Tour Operations Management Report for LCB Tours - HND Unit 40

This report delves into the intricacies of tour operations management, focusing on the context of LCB Tours and the UK holiday scheme. It explores various aspects, including regulatory guidelines, different types of holiday packages (group, customized, and private tours), and the stages involved in developing them. The report examines contracting methods, emphasizing the suitability of fixed contracts for suppliers. It also covers the importance of detailed information about hotels, costing and pricing strategies, including fixed and variable costs, markup, and profit margins. Recommendations include careful planning of all activities, such as brochure planning, pricing strategies, and reservations. The report concludes by highlighting the complexity of tour operations and the role of efficient travel operators and managers in handling various processes simultaneously. The report includes references to relevant academic sources and research papers.

TOUR OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

Introduction
• Travelers who are travelling both across
borders and to domestic destinations do
not only look for a place to stay
• The services and hygiene quality, ease of
access, experiences of travelling,
activities and many other factors which
collectively form the travelers
experience later

Regulatory bodies
• For operating smoothly with the UK Holiday
scheme, LCB Tours needs to follow the
guidelines presented by the Travel Agency
Act in UK.
• The guidelines aim at setting fair transaction
practices in the business and hence improves
traveler convenience.
• There are also operation bond and
compensation bond systems in the Japanese
systems which are to be regularly reviewed
and considered.

Details of All-inclusive tour
• The tour details in the UK Package
include three types of packages
namely: Group tours, Customized
tours and Private tours.
• It has to be taken care that the tourists
do not miss any highlights in the
travel.
• Group travel schemes are more
focused on the main reputed areas in
the country.

Stages and timescale involved in developing
holiday packages
Steps in
developing
holiday packages
Month 1 Month 2 Month3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9
Research of
market
Scheduling
Contracting
Setting costs
Financial
evaluation and
prices
Brochure creation
Advertising
Operations and
execution
After tour
management

Suitability of different methods of
contracting
• There are different modes of contracting in
the tourism operations such as fixed
contracts, allocation contracts and ad-hoc
contracts.
• Fixed contract is better for the suppliers
because this means that the suppliers are
going to get paid even if the packages are not
sold to the clients.
• This contracting process is not beneficial for
travel operators.

Information about hotels in chosen
destination
• Detailed description of the
hotels, their services and
price ranges are to be
collected for evaluation.
• The next step is that the
princess and services
qualities are to be compared

Cost and selling price details
• The costing margins in Holiday
packages are usually quite low.
• The costing in any holiday
package has to be done with
extreme care since this requires
ample forecasting and
considerations.

Cost and selling price details
Fields Costs (RM)
Fixed + variable costs 3500
Direct + indirect costs 2100
Load factors cost 670
Mark up costs 1578
Profit margin 4%
Seasonal flexing costs 267
Competitive price 466
Skimming 567
Offers 345
Discounts 788
Selling price 10692.24

Recommendation
• Each and every step including price
setting and cost comparisons are to be
done very carefully by the travel
operators.
• It is beneficial for the TO for planning
all the activities such as brochure
planning, pricing strategies and
reservation and payments well ahead
of time before the tour is commenced.

Conclusion
• The variety of operations in a
single travel package make it a
very complex process as a whole.
• LCB Tours handles the whole
process simultaneously with
other travel packages with the
help of efficient travel operators
and managers at different levels.

Reference list
• Mason, P. (2015). Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge. Available at:
http://www.mu.edu.et/iphc/images/liblary/Heritage/Heritage_Culture_and_Tourism/Tourism_Impacts_Planing__devet.pdf
[Accesses 23/10/2018]
• Michalkó, G., Irimiás, A., & Timothy, D. J. (2015). Disappointment in tourism: Perspectives on tourism destination
management. Tourism Management Perspectives, 16, 85-91. Available at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211973615000677 [Accesses 22/10/2018]
• Molina-Azorín, J. F., Tarí, J. J., Pereira-Moliner, J., López-Gamero, M. D., & Pertusa-Ortega, E. M. (2015). The effects of quality
and environmental management on competitive advantage: A mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism
Management, 50, 41-54. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1cda/173e19eadff533262faa328c447219209667.pdf
[Accesses 23/10/2018]
• Page, S. J. (2014). Tourism management. Routledge. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317665922
[Accesses 29/10/2018]
• Picard, D. (2015). Making ecotourism sustainable: refocusing on economic viability. Lessons learnt from the “Regional strategic
action plan for coastal ecotourism development in the South Western Indian Ocean”. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(6), 819-
837. Available at:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/37135945/2015_JOST_Picardx.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ
2Y53UL3A&Expires=1542958905&Signature=8x0v4ZM40p0v7db7V5gHJ%2FIJgf0%3D&response-content-disposition=inline
%3B%20filename%3DPicard_D._2015_._Making_ecotourism_susta.pdf
[Accesses 23/10/2018]
• Salim, M. A. M. (2017). Enhancing destination image on tourism brochure of Barru Regency Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia: A
tourism discourse perspective. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis, 65(2), 247-257. Available at:
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/270774 [Accesses 27/10/2018]
• Scarles, C. (2016). Mediating the tourist experience: From brochures to virtual encounters. Routledge. Available at:
https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YYoWDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=tourism+brochure+management&ot
s=smbTnoaAh9&sig=9bBuWolsDvWZDaj16jaEGgS0rPU#v=onepage&q=tourism%20brochure%20management&f=false
[Accesses 23/10/2018]

Thank You