Tour Operations Management Report: Trailfinders in UK Travel Industry

This report delves into the realm of tour operations management, using Trailfinders Ltd. as a case study within the UK travel industry. It begins by examining the impact of current trends such as customization, technological advancements, customer satisfaction, globalization, sustainable travel, wellness travel, and marketing techniques on the industry. The report then explores the stages and time scales involved in developing tour packages, evaluates the suitability of various contracting strategies, and analyzes the selling price of holiday packages. Furthermore, it discusses planning decisions for brochure design, alternatives to traditional brochures, and various distribution methods. Finally, the report evaluates strategic and tactical decision-making processes within the context of tour operations, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in this dynamic sector.

TOUR OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK-1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 The effects of current and recent trends...........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.stages and time-scales involve in developing tour packages...............................................5
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of various strategies of contracting.............................................6
2.3 selling price of a holiday in terms of Trailfinders............................................................7
TASK-3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 planning decisions taken for the design of a selected broucher......................................8
3.2 Alternatives to traditional broacher of various types of tour planners.............................8
3.3 Presenting the Various methods of Distribution............................................................11
TASK-4..........................................................................................................................................12
4.1 evaluation of strategic decisions.....................................................................................12
4.2 presenting the comparison of tactical decisions taken by the company.........................14

INTRODUCTION
Tour Operators plays an essential role in travel and tourism industry. This report will be
helpful to understand travel industry in UK and it is based upon Trailfinders Ltd. which deals
with various tour operators to give the best services to their consumers. Trailfinders is a travel
company which is situated in Ireland It has 29 travel centres in UK. Trailfinders is specialises in
tailor-made travel worldwide. This file discusses about presents effects of current and recent
trends as well as change in organizers. It also evaluates various stages and time-scales that
involved during holidays packages and evaluating suitability of diverse methods of contract by
various types of tour operators. The project also discusses about the planning of decisions taken
for designing a brochure and draw a suitable option to a traditional booklet. It also evaluates
various stages of distribution channel that are going to be used to sell a package by different tour
operators by providing strategic and tactical decision-making for them.
TASK-1
1.1 The effects of current and recent trends
Customized products: The
travel and tourism Industry
also fascinated with different
types of products and this are
means to meet to demand of
customers. And their
requirements. It is all about to
described blank products
which will helps to user to
generate and draw the content
Such as by offering different
types of holidays packages are
Developing technology: It
plays an essential role in travel
and tourism industry because
recently all the companies are
adopting the ways of
technology for their various
purposes. In travel and tourism
industry technology is playing
a main role to promote the
business of Trailfinders
company (Sikdar and Pereira,
2019). Such as choosing
Customer satisfaction: it is
all about to satisfy the tourist
by providing them new
services and packages
according to their needs and
wants. It depends upon an
effectiveness of an industry as
business cope with different
new technologies as there are
some chances to Satisfy
tourists by providing them
innovative facilities such as-

provided by different tour
operators such as- couple
holiday package, beach
holiday package, yacht holiday
package. And this thing will be
customized as per customers
demand.
Product customization will be
helpful domestic and inbound
tour operators provide
different packages to the
tourists according to their
demands.
Globalization: this trend
allow all the travel and tourism
companies to reach out the
destination places across the
world. Globalization helps to
increase in foreign direct
investment. This method is
also helpful to expand the
business of company in
different nations. This method
helps different tour operators
such as inbound and outbound
operators to increase their
possibility by providing them
support and also creating
capital for a nation (Tsaur,
Cheng and Hong, 2019).
places using navigation to
reach destination, booking
over internet, online marketing
through various channels. By
using the way of advance
technologies, people lose
interest on travel operators but
outbound tour function
provides regular updates
related to their schemes of
holiday packages as well as
brouchers to know about
special holiday tour packages.
Buy adopting the way of
technology, Trailfindfer
company can attract their
customers through
advertisements of new
packages. This digitalization
advertisements will be helpful
to improve the quality of
accommodations and make it
time and cost effective (Wang,
and et.al., 2019).
Virtual reality- this virtual
reality will be helpful for the
tourists to let them experience
what scuba diving, skydiving
feels like with the help of new
technology. This technology
virtual reality. And this is only
a standard for growth by
increasing demands of holiday
tour packages and retaining
customers’ loyalty for travel
and tourism sector. So it has
been concluded that travel and
tourism sector tries to put their
efforts to satisfy the
expectations of tourists by
improving their current quality
of services and providing them
new technology based
services.
Marketing techniques: all the
tour operators companies are
using effective marketing
strategies to let people know
about their new offers of the
company. That will attract
more seekers. Marketing
method is a promotional tool
which helps to acknowledge
services which are related to
destination places in which
outbound and inbound
domestic tour operators to
provide the best suited
alternative to their consumers.

Sustainable travel- tour
operators and activity
providers should work to bring
the sustainability in their offers
according to interest of
industry in eco-tourism. It will
be helpful to respect the
environment and its bio-
diversity.
will able also help to tour
operators of inbound and
outbound to sell more tours
and activities.
Wellness travel- this trend is
all about to ensure the tourist
about their health. The primary
purpose of this trend is to
promote, achieve and maintain
the health of tourist.
Solo travel- there are many
customers who wants to
maximise their personal time.
So Trailfinders company is
going to provide them solo
travelling packages. Tourist
can enjoy their personal time.
TASK 2
2.1 stages and time-scales involve in developing tour packages.
Trailfinders deal with many tour operators and it involves all these different stages which
are written below-
Market Research: It is the first stage in which marketers research for the market for the
products. It is very essential for the marketers to research about the market where they will find
out the best opportunity for products. This stage also includes the description of market like- its
climatic conditions, economic, political state. Market research will be helpful for the Trailfinders
to measure the size of tourism market, existing customers, their budget for the tours, their
preference for the destination and the strategies used by the other competitor company. And this
thing can affect educational tour for adult students to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium. Market
research will be helpful for the manager of the company to find out the better tour option for the
students (Ouyang, Wei and Chi, 2019). Through conducting a research and examine different
affecting factors. Market research help to identify the factors which can grow the business of
Trailfinder.

Planning and scheduling: it is the second stage of tour because it shows the summary of the
tour which are going to be organised by the Trail finders company starting from the
Summer holiday in July 2020. In this stage manager will consider all this points such as-
origin and destination place, time duration of tour, special, offers, special activities of
educational tour, seminar timing of students. This stage will also discuss about the scheduling of
the tour.
Negotiation: After planning, it is the next step which discussing about the tour with tour
operators regarding the transportations and accommodations. This type of contract specially
deals with transportation field. It will help to negotiate the price on holiday packages. In this
stage all the suppliers will arrange the special facilities for the destination. Terms and conditions
will be discussed in this stage by both the parties.
Forecasting: this stage will discus about the forecasting off the budget of overall tour package. It
will include all the expensive of tour such as- transpiration and accommodation, special activities
etc. it is very essential for the Trailfinders company to forecast about the educational tour of
students (Jiao, Roosenboom and Giudici, 2019). In this stage company will also include the
design the brochure that will include all the required information of the tour, but need of pre
planning is very important to set out the fix budgeting plan for the tour. Forecasting of tour helps
to mange all the planning of budget.
Time-scale:time scale is the scheduling of different days of entire tour. Trailfinder company
will sign an agreement with other customers after arranging all the facilities, tour should be
executed.
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of various strategies of contracting
Contracting refers to transaction with various people to make tour successful as
Trailfinders has conducted an educational tour for the purpose of tour operators to contracting
because it helps to indicate fundamental demands without any dis communication and operators
will pay some specific amount while they will deal with other people and have no argument

related to find out a place (Paraschi, Georgopoulos and Kaldis, 2019). There are various methods
of contract which are going to be adopted by tour manager of Trailfinder which is mentioned
below:
Sale of contract: This contract is mostly used advanced in price and can be done at peak
season. The main advantage is to increase in profits and provide extra benefits to customers.
Inbound and out bound tour operators does not use this type of contract for their tours because
this contract bears lots of risk with less response (Lee, 2019). This is one of the best alternative
for contracting where a tour operators agreement with hotels in terms to provide essential facility
in Brussels at low price for 5 nights. With this, place of travelling should be same and even
separate contracts will be made with various hotels of various cities. Tour planner of Trailfinders
company must contract with transportation for travelling for the purpose to provide the
comfortless.
Fixed contract: This type of contract includes many discount offers on tour packages.
And it is more effective when high demand is required by many tourists. It specifically includes
fixed price of booking such as- accommodation and transportation facilities. That is why, this is
generally preferred by tour planners to get maximum advantage by offering low price to the
customers. Another quality of this type of fixed contract is with Trailfinders Ltd, company will
appoint a tourist guide who will provide all essential details to students regarding various
locations which they are going to visit by the students. Manager of the company will decide the
payment to finalize dealing with the guide who is going to assist several locations to create an
interest in tourist (Domingo-Carrillo, and et.al., 2019).
Ad hoc:- This contract is done for non- monetary purpose and it is done through better
collaboration in order to make a tour successful .
In addition to the above tour operators enter into a contract with transport companies in
order to provide customer with transportation facility. Tour operator enterprises also make
contract with guide who guide the tourist at destination points. In this way, the tour operator also
make bond legally in order to make planning successful.
2.3 selling price of a holiday in terms of Trailfinders
The calculation the selling price for 50 students for 4 nights is given below:

Calculation of holiday package: The special offer for the twins rooms with breakfast is 89
Euros each student. That means 6 rooms will be booked and 6 extra beds are going to be taken
by accommodate 7 students.
Land Tour planner: These deal with big enterprise so they will not go to give the priority to use
traditional brouchers as a marketing tool because it will not be able to solve the purpose. And
tour operators are technically advanced so they will not use social media and other promotional
sites to promote their tours in various location (Bag, 2019). By give details information of tour,
which will help to approach the large range of customers.
So the total selling price of this educational tour will be 10833.32 in pounds .
COST COMPONENTS COST Per Person (Euro) Total (Pounds)
Hotel Cost 39.03 1951.75
Luxury Coach 121.91 6095.61
Attraction Charges 40 2000
Local Tour Guide 15.71 785.96
10833.32
 Mark Up Cost :- 10833.32 + 28%
 Marketing Price is:- £ 13866.66
 Calculation Of Euro in Pounds:- £13866.66
So, this is the total cost of services that will be given by Trailfinders Ltd. to a group of 50
tourist having a visit at Grand Casselbergh in Brugge, Belgium.
TASK-3
3.1 planning decisions taken for the design of a selected broucher

Brochure, is a promotional method which is used for the marketing purpose. And it also
helps to attract the consumers towards the service of company. Manager of Trailfinders Ltd
company will design a brochure which will help to provide the information to the customers
about their tour packages (Ballico,2019). It is required by marketing manager to consider the
following factors such as nature of target customers, costs, purpose etc. before designing the
brochure etc. The brochure should be simple and should contain all the important detail about the
holiday package, a this factor has great as well as significant effect on the buying behaviour of
clients.
While company is planning about a Brochure, they will need a creative brief, it is the first
phase that should be including effective writing that means the writing style should be different
should be artistic and colour selection should be more attractive which will helps to attract more
tourists (Thapa and Panta, 2019).
While company is planning about a Brochure, they will need a creative brief, it is the first
phase that should be including effective writing that means the writing style should be different
should be artistic and colour selection should be more attractive which will helps to attract more
tourists. Tour operator will recognise the all legal implications while company will launch a
leaflet in new market. It will be helpful to aware the customers about the new offers and services
of company (van Heeswijk, Mes and Schutten, 2019). Formate of brochure very essential, it
should be registered with the intellectual property rights like copyright to decrease the misuse of
leaflet brochure by anyone. Company will design a brochure that should be decent formate in
designing and all the content should be valuable for the customers. And the format of booklet
must include name of Tour Company, price of tour, detailed description related to journey.
3.2 Alternatives to traditional broacher of various types of tour planners.
There are different types of brochure new companies are adopting the new types of
brochure with new pattern and designing. Other travelling agencies like Thomas cook and Cox
and Kings has proved very helpful in making new types of Brochures. Trailfinders company
should provide a magazines and sources which can be used by the Trailfindes company instead
of their traditional existing brochures.

Brochures a presentation- Trailfinder company can use the brochure as their presentations of
offers for the customers. Company can attract the customers by making valuable and attracting
brochure (Arifin, Ibrahim and Nur, 2019). Attractive presentation always helps to attract the
customers easily. Effective presentation will also helpful to maximise profit of company.
Brochure in video formate- nowadays every travelling company is adopting this trend for the
purpose of different marketing. This type so brochure includes all the information in a particular
video clip. This formate will be more attractive for the customers because it includes the
description of component and feature of the holiday tour package.
I
Illustration 1: Thomson Travel

brochureas a map- it is the best type of attracting the customers with expect to sell the tour
packages of the company. Company made this type of brouchers to reach out a specific
destination where customers are more demanding for the tour packages.
3.3 Presenting the Various methods of Distribution
Many tour companies and travelling agencies uses various kinds of distribution methods
for selling their tour packages for the motive to full fill the needs and wants of tourist. There are
various methods of marketing but nowadays most of the companies are using the distribution
channels for the purpose to provide the best services to the customers. Flowing are the new
distribution channel using by the travelling companies-
Online travelling agencies- all the travelling agencies provide the facility of searching about
any tour planner customers can also book their tour packages through these channels. Theses
types of distribution channels is very important source for the tourist to search anything on the
Illustration 2: Cox and kings

internet regarding tour packages. With the help of distribution channels tourist can also compare
the differences between various tour packages. Trailfinders company is also using the
distribution channels such as- Omni channels. This channel cover all the retail stores, websites
and call centres of the companies. The aim of adopting the distribution channels, is set out the
benchmark of the enterprise before other competitors will offer similar tour package.
Government websites- this type of Govt. Websites mainly focuses on the destinations, this
distribution channel has proved to be best distribution channel to take the leverage of holiday
tour package for the purpose for customers to enjoy their vocations with friends and family
(Curcija, Breakey and Driml, 2019). This distribution channels is valuable for the customers
because customers can easily trust on the Govt. websites.
Call centres- this type of distribution channels are helpful for the travel and tourism companies
to launch their websites for the purpose to guide tourist regarding holiday tour packages. Call
centres are the source through which company can easily track the customers who wants to know
about the special packages of the company. For the different travelling company such as Thomas
cook is direct selling its tour packages. This distribution channels was improved in the year 2014
by 68% because it was mostly used by the tour planners to entertain and provide the needs of
tourists.
Internet – it is one of the important source for companies to reach out the customers through
social media platform such as- twitter, Facebook, Instagram. It will be a beneficial source for the
company to promote their business on large scale in a short time period (Adeyeri and et.al.,
2019). This is most effective source for luxury tours where customers can easily compare the
different tour packages of various companies. And they can select one among them. This
distribution channel is also helpful for company to find the potential customers.
TASK-4
4.1 evaluation of strategic decisions