Analysis of Tour Operator Industry: E-commerce & Holiday Packages

This report provides an analysis of the tour operator industry, examining the impact of e-commerce and the process of creating holiday packages. It begins by discussing the rapid growth of the travel and tourism industry, driven by changing consumer preferences and the emergence of e-commerce. The positive impacts of e-commerce, such as convenient booking and cost-effectiveness, are highlighted, alongside potential negative impacts like security concerns and privacy issues. The report then outlines the key stages in holiday package creation, including market research, planning and scheduling, forecasting, contracting, and costing. Each stage is explained with a timeline, and justifications are provided for the time allocated to each activity. The report concludes with a list of references used in the analysis, providing a comprehensive overview of the tour operator industry and the factors influencing its operations.

Tour Operator
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TASK 1
With changes in attitude and preferences of people living in society, travel and
tourism industry has been facing a rapid growth in the overall market (Xiang, Magnini and
Fesenmaier, 2015). There are different types of developments that are taking place in the
entire industry and affecting the operations of tourism sector that is expansion of cruise
market, emergence of e-commerce, change in trends in holidays, etc. The recent trends and
developments on tour operator industry is emergence of e-commerce that positively and
negatively impact the overall industry. Positive impact of emergence of e-commerce is that
assists customers in booking their travel services by their own (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel,
2012). Another positive impact of using e-commerce is that it is conveniently in use as well
as it is also less costly for the organization that are operating in the tourism sector. On the
other hand, negative impact of e-commerce is that it might result in arising security issues.
Another disadvantage of e-commerce is that it avoid the privacy of the individual information
that results loss of personal information of customers while booking services via internet
platform.
TASK 2
Along with this, Tour Operator must focus on different stages that are involved in
creating holiday packages which are like- Market research- The foremost step in creating holiday is conducting market research
that is reviewing different destinations that tour operators should plan in their
packages for their customers to make them have pleasant and leisure visits (Sparks,
Bradley and Jennings, 2011). Planning and scheduling- Another step in developing the holiday include planning
and scheduling of activities related with destination that is transportation route,
accommodation facilities, sight-seeing activities, etc. Forecasting- After that, tour operator will forecast the actual financial as well as
technological resources that would be used in developing the holiday package. Contracting- Another step in developing holiday include contract with different
agents as well as hospitality organization so that they can make arrangements for the
customers for having leisure and luxurious stay (Telfer and Sharpley, 2015).
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 Costing the holiday- The last step involved in creating holidays include costing of all
activities.
Activities in developing holiday Time scale
1. Market research 1 month
2. Planning and scheduling 1.5 month
3. Forecasting 1 month
4. Contracting 2 months
5. Costing of holiday 6 weeks
(Source: Self attempted)
Justification-
There are different activities that are required in developing the holiday package for
the different segment customers the foremost activity is conducting market research that takes
approx time of 1 month the justification for this time scale is that through which they can
easily measure the different demands and needs of the customers. For planning company
focuses on time period of 1.5 month in which they review the transportation route,
accommodation facilities, sight-seeing activities, etc. for the holiday package. For contracting
2 months for making arrangements for the customers for having leisure and luxurious stay.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Sigala, M., Christou, E. and Gretzel, U., 2012. Social media in travel, tourism and
hospitality: Theory, practice and cases. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Sparks, B., Bradley, G. and Jennings, G., 2011. Consumer value and self-image congruency
at different stages of timeshare ownership. Tourism Management. 32(5). pp.1176-
1185.
Telfer, D. J. and Sharpley, R., 2015. Tourism and development in the developing world.
Routledge.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P. and Fesenmaier, D. R., 2015. Information technology and
consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the
internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 22. pp.244-249.
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