Tour Operator Management Report: Holiday Planning and Pricing Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of tour operator management, focusing on various aspects of the industry. It begins with an introduction to current trends in the travel and tourism sector, highlighting technological advancements, increasing spending power, and the importance of customer satisfaction. The report then delves into the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays, using a student trip to Paris as an example. It evaluates different methods of contracting for holiday components and different types of tour operators, including a comparison of Thomas Cook and Cox & Kings. A detailed calculation of the selling price for the Paris trip is presented, along with a breakdown of costs. The report also examines brochure design, distribution techniques, and the strategies employed by different tour companies. Finally, it discusses the decision-making processes of tour operators under various situations. The report concludes with a case study of Thomas Cook and provides insights into the challenges and opportunities within the tour operator industry.

TOUR OPERATOR
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Current trends in the travel and tourism sector...............................................................................3
2.1 Various stages and timescale in developing Holidays.......................................................................5
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of the
holiday and different types of tour operator..........................................................................................6
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information........................................................7
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Planning done for designing the brochure .......................................................................................7
3.2 Assessing different types of traditional brochure and comparing it with other tour operators ......8
3.3 Suitability of various techniques of distribution and different tour operator .......................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Strategies of different Tour companies ............................................................................................9
4.2 Different decision adopted by the tour operators under different situations................................10
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is special business sector where management earns profit for planning and
organizing tour for others. It has become the fastest growing business sector where every year
the business is growing at the rate of 4-7% in market and it is helping different nation to earn
revenues. Not only this, other segments like jobs, exports of goods and services also increases.
Various services are offered and arranged by the tour operator overspreading different ranges
and packages(KhairaP0F and Maher, 2012). This contributes making market growth in other
sectors also. Generally, it includes traveling, accommodation, different entertainment activities,
food and beverages operation and other facilities to the client under their budget. This is
completely managed by the tour operator. Minimizing the tour and traveling cost is main
operation of the tour guide. For organizing any tour, mainly hospitality services are taken care. It
should be excellent in quality wise. Tourism industry comes under the hospitality management
sector. This report will describe operation as well as work function of tour operators in tourism
sector situated in UK.
TASK 1
1.1 Current trends in the travel and tourism sector
Travel and tourism sector is gaining more importance in the developed countries like
UK. In many other countries, main source of income is tourism. In UK, mainly there are four
large companies in this sector and Thomas Cook is one of them. Thomas Cook is the first to start
this business segment from rail service in UK(Novelli and Hellwig, 2011). It is now completely
focused on the tour operator business and provides different tour package. For travel and tourism
sector some of the recent changes, major development and its effects on other sectors are
observed which are being described below: Technological Development: Due to modernization, technologies are getting updated
which is helping in the growth of tourism sector. By using internet, many customers can
book online packages, view different services provided by the companies. This helps the
organization to get overview of other customer. Tour operator also provides to browse
different destination and services through internet to customers. Due to technological

development, many customers from other countries can easily access different facilities.
It also contributes in increasing the number of consumers. Increment in splurging power: During the vacations people use to spend more on
traveling and tourism sector. More the money spent, increase the profit margin. It also
helps in development and growth of this sector(.Molina, Gómez and Martín-Consuegra,
2010). Planning for Holidays: Different companies are attracting customers by offering various
holiday packages. They can choose different countries, places, services, hotel range, and
amusement activities according to their budget. Due to different offers, the price rates are
little lower from other packages. Thorough this way, organization aims to provide good
customers satisfaction. Business in tour and traveling sector: Travel and tourism is special sector which has
developed market in different ways. During holidays and festivals, they offer different
offers and packages to attract the customers. Satisfying customers needs: Many factor are their which this tour operators need to
focus Travel operators are required to satisfy their customers. Customer positive feedback
and satisfaction aids the company to grow further in this sector. If the firm gets negative
feedback then there are chances that other competitors took advantages of this things.
Customers experience will increase the employ-ability skills of workers and helps the
organization to provide better services to the users. All the travel operators know that
positive customer’s feedback will influence the previously customers for the second time
and will increase the competition environment for other competitors(Assaf, Barros, and
Dieke, 2011).
 Countries Economy: The sector helps to increase the country’s GDP level as well as
contribute in the economy of the nation. Companies like Thomas Cook earn profit from
different others sources. This include hotels, restaurants, amusement parks and different
other things. It also provides growth to the country. Further, it also increases the
employment level, import and export of different services and goods. Investing in such
business is profitable for the stakeholders.
TASK 2

2.1 Various stages and timescale in developing Holidays
For traveling to any place, planning plays necessary role. It plays integral role in
organizing the complete overview of tour activity in according to customers’ demands. It gives
them brief about the expenses and the time taken for visiting particular business trip they want.
For planning the trip to Paris , France, much of the time will be consumed in identifying the
places, traveling time to reach that place and getting other necessary accommodation. There is
also need of local tour guide which will help describe the local, historical and monumental
places. All this could cost more than the budget and lot of time is consumed in research and
sometimes costumer may get tricked by different greedy people. Taking help from the tour
operator can avoid all such possibilities. For organizing a holiday, planning is necessary which
may include several factors other than necessary ones like currency exchange, different taxes
structure(Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). Some of stages are described below for
organizing the holiday package for these students by tour operator:
 Examine the destination completely while traveling to different places, it can include
details regarding the different places to visit and external factors.
 As it is tour for the student in summer so for them research related to some historical
places, monuments or exhibition and other places where they could understand more and
enjoy. This research should also include places which can be adventurous as well as
entertaining. So for visiting Paris , identification of different places researches are
needed to make tour interesting.
 For the selected destination traveling, accommodation as well as food and beverages can
cost more. So negotiation of prices should be such that tour package can be made under
the budget .
 After negotiation and research done on planning, now the development plan for the tour
can be decided. This should be newly designed so that the organization can promote its
business worldwide.
All these tasks may include certain time for planning and organizing the event which can be
around 2-3 days after consulting the students. After finalizing also, certain time is required for
making settlement and arrangement which can be around 1-2 weeks. At Thomas Cook, we will
surely make interesting, adventures, economical as well as affordable holiday package to the
students(Baddeley and Font, 2011).

2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of the
holiday and different types of tour operator
'Organizing special holiday package' is the main aim of our organization. To provide best
choices and offers to our costumer so they can have confidence in us forever. Thomas Cook UK
has many traveling brands all over world. Airtours, Cresta, Sunworld, Sunset, Thomans Cook,
Thomas Cook essentials, Tours and sports are their main traveling brands. It has over 300 travel
guides which are covering 150 destinations all over world. We offer best services in all terms
and understand that costumer should also get wide range of best experience. Main sector is
divided six different divisions. Thomas Cook has been awarded to be the Best Tour Operator
Award worldwide. It is leading brand for adventure and experience. It is expanded over
worldwide. Its sectors provides different services like sports provided by Thomas Cook Sports.
Airtours provides charter planes to see the world from sky. Sunworld our insurance company
and many more which includes hotels, and other adventures activities. Thomas Cook is
completely focused on the travel business and airlines(Mak, 2011).
There are different methods which are available online and offline to book different tour
packages by various tour operators. The booking can be based on the sale and fixed contract. For
the current project Thomas Cook and Cox and Kings both are private firms. Both are based on
the tour and traveling business. Thomas Cook includes transportation, accommodation and other
amusement activities which are planned by world class tour operators. They joined with
MyTravel in order to earn more profits. Cox and Kings provides luxury and lavish holiday plans.
Thomas Cook utilizes the local market to provide best services to their costumer. Methods for
selecting tour operators are described below: During the off season the company needs to collect
full revenue. So fixed contract helps them to decide to tour package having fixed volume and
which utilizes complete services. The fixed contract is based to utilize the services which are not
occupied and collect the amount from the services which have been allotted. This collects little
revenue. Second one is sale contract which is suitable for the commoners. It includes the prices
of accommodation as well as travel (Frey and George, 2010). The services do not includes other
unutilized charges of other services.

2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information
For the given project which includes 5 days package to Paris for 15 students from
London. For arrangement are made by the tour operators. A tour guide is hired for further
detailing students. For the students accommodation are booked and are arranged in St. Michelle
Hotel. It is one of the best hotel their. It needs to be shared by two students. They will move in
the morning through our Thomas Cook airlines which would be the fixed cost. It will be around
£70 per person included return cost. The accommodation charges will be 60 euros per night. For
the complete group when in Paris, Luxury couch is booked which can accommodate 20 persons,
2 drivers and would be costing them around £1000. For exploring Paris and visiting different
places the tour guide charged around 200 euros. For site seeing and visiting different places
entry charges would cost you around 60-70 euros. Your first visit would start after having
breakfast at hotel to Champs-Elysees for viewing Arc de Triomphe. From their to the
underground Roman ruins and the Saint-Chapelle Chruch and Notre Dame. Then for the lunch
and again moving forward to places like Pantheon, Jardin du Luxemberg. And at last in evening
to the Saint Sulpice church. Till then it would be late afternoon cafe and back to hotel. Second
day will include the visit to popular museums for enhancing the knowledge. We would be
visiting popular museums like The louvre, Musee d'Orsay and lastly Musee de I'Orangerie.
Day 3 will include visit to The Palace of Versailles and other adventures activities. This day
would be busy in visiting the single place as it is away from main city. 4th day visit to beautiful
Eiffel Tower(Dodds and Kuehnel, 2010). Over there some games and activities are being
planned. Near to it is Rue Cler where you can enjoy good Persian eateries. In Afternoon visit to
the museum of the Shoah. The last day will include visit to Paris Catacombs and lastly to Rue
Mouffetard. This street is filled with many shops and market. You can enjoy there till late
afternoon. And back flight would be at 22:00 which you would take after taking your dinner.
Total charges would be around £6150 which will include taxes. It is the lowest price offered in
the summer season.

TASK 3
3.1 Planning done for designing the brochure
For promotion of holidays, brochure are made for providing details and selling the
packages. This can be through online and offline promotion. Brochures of Thomas Cooks
forecast the lowest cost of package and includes many places for the visit. The organization
knows how to gain more costumers. For designing the brochure research and planning is done. It
includes different fonts color, size and various attracting images of respective sites. For making
the brochure design, format, budget, timescales and various stages should be included. The
brochure should include the necessary details about the holiday package. In UK there are many
brochure printed daily and millions of copies. Thomas Cook not only promote the holiday
package offline but they make the online e-brochure which is send through emails and other
promotional sites. The attracts more and more costumers and promote company. Including
famous locations and scenes. Photos attracts more costumers and it the effective way of
convening the costumer(Chaudhary, 2010). Allow the reader to explore more from the brochure
about the images clicked and locations. Include the beautiful adventure and experience of
costumers.
3.2 Assessing different types of traditional brochure and comparing it with other tour operators
Their are many stages involved in building the brochure. After proper planning and
research the steps are taken to build the brochure. Up-gradation of the traditional brochure is
required to influence more costumers. Something new and special should be included and added
to the previous brochures. The quality and appearance is needed to be improved. Because of the
technological development now specialized features and effective methods should be adopted to
make the appearance better. Traditional only message was conveyed to the costumers but now
through online brochure many other things can be included. It is cost effective and prevents
additional expenses. Another methods can be adopted by promoting the business firms that are
combined or attached with Thomas Cook. For illustration we can use Sunworld and Thomas
Cook Travel in the same brochure to reduce the cost of production and increase promotions.
Using social media also the company promotes it brand and attract different costumer from

different countries. Convening massage through e-brochure can not only save money but also
environment.
3.3 Suitability of various techniques of distribution and different tour operator
Changing world makes everything to change or else it will ruin the organization. Thomas
Cook has adopted various new methods for promoting their services like online medium, offline
medium, call centers, emails and direct sales. All this methods adopted by Thomas Cook helps it
to increase its business promotion. It has largely contributed to the profit of the organization.
This way many costumers get attracted and avail the services during the holiday and off season.
The market analysis of Thomas Cook tells that the organization is making profit in this
sector(Page and Connell., 2010). Their are many subscribers and followers of Thomas Cook on
Facebook, twitter and YouTube. Using the advertisement also they can promote the company.
Through internet Thomas Cook easily get attached to many costumers and their number is still
increasing. Online marketing also helps to promote more the traditional brochure.
TASK 4
4.1 Strategies of different Tour companies
For being successful different strategies are needed in marketing environment to be above
the competition and other competitors. Long term planning and different aspect can lead you
better then others. Also stakeholders are attracted to those firms which are makes profit in the
market. For Thomas Cook one of the competitor is the STA travel. It the world largest travel for
the students and is established over 90 countries. They generally provide allowance to the
student by 20% of the market rates. Special offers attract more students to avail the service. The
firm has more than 375 travel agencies in over 17 different countries. This firm is also famous in
Europe and other continents. The market strategies adopted by the other firms to lower the
market rate of Thomas Cook is the Discount prices. Earning profit is the main reason by giving
more discount and availing more services. Pricing always remains the main aspect for costumer
to avail any services. High discount in keeping profit margin needs lot of market planning. The
price rate increases more costumer towards firm. Taking the final decision about the tour need
planning according to the costumer budget. The costumer reads the feedback of other costumer
who had avail the service previously(Spilsbury, 2011). If reviews are negative they would not

choose the service. So while taking decision in reducing the price overall budget is estimated by
the firm. Organization uses different promotional activities to influence the costumers. Services
also attracts the costumer. Thomas Cook is awarded to be the best service provider to the
costumers. During off season and holidays also affects the pricing of the firm. Pricing strategy
always changes the competition between the firms. Using proper strategic planning the firm
should decide rates and offers of the holiday package. After all this they should make the
promotion of the organization.
4.2 Different decision adopted by the tour operators under different situations.
The decision making process by the tour operators is based on the firm and costumer
budget. While making the tour decision many problems arises. Some are internal and some are
external. Internal problem can be related to the tour organization and external problem can be
related to the costumers(Page, and Connell, 2010). Tour operators should have different methods
in order to handle all such situations. This also tells the handling capacity of the tour guide. If the
situation arises to the costumers, tour operators should sort it as soon as possible. The experience
of the costumer will raise the company fame. The remedies provided instantly will give positive
feedback of the costumer. Different travel agencies uses different influential methods to attract
costumers. Now a days there are many online travel operator which are operating online and are
guiding costumer to help out their situation and problems.
CONCLUSION
Tourism has increased due to the globalization . Tourist visit different places in order to
enjoy their holidays. above report helped in highlighting the working of the tour operators. The
tour management and different methods adopted in solving the problems. Thomas Cook has
really made positive image through its traveling business. Second task describe how to organize
tour, planning required and the pricing method. It gives the broad idea about how to make
holiday packages. In third task need of the brochure is explained. It designing and planning is
explained clearly. The last task includes the comparison and different strategies needed to avoid
competition with other tour operators. The is further more scope in this industry.

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