders Ltd,
TUI group, First choice is the best example of outbound tour operators.
 Domestic: It includes those tour planners which formulate tour packages for people of
home countries to travel within different parts of country. For instance, Tour packages
are developed by Trailfinders Ltd for the people of London to travel in Birmingham
which is also a part of UK.
 Specialist: Those tourisms service providers who are specialized for development of
some specific and unique type of holiday’s packages for some people (Bazargan, 2016).
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These specialists have their operations in limited countries. For example: HF holidays,
Trail finders Ltd are specialist tour operator companies in UK.
2.3 Selling prices of holidays for the given information.
From given scenario, budget for the tour package has been prepared in order to provide
information to the Trailfinders related to cost and prices to be charged from the students for Tour
package of 5 Nights and 6 days in Brussel, Belgium in the month of July 2019.
Further, Calculation of selling price of tour package is mentioned above:
Cost Calculation Amount
Cost of accommodation 42*54*5 € 11340
Cost of foods facilities 42*12*5 € 2520
Total variable cost € 13860
1 euro= 0.9 Pounds
Variable cost in Pounds 13860*0.9 £12474
Cost of Luxury coach £6000
Cost tourist Guide £1000
Airline bookings 1200*42*2 £100800
Total cost of tour £120274
Add Profit margin £24054.8
Selling price of tour £144328.8
Number of students is 42
Price per student will be 3436.4 £
`Further, it is an estimated tour package has been developed by concerning different
research scholar and critical reviews of market. All the facilities which are provided by the
organization in this holidays package to the students is mentioned along with their per day cost.
After analysis of this table, it is clear understood that the selling prices tour package for one
student will be £3436.4. It is also analysed that the travel company will provide a luxury coach
within the capacity of 50 seats both in London and Brussel. Along with this, trailfinders will also
provide a local tour guide for students at £1000. Pre bookings for Airline have been made for
single persons at £1200 for both visit and departure in British airlines.
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TASK 3
3.1 Planning decisions that are taken for selected brochure.
Critical market research, taking decisions associated with the design and creating of
brochure for different holiday packages is considered as essential task for the management of
Kuoni as it provides them support to reveal their services which are included by them in holiday
packages to their target customers (Patterson, 2015). Managers of Kuoni Ltd needs to make
appropriate planning decisions to develop an attractive and unique Brochure to attract of people
of overseas nations to travel in other countries. Further, it is also considered that planning of
development depends upon the current market trends, analysis of competitors and cost
effectiveness in order to provide supports to enterprise in achievement of their objective of
gaining competitive advantage over rivals. A brochure is a publication which contain the
summary of a package given by a tour operator. It must be designed in such a way to attract
customers and convince them to buy your products. Purpose of Brochure is that it must
communicate the brand image of the company. It has to determine the position of the product.
Convey enough information to reassure the consumer of the organisation’s strength and
reliability
Following steps have been followed by management of Kuoni Ltd under planning decisions for
development of Brochure like:
 Identification and analysis of problems: Before development of Brochure, it is essential
for the managers of Kuoni Ltd to identify the problems associated with tour packages like
Increase or decrease in prices, rate of taxes, preference of customers and visas restrictions
etc. This type of will further creates problems for company to convince the clients and
create negative perception between people.
 Budget development and target market: An appropriate budget for tour holiday
package needs to be developed by accounting department of company so they will be
able determine expenses for all service which they will provide to customers in tour
packages (Vrellas and Tsiotras, 2015). Decision for visiting to different tourist places are
also needs to be taken by managers of Kuoni Ltd in order to select places which are
mostly preference by travellers and included in brochure. Other decisions like travelling
services, accommodation and facilities are also considered in planning to develop
brochure for holiday packages.
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 Use of technologies: For development of an attractive brochure for tour packages,
managers of Kuoni also need to select appropriate technology and software through
which they will be able to design their brochure effectively.
 Brochure format: Management of Kuoni also needs to select an appropriate format for
their Brochure and need to ensure that all the service which they provide will be included
in a appropriate sequence or order so that customers can easily analyse the time frame
and activities.
 Content of the brochure: It is the stage at which the content will decided which includes
selection of cover page, main body of brochures and back format of brochures. Content
pages to be arranged in sections defined by the destination country. Most organisation
lead with their strongest but it is unknown for the first to be resort that they wish to focus
on other reasons. Back of the broshure will contains the detail of booking conditions,
schemes of insurance and all the other small print details needed by the regulatory bodies
like ABTA.
 Stage and time limit: It is essential for the organization that the determined time frame
needs to be complete in designing of brochure that should be analysed in planning the
activities (Holland, 2018). All the stage and visit to tourist destination needs to be in
specific and determined appropriately in the Brochure.
Thus, it is can be said that these are the important planning decision that needs to be
taken managers of Kuoni in order to manage tour operations. They also needs to select an
appropriate format for the Brochure so that it will effectively understood by the people.
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure.
`Traditional brochure is just like a simple informative paper document that is used to
introduce the companies and their products and services. With the continuous change in
technology, digital services have also changed the focus of companies towards development of E
brochures, which they can easily provide to their customers in different countries. In present
context, managers of Kuoni Ltd also need to analyse the other suitable alternatives other than
traditional brochure in to promote their holiday packages. There are some new forms of
brochures have been discussed along with their effectiveness for organisation like.
 Email Brochure: For selling of tour packages, organisations in tour operations industry
mostly use this type of brochures in which they will provide information to their
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