Trailfinders Ltd: Strategies for Effective Tour Operations Management

This report provides an in-depth analysis of tour operations management with a focus on Trailfinders Ltd. It examines the effects of current market trends and developments on the tour operator industry, including technological advancements, personalization, increased disposable income, and the impact of online reviews. The report assesses the stages and timescales involved in developing holiday packages, using a summer vacation educational tour from London to Brussels and Brugge as a case study. It evaluates the suitability of different contract methods for various components of the holiday and calculates the selling price based on provided information. Furthermore, the planning decisions taken for a selected brochure are evaluated, considering aspects like issue identification, cost, target market, tagline, format, and print specifications. The report concludes with recommendations for improving tour operations management strategies.

Tour Operations Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1.......................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.....................................................................................................................................13
Task 4.....................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
References list....................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Travel and tourism operators industries involve planning for operation
before they can launch packages into the market. The price determination
for packages, selection for tour destinations, availability of facilities and so
on are decided by studying the recent trends in the market of tour
operation. This assignment, with the help of a specific planning and
management plan for Trailfinders Ltd, has explained the role of planning
and management in tour operations, their steps and procedures, their
significance, and more.
The assignment has taken into account the different types of contract
methods, components of a travel plan, stages and timescales, costs and
management and more of a tour operation plan to establish an in dept
understanding of the whole process. The various stages involved in
planning a travel package is explored through counting of costs, planning
of alternatives, suitability of distribution and more.
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Task 1
P1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and
developments on the tour operators industry.
Tour operators study, examine and analyze the current market trends
before planning a tour package for their customers (Nagle and Müller,
2017). They treat their travel packages as a product of their industry;
hence plan its basic components like destination, costs, transport and
more.
The current trends and developments the current global tourism industry
has been discussed with their effects in the following points:
 Technological development – The advent of technology has led
to digitization of processes like ticketing, advanced booking,
selection of seats and more (Gurvey, 2018). This has brought about
a change in the quality of travel operations, and has made it easier.
 Personalization and optimization - Customers of tour operations
are increasingly looking for personalizing their tour plans by
planning their routes, transports and more with the help of
customization facilities offered by tour operators (Hoffman and
Offutt, 2015). Holiday packages of tour operators are often filled
with variety of options that can be designed according to the needs
of the customers.
 Increase in disposable income – The economic growth of
developing countries has had a positive effect in increasing the
disposable income of the customers of tour operators (Mason,
2015). The standard of living of people in general has increased,
leading to enhanced growth in tour and travel business.
 Marketing and advertising – With so many varieties available in
the market, travel companies are looking for defining tools and
techniques to market their products and services (Scott, 2015).
Some of the most popular tour operators like Expedia, TUI and so on
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are taking the help of social media marketing to make their
marketing strategy more attractive for customers
 Improved FDI rates – Due to rapid globalization in the past few
years, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounts have increased,
leading to the business growth of industries worldwide. Now,
countries have more capital and investment to make on their
individual companies, and tour operators are making the most of it
by expanding their travel packages to the countries they are
receiving the maximum FDI benefits from (Sassen, 2016)
 Online reviews – As travel companies go digital with state-of-the-
art websites and mobile apps to organize travel packages, their
online reviews and testimonials matter a lot in influencing behaviour
of potential customers.
 Increase in adventure trips – According to the Travel Trend
Report (2018), people are increasingly looking for more fitness-
based travel plans. They are preferring options of active and
adventure travel like an African safari, hiking the Swiss Alps and
more.
LEAFLET:
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Task 2
2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing
holidays
In order to make attractive travel packages, tour operators must indulge
in a detailed prior planning based on market trends (Horner and
Swarbrooke, 2016). Planning is the key to devising the best offers and
strategies for travel packages. It must be kept in mind that creation of a
travel plan includes involving the stages and more. The job to create a
detailed plan that involves the various stages and timescales for the
proposed summer vacation tour for 42 students for an educational tour
between London, the United Kingdom to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium.
The plan including stages and timescales to develop the summer vacation
August 2019 educational tour for 42 students is given below:
STAGE
S
DESCRIPTION OF STAGE ACTIVITY BRIEF TIME TAKEN
1. MARKET RESEARCH This activity
involves an in
depth research on
the customer
preferences of
locality, culture
and destination
(Kolb, 2018). This
would be based
on market trends.
Based on the
above, a tour
destination is
chosen (in this
case, it is the UK )
1 month
2. PLANNING and This stage 5 months
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SCHEDULING involves
determining the
tour destination
and investigating
about its
environment,
political situation,
social setting. It is
basically
analyzing the
PESTLE factors of
the destination
(Political,
Economic, Social,
Technological,
Legal and
Environment)
(Hiltunen, 2017).
This stage
involves selecting
the hotels and
planning other
things like date
and capacity.
3. NEGOTIATION This involves
negotiating with
the destination’s
hospitality
services,
alternatives and
options of
exploration, and
more
3 months
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4. TOUR PLAN DEVEOPMENT This includes
finalizing the main
service providers
like hotel
services, caterers,
beverages
management staff
and so on (Van
der Wagen et al.,
2018).
The stage also
involves deciding
on the facilities
that would be
provided to the
customers
availing the
package (here,
students would be
provided a 45-
seater luxury
coach worth with
road and ferry
service; a local
tour guide and
twin room with
breakfast by
Grand
Casselbergh in
Bruges at 92
euros)
6 months
5. FINANCES MANAGEMENT This stage 3 months
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includes
estimating costs
of service, travel,
destination
sightseeing and
more (Dwyer et
al., 2017.
6. MARKETING AND
ADVERTISING THE
TRAVEL PACKAGE
This stage is
where the costs
and facilities have
been decided and
the main
marketing
campaign has
started over
traditional or
digital media. This
is done by
promoting the
travel campaign
through
pamphlets, travel
magazines, social
media and more
5 months
7. POST-TOUR RESEARCH Once the tour has
been conducted,
the company’s
market research
team involves into
getting the
feedbacks,
reviews and
testimonials from
3 months
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its customers
(Bianchi, 2016)
Table 1: Timescales
(Source: Created by the learner)
2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for
different components of the holiday and different types of tour
operator
The contracts between tour operators and various stakeholders like
hospitality services, aviation, transport and more are usually fixed prior to
18 months of the travel package operation (Veal, 2017). The contract
allows tour operators to estimate their economic capacity in negotiating
with the concerned airlines and hotel services.
Generally, contracts are fixed at one time operations after much
negotiation, but due to the friendly relations between operators and
service providers, adjustments in costs can be made later during the
travel dates (Cetin and Yarcan, 2017).
The following are some methods of contracting that can be availed by
Trailfinders Ltd for the summer vacation August 2019 educational tour
between London, the United Kingdom to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium.
 Fixed contract – In this type of contracting, a fixed term
contractual plan is made which is agreed upon for no further change
in costing and increment of facilities or so (Bowie et al., 2016). This
means that whether the services are used or not, the payment for
these contracts would be levied. It is generally not preferred for
educational tours
 Ad-hoc contract – In this kind of contract, tour operators reach an
agreement of rates with the service providers but it is not a fixed
business commitment to the costing. (Avlonitis and Hsuan, 2017)
This is usually preferred for educational trips
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 Sale-only contract – This type of contract is a fixed cost
agreement between tour operators and various service providers
which includes higher prices than usual due to demands. This is
mostly preferred in holiday packages and business trips
It is therefore better for Trailfinders Ltd to make ad-hoc contracts with
their respective service providers for the educational trip.
The different types of tour operators in the market are the following:
 Inbound operators – These deal directly with foreign tourists,
attending to their visa requirements and other services like
accommodation, transport, currency and more on their arrival
 Outbound operators – These are operators indulging in catering
to multinational tours for foreign countries. They sell travel
packages to people from across the globe
 Domestic operators – These operators deal with local travellers
within the country, focusing on enhancing travel options within the
country
 Ground operators – These are operators that handle and arrange
for facilities for tourists, known as ‘land managers’ or ‘reception
operators’
For the August 2019 summer vacation educational trip of 42 students,
Trailfinders Ltd is acting as the outbound operator by facilitating their
visa confirmation, booking accommodation and so on.
2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information
above.
In the current scenario, Trailfinders Ltd is acting as the outbound operator
for the August 2019 summer vacation trip of 42 students (aged 18 years
and above). The trip is between
London, the United Kingdom to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium. The tour
duration is of 5 nights.
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