Tour Operations Management: An Analysis of Trailfinders

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Tour Operations Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................11
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................19
Appendix........................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
Travel business dates back since 19th century. The tour and travel operation business has
captured the present market. This business is intended to offer the economic activities by means
of regular selling and purchasing of different travel services for customer’s satisfaction. Travel
seemed to be fascinating the human beings largely. The mass numbers of tourists are demanding
to provide tourism service and thus, the tourism industry is facing a challenge to meet the needs
of modern travellers and tourists. In this assignment, the effects of recently developed trends on
the tourism sectors will be analyzed. Thereafter, different stages involved in the development of
holidays will be assessed. The methods of distribution in selling the holidays along with the
ability to review brochures will be discussed. The concepts of several strategic as well as tactical
decision-making in the tourism industry will be elaborated. A comparison of those tactical
decisions that could be taken by the Trailfinders tour operator in various situations will be
explored.
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Task 1
1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and developments on the tour
operators industry.
A tour operator purchases individual travel parts from different suppliers and transform into a
package tour sold separately at its own price to the customers or with the help of intermediary
(Crane and Matten, 2016). Tour operators are responsible for providing the services related to a
package tour. The services are provided from their own hotels, cars, coaches, or other travel
linked services or may be obtained from other individual suppliers. Hence, the tour operators are
also known as manufacturers of package tourism. They also work as the wholesalers since these
tour operators have purchased sometimes bulk services of good quality. Thereafter they retail the
package to the travel agencies or straightway to the customers and clients. They can either use
own or formulate new package tours such as inclusive tours. The tour operators are dynamic in
providing various kinds of tour packages to meet specific needs of the travellers. There are
different types of tour operators available in the market such as inbound, outbound, domestic,
destination, incoming, specialist, direct sell operators etc.
Outbound Tour Operators: The outbound tour operators promote their leisure or business tours
to the foreign sites and destinations. The outbound tour operators are increasing day by day.
Examples include, Thomas cook, TCI, SITA etc (Sangeetha, 2015).
Inbound Tour Operators: Inbound tour operators are termed as incoming-tour operators. These
tour operators welcome the guests, tourists, clients, and involved in the management of several
arrangements within a country. Examples include, ASA tour ltd., UK; Costa group, Spain;
Parkviewviaggi, Italy, etc. Are few inbound tour operators.
Domestic Tour Operators: A domestic tour operator usually operates in assembling tourists
materials and integrates into inclusive tours and after that, these are sold to the domestic tourists.
They help in providing travel services to the travellers within the domestic boundaries. For
example, Golden tours, Rabble’s, E-voyages group, Leisure breaks, Jenny braden student
holidays, luxury vacations, hallmark incentives, Garfit cultural tours etc.
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Destination or Ground Tour Operators: These actually control other travel agencies. On
behalf of the overseas tour operators, they work to arrange tours for the incoming tourists.
Examples are Armchair destination management, Freedom destinations, Trivalley California,
Grand Indochina-Cambodia etc.
Current and recent trends in tour industry:
Nowadays people want more adventure and fun in their lives and therefore they tend to take a
break from their daily routines and work to explore the world (Lefebvre, 2017). Since these new
travellers demands new types tours and plans therefore the tour operators must be acquainted
with the modern trends too. Following the recent trends, the tour operators can design and offer
fully customized or specialized package tours. The trending tourism has been possible through
the attitudes, behaviour, expectations, requirements, adventurous features and other factors of the
modern travellers.
Transformed face, mind, and nature of the travellers: In today’s world, people are more
expecting to explore new and different tourism experiences. In addition to this, the travellers
require different adventures, thrill, and should be fit according to their life style. However,
sometimes the bioterrorism and threats in a country affect the tourism business. Recently, the
concept of sustainable tourism idea has been emerged (Mihalic, 2016). This kind of sustained
tourism are eco-friendly and very flexible. Trailfinders has identified the changing face of the
tourists and working accordingly to meet the needs of their clients. The national tourism plan has
changed the face of tourism too. The revolution in the global hospitality changed through the
perspectives of people such as they are now coming from different demographic regions and the
way of booking tickets have been changed as well.
Advanced Technologies: Technology means everything to the modern people. People are solely
dependent on the internet and mobile technologies. People cannot spend a single day without the
electronic gadgets such as laptops, notepad, iPad, tablet, headphones etc. Similarly, technology
has also influenced the look of tourism industries (Berger, 2015). As a result, the tourists have
now felt the changes in tourism too. The technology has made possible to make the tourist’s
dream come true. The development of the technology has a huge positive impact in the tourism.
Technology has done a great job in making possible of online faster booking and reservations of
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railway and flight tickets, hotels, motels, cars, and even visiting places in advance with just
simple clicks. Travellers can easily check for any travel updates online without visiting
personally and wait in a long queue. The travel companies communicate with their travellers by
sending immediate text messages or emails. Other family members can also check by using the
online tracker systems. Several hotels and tour operators are offering loyalty points. The
websites along with mobile apps allow checking the status and thereby redeeming any points
(Tanford et al., 2016).
Sometimes, the same are transferred to the mobile wallet that allows skipping any printing
processes. The travellers are now able to compare different rates and prices of different travel
components and services online. Trailfinders also uses such app in getting in touch with their
clients or tourists. There are other technological improvements in the tour operators that facilitate
the ease of the guests, clients, travellers, businessperson, etc. residing in the hotels. For example,
the automatic locking and unlocking system of the hotel rooms, turning on/off the air
conditioners automatically, electronic showers, heaters, tea and coffee makers, sensor-assisted
television control etc.
Implementation of IT in tourism industry: Modern digital living is so advanced that
communicating along with seeing each other’s face became very easy. Travellers can contact
with people from far distance irrespective of time and distance. For instance, home shopping,
tele-entertainment, tele-medical facilities, and even telebanking are possible nowadays. People
living far apart need such technologies where they cannot reach the suppliers or service providers
physically. Thus, ICT as a modern travel-assisting tool has been proved effective in the tourism
industries (Tribe, 2016). Trailfinders has utilized such ICT systems to provide quality tour
packages to their customers.
Other Technologies: This technology used in tourism has revolutionized the tour industry.
Augmented Reality as well as Virtual Reality: There has been an increase in the use of
augmented and virtual reality in tourism industry. It has gained popularity among the travellers
too. These technologies help to reform marketing or improved tourist’s experiences. The
example could be use of such AR and VR technologies in the airports (Jung et al., 2016). These
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applications of technologies assist the travellers in highlighting the cabins and premises around
the airports in advance.
Artificial Intelligence: AI is one of the biggest discoveries in the field of technology. However,
there are least AI applications observed in the tourism industry. The major AI categories include,
TravelBots, ChatBots, Robots, machine learning etc. are innovations that are utilized in the
tourism sectors (Gretzel et al., 2015). Trailfinders should also implement AI since the cost of this
technology is not very expensive as thought earlier. The high speed of AI tourism might use 4G
cellular network for achieving better communication in a reliable way. The algorithms used in
these AI systems are also changing and improving to provide best service.
Please see Appendix for the leaflet
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Task 2
Introduction
In this report, various stages along with the timescales associated with developing holidays will
be discussed. Apart from that, different methods of contracts and their suitability in the tour
operators will be explored. Given the case scenario, the selling price of a holiday will be
calculated.
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays
In order to design a luxury coach and educational tour for the adult student team planning to visit
Brussells and Brugge in Belgium from London during summer of 2020, Trailfinders should
follow as follows:
Market Research: In order to perform a market research two aspects of economic and demand
research should be considered (Chen et al., 2015). The economic research involves in estimating
the economic stability of the specific country to be travelled. In addition to this, the foreign
exchange rates, competitive prices, tourism subsidy, inflation, and cost in the infrastructure and
developments overseas market should be researched in detail. Apart from this Trailfinders should
also do a demand research in order to understand the extent of business available to design the
luxury coach for the educational tour. By performing market research, Trailfinders can make
strategy to provide quality educational tour. The questions can be asked from a number of people
in a form of questionnaire. Other market research will be performed such as, consumer and
competitors research, product and sales by Trailfinders.
Planning and Scheduling
A tour is planned based on the requirements of the tourists. Planning is usually done before
commencement of the actual tour (Ziakas, 2018). A detailed research is essential in order to
understand the tour’s requirements. The research should be done based on availability of
accommodation, attractions, transport facilities (air, road, or sea), activities etc. The cost of the
hotel should also be determined in such a way so that students can afford it. The holiday
planning should be organized in terms of staff’s schedules and allocations of different tasks.
Choosing the right person for the right task is one of the important factors affecting a tour. The
availability and skills should be considered in this case. There should be a proper management in
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the handling of contingencies and misshaped works so that over staffing or under staffing can be
controlled.
Contracting Trailfinders has planned to utilize the scheduled services of the luxury coach on
contract.
Costing of holidays The tour budget is considered as a detailed costing sheet that will include
the entire cost of the tour (Walmsley, 2018). Therefore, Trailfinders should make a budget plan
for standardizing the educational tour. Trailfinders would determine each and individual costing
of small sections before finalizing the budget. Individual cost for accommodation, travel, and
other budgets will be calculated and thereafter the final budget will be generated. The
accommodation cost must be calculated for fifty students for the educational tour. The students
would be advised to take Belgian franc rather than Euros during the education tour since the
local markets and shops uses Belgian franc as currency.
Compiling daily itinerary: The general and timed itineraries should be implemented.
Trailfinders would follow the guidelines of good itinerary that will help in identifying the
requirements of the educational tour.
Additional Requirements: There are few aspects that should be considered under additional
requirements of the educational tour such as,
Timescales: The timescales involved in the educational tour have been proposed as follows:
Serial No. Date and Time of journey Name of place
1. 15.07.2020 Local market, World War Battlefiels
2. 16.07.2020 Leaven
3. 17.07.2020 Mons, Keukenhof and Delf, Sint-Michiels
4. 18.07.2020 Dinant
5. 19.07.2020 Atomium,
6. 20.07.2020 kathedraal, Mannekin Pis, return to London at night
Table 1: Timescales involved in tour planning
(Source: created by the learner)
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2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of
the holiday and different types of tour operator
The tour operators make different contracts. These contracts are mainly used because these give
security to both the travel agencies, tour operators as well as the clients and are legally bound.
There are different types of contracts that are used by the tour operators including fixed contract,
ad-hoc contracts, allocation, and time series charters, split charters, scheduled, air brokers etc.
Different methods are available for the managers of the holiday to contact for the different
components. The methods are-
Fixed contract/commitment: A fixed contractor makes contract in the form of written
statements or an employment contract that can be terminated in future as soon as the service
period is over. This type of contract is used for a particular period only. In this tour contract, all
the rooms and seats are booked according to advance payment. This is particularly advantageous
to the suppliers since, they already have payment and therefore not dependent on the actual
selling of the rooms. These contractors are flexible and they can transfer their clients, tourists,
businesspersons as they like. They also can reduce the selling price or make changes at their own
risks.
Ad-hoc contracts: These types of tour operators make contracts in a previously agreed price and
always less than the rack rate. However, the hotels do not warrant the availability of the rooms.
Therefore, the tour operators do not guarantee the booking activities. Trailfinders should make
ad-hoc contracts with the team planning for an educational tour from London to Belgium. The
reason is ad-hoc contracts are popular for luxury travel companies. There is no risks in such
contracts but costly. This contract is also helpful in times of over booking. The tour operators can
easily use the contracts at the time of requirements in extra accommodation.
Allocation: The tour operators make agreements for booking a particular number of rooms in the
entire season. The contracts have a release date usually from 21-28 days before commencement
of the arrival. At that time, they can send any unsold space or rooms back to the hotel without
any problems.
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2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information above.
No of Student Room rent for twin
room with breakfast
(Euros)
Transport
(£ or
Pounds)
Guide
Charges
(£ or
Pounds)
Visitors
attraction/
person
(Euros)
50 89 6949 896 45.6
Euros Pounds/
person
Sub total
Students
number
50
Accommodatio
n
89 78.61 3930.5
Transport 6949 6949
Guide Charges 896 791.42 791.42
Visitor Place 45.6 40.28 2014
Exchange rate 1.14 to 1
Total 13684.92
Mark Up 28% 3831.77
Table 2: Calculation of the selling price for 50 students as on 3rd December 2018
(Source: created by the learner)
Conclusion
In conclusion, different stages in the development of holidays as well as the timescales involved
have been elaborated. The contract types and the specific contract should be adopted by
Trailfinders have been discussed. Moreover, the selling price the selling price of the educational
tour from London to Belgium has been calculated.
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Task 3
Introduction
The travel and tourism organisations uses creative brochures to market its different travel
packages. In order to design a creative brochure, it is important to consider different elements
like themes, contents, budget, photographs, paper, and its quality. Therefore, tour operators use
alternative brochures instead of traditional ones and Trailfinders can use these alternatives
methods as well.
3.1 Evaluate the planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure
The primary objective of brochure is to attract customers, so the brochure must be designed
accordingly. Hence, the brochure can be e-brochure or hard printed brochure. The function of the
brochure is to share about brand image of business and convey information regarding the
company’s strengths to the consumer in order to reassure them about the reliability of the
company. It also helps in determining the position of the company (Fahdiyar, 2015).
In order to design a tourism brochure, the following aspects must not be overlooked:
Cost involved: It is important to decide the budget for the production of brochure and its
distribution. The average amount spent on the printing and distribution of a brochure cost half of
the operational profits generated by any tour operator (Huertas‐Garcia et al., 2014). Therefore,
the tour operators must consider the characteristics of the target market and the available
opportunities to distribute the hard print brochures via various media including the wastage
involved.
Deciding the format: In order to decide the appropriate format of the brochure, the following
criteria are vital- theme, title cover, matter, font of text and usage of colours, pictures,
calligraphy style, quality of paper and size of the brochure. The theme is crucial, as the theme
contains a message for the target customers. The font of text is determines whether the content is
easy to read or not. Hence, the text must be chosen in relation to theme.
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