Tour Operations Management Report: Holiday Package Development

This report delves into the multifaceted world of tour operations management, focusing on the analysis of current trends and developments within the tour operator industry, with a particular emphasis on the practices of Thomas Cook. The report assesses the stages and timescales involved in developing holiday packages, evaluates the suitability of various contracting methods for different tour components, and provides insights into calculating the selling price of holiday packages. Furthermore, it explores the design and planning of brochures, the suitability of alternatives to traditional brochures, and various distribution techniques used for selling tour packages. The report also examines different strategies and decisions formulated by tour companies, including a comparison of tactical decisions made by Thomas Cook, providing a comprehensive overview of tour operations management and its practical applications.

Tour Operations
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and development on the tour operators
industry...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays..................................3
2.2 Evaluate suitability of various methods for different tour components of different tour
operators.................................................................................................................................4
2.3 Calculating the selling price of holiday package..............................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Designing and planning a brochure..................................................................................8
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to traditional brochure for different tour operators ................9
3.3 Various distribution techniques used for selling tour packages.....................................10
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Different strategies and decision that is formulated by different tour company............11
4.2 Comparison between tactical decision taken by Thomas Cook.....................................11
CONCLUSION:.............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION:
Tour operation management is basically of all the factors that is needed for packaging for
the tourist. The tour operator is operating for generating revenue for themselves and for country.
For this purpose, they provide different types of products and services to customers and promote
them for grabbing their attention. Along with this they also provide some unique services to
tourist in order to gain profit. The present report is based on Thomas Cook which is one of the
famous tour operator company in UK. It provides range of products and services to customers for
accomplishing success and gain profit. The report covers recent trends and developments in
travel and tourism. Along with this, Effectiveness of various methods of contracting for different
components of holiday packages will be discussed. Apart from this, Suitability of various
distribution techniques used for selling tour packages will be analyzed.
TASK 1
1.1Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and development on the tour operators
industry
Hospitality and tour and travels
sector is the fast growing
sector which provides various
services and facilities to the
customers (Allahyari, Salari,
and Vigo, 2015). Thomas
cook company needs to
provide best holiday plans and
offers to their customers
weather it can be holiday or
any adventures tour, they need
to adopt current trends and
plans to enhance the customer
reach, along with they take
Domestic Tour Operators:
generally domestic tour
operators are those operators
which organise the tour
packages for existence peoples
in which travellers travelling
within own country.
It could national park tours and
Alaska tours or many more
Outbound tour
operators: these types of tour
operators make tour plans for
those travellers who living in
one country but wants to plan
Inbound tour operators: In
this category tour operator
arrange travelling for non
resident peoples but the want
to travel another country.
These kinds of tours is called
tour operator. In this kind of
tour operator they facing the
issues of language it is
difficult for the passengers to
understand the languages of
other countries.
Specialist tour
operator: Specialist tour
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help and guide lines from maps
and along with that they also
need to adopt new attractive
changes to compete with other
tour operator company.
to go in another country.
Like in which company needs
to plan attracting offers and
exciting prices through which
they attract more clients and
traveller for their tour plan
(Byrnes and et. Al, 2016.).
Overall it makes overall plan
according to the needs of
travellers. Preferred location
would be Europe and any other
country it depends upon the
choices of passenger where
they want to go according to
that it is the duty of tour
operator to provide the plan
accordingly.
operator are the operators who
are well specialist to arrange
the special destination tour
packages. Thomas Cook needs
to operate the plan which is
most demanding and attractive
tour packages (Filby, Stockin
and Scarpaci, 2015. ).
There are different
factors which affects the
business
 Technological factor:
it is the most
significant factor which
affects the overall
company in terms of
positive and negative.
Company needs to
adopt the latest
technology and
strategies to attract the
customer attraction and
satisfaction level.
Expansion Of airlines:
this factor is the most
considerable factor for
the company to be
consider if the prices of
airlines company goes
down its impact on the
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company then traveller
can easily take that in
their first opinion. So
that company can take
airlines facilities for
their travellers.
TASK 2
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays
Tourism industries need to adopt rapid changes to overcome from the effects of market
changes, for that they need to adopt attractive management strategies and business plans so that
they attract customer attraction and make their own profit revenue (Robinson, P. and et. al.
2016.). For making creative holiday plans company needs to adopt different stages. Thomas cook
has to adopt all necessary factors while making the plan such as interest rates, discounts,
competitive price, profit margin, holiday package, currency exchange rates and all necessary
legislations. As per the given scenario 42 students make plan to go for tour. Thomos cook has to
make plan for those students according to their needs. For that company needs to full fill the all
stages for creating an effective and successful effective plan for the package of all the students.
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 Market Analysis: in this first stage company needs to analyse the market
conditions and the prices of competitors choice. Company also needs to consider
the all necessary changes while making the plans. In this first step of developing
the research for tour in which operator identify about the political, social,
economic and technological situation before planing the tour. Besides, they also
need to measure the availability of suppliers.
 Tour Itinerary: in the second step tor operator start gaining the initial steps in
order to meet the future needs such as accommodation details, visiting points etc.
 Scheduling: after market research next process is to make scheduling should be
done by company. In this next process company take all information from the
colleges and make checklist for all the activities (White, 2016).
 Forecasting: after planning the all information of tour plan next is to compare the
prices of tour operators with other company and provide the estimated prices to
the clients.
 Contracting: in this next stage company will contact with transportation, hotels
companies and other necessary suppliers and make arrangements to ensure the all
activities and they also make sure to adopt all legal restrictions to avoid uncertain
risk.
 Negotiation: in next stage company needs to set the prices of food, lunch, dinner,
tickets of other countries to manage the tour plan. It is very necessary to negotiate
the cost with suppliers to maintain the budget.
 Pricing: it is the most essential point to consider the prices and determine the
profit margin. It is important to be consider government policies and price
competitiveness of the competitors.
 Human Resource: tour operator needs human resource in order to fix the plans in
effective manner. Besides to meet the seasonal demands.
 Design: In this stage company make proper design and in which they mention all
details regarding all requirements.
 Implementation: in this final stage company needs to collect money from the
clients and make all bookings in advance (Byrnes and et. al. 2016).
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 Evaluation: in the last step it is the duty of tour operator to analyse and get
feedback from the customers and implement for the future plans.
2.2 Evaluate suitability of various methods for different tour components of different tour
operators.
There are basically four types of tour operators which provides different services to
different types of people (Lin and Tseng 2016).
Outbound tour operators- They are specialised in providing foreign tours to people. They offer
tour packages of different countries for a specific period. They are responsible for providing visa,
documentation, transportation, etc. Tour starts with a contract signing between both parties.
Inbound tour operators- They collaborate with outbound operators to provide packages to
people. They are intermediaries who only builds their brand image in the market. They are
tourist that visit other countries and travel for tourism purposes. They promote international as
well as national tourism.
Domestic tour operators- It is also known as local tour operators who operates within boundary
of home country. Generally, they co operates with retail travel agents to provide services to
individuals or group of people. It is a type of tourism in which the residents of specific country
visits other places within their country.
Specialist tour operators- They usually do not have pre defined tour packages but develop and
creates packages on the demands of people. It is very difficult to develop a common package as
demands of people are different. Also, it takes a lot of time to create a package. Thomas cook is
considered as outbound operators as they mostly provide foreign tours to people. Apart from this
there are two important methods of contracting which is described below:-
 Fixed contract- It is a contract that is made in off season, where group of people who
already have their booking are entered in this contract. It offers discounts to people. It
main benefit is that before deciding number of travellers, the tour package is develop. It
is done to attract more people to join (Vrellas and Tsiotras 2015). It causes waste of
money and time as sometimes only few people are involved in this. It attracts a lot of
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customers as gives an insight to about the places that are going to be visited. Moreover, it
is very beneficial for tour operator as they focus on limited services to be provided.
 Sale only contracts- After identifying the requirements of clients these contracts are
developed. It is made in seasonal time of tourism sector. It includes cost estimation,
duration of tour, number of members, etc. Also, amount left after tour is returned to
customers. Tour package is developed after deciding number of people who ready to go
for tour. Thomas cook has made these types of contracts according to customers
demands. In this the tour services are provided through making payments for only that
part of service that is being used by tourists and as per sale of particular type of package.
Therefore, for potential customer sale only contract will be beneficial as it ensures
providing high quality service to them. Also, advance booking made by the will provide them
certain benefits as per the contract.
2.3 Calculating the selling price of holiday package
It is important to have proper estimation of tour package so that it becomes easy for
customers to know the total cost of tour package. Moreover, it provides an option to customers to
decide whether to choose available offer or not (Mobasher, Ekici and Özener 2015). However, it
is essential for tour operator to show what prices charged by them on different services.
Therefore, an estimated tour package is developed by Thomas cook in seasonal time that helps in
analysing prices charged by their competitors. Moreover, Thomas cook is recognised for its high
quality service so accordingly this package is made. Through this, cost which is involved in
services will be less as compared to individual who visit without package.
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Sight seeing that will be done in 7 days tour
will be as follows:-
Day 1: At 11 AM we will begin the tour by
visiting Christ the Redeemer which is a
famous statue at top of a mountain.
Day 2: Visiting Ipanema beach in evening at
4 .pm.
Day 3; Going to Fernando de Noronha a
famous island and national marine park at
12 noon.
Day 4: Visiting Beach park at 2 .p.m. for
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some thrilling experience.
Day 5: going to Sao Paulo Museum of Art
at 11 a.m and then shopping at 5.pm
Day 6: Sao Paulo Cathedral at 7 p.m.
Day 7: Visit the Iguazu falls and then march
to airport. 10 Pm
As per above statement, total selling price for the package is calculated and students are
required to provide an amount of £8510. The price mentioned is after adding profits. The selling
prices for 50 students for total of 7 days for Rio de Janerio is mentioned above.
TASK 3
3.1 Designing and planning a brochure
Usually brochure is used as an advertising and promotional tool for every organisation. It
is an easy way of promoting product as it contains specific information. It shows product features
and its price (Deresky 2017). In tourism sector designing brochure is very important as it helps
in giving brief introduction of tour package. It can be promoted both offline and online. The
attractiveness of brochure depends upon its designing and content. Tour operators should
effectively plan tour package before designing a brochure and promoting it. For this following
steps can be taken to design and plan brochure:-
 Deciding budget for brochure design- It is the first step in which a budget is decided
that shows all expenses that will occur. It gives an estimate of expenses (Dubey and et..al
2015).
 Objective- In this objective is decided that shows why a brochure is been designed. It is
the main factor that shows effectiveness of brochure.
 Target customers- The targeted customers are decided for which the brochure is
developed. It should be done so that no issue arises while promotion.
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 Collecting locus assignment- It is completely related to designing of brochure. In this
graphs, language, etc. are selected for brochure. It is ensured that design selected must be
attractive and contents should be easily readable.
 Deciding formatting- It refers to deciding colour of brochure and font of content. These
two must be decided in proper manner so that colour of brochure does not affect its
content. Effective pictures are also included in it ( White 2016).
 Paper quality- The management decides the quality of paper on which brochure has to
be printed.
 Draft content- Now in this the content related to tour package is written. It consists
services, operator name, details, etc. Moreover, price and places are mentioned in it.
 Timing- It is the most important stage in planning brochure. In this it is decides at what
time brochure will be completed and introduced in the market.
3.2 Suitability of alternatives to traditional brochure for different tour operators
In present era it is important to develop innovative methods of promoting a brochure. It
helps in attracting people and converting them to use tour operator services. In this context
Thomas cook has started using its website to promote its brochure. This has helped them to
effectively promote their tour packages without any problem. Moreover, it is been useful in
reducing their expenses due to online presence of brochure (Kang, Shin and Lee 2014). They
have stopped printing brochures and this has proved beneficial for environment also. Customers
can access their website from anywhere and at anytime. It is available to them 24*7 every month.
With this data can be collected of customers who have visited their website and has seen the
brochure. It will help them to analyse how effective their promotion is. Further, from website
people can also share brochure on social media or show it others. It will result in attracting more
audience. Apart from this Thomas cook can also use e mails as a effective tool in promoting
brochure. This will be useful in giving detailed information about services such as transportation,
accommodation, etc. with images and price (Prommarat, Pratoom and Muenthaisong, 2017).
Also, it will cover wide areas of targeted customers.
But on the other hand for domestic tour operators traditional brochure is way of
promoting their packages. It is because as they operate in small area they are easily able to attract
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locals. Also, through this they provide high quality services to locals. These services will be
beneficial for people who have low budget. Therefore, it is easy for domestic operators to attract
and gain customers.
Thus, it is clear that Thomas cook is able to attract more customers and promoting
through website is more effective and easier than traditional brochures. It allows Thomas cook to
gain competitive advantage by reaching to high number of customers.
3.3 Various distribution techniques used for selling tour packages.
In the traditional methods, the holiday packages were sold by the owner of the company
directly to the customers. Now, there are many intermediaries which help in selling the tour
packages to the tourists (Buckley, 2012). The methods which can be used to distribute the
packages are as follows:
There are various method of distribution which is used for selling a holiday for different types of
tours operator which are as follows:
 Travel agent: Between Thomas cook and customers there is significant link which helps
in making tours package. Here customers make contact with the travel agent and they
provide the different types of package for selling purpose (Erkuş-Öztürk and Eraydın,
2010). Role of tour agent while selling tour package is to book ticket, hotel,
accommodation and other activities. For instance, for selling tour package of Rio de
Jenerio all the booking and reservation of hotel is done by tour operator. Online booking: In modern era tour operator company started using new technology such
as online booking and reservation. It made easier for the firm to make contact with
customer through websites and customers can also see all the available packages on
company websites. This is one of the best selling medium which assist in promoting and
increasing profit.
 Collaboration with big firms: These tour operators can collaborate with big firm so that
their sell can be increase (Hays, Page and Buhalis, 2013). Here other organization
provide tour package to employees in form of gift. It is the easy way through which
worker of an organization can use tour package and it can be easily promoted. It is
benefited for the firm to increase sales and the firm get package at discount price due to
collaboration.
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