Unit 14 Assignment on Tour Operations Management

Introduction

Unit 14 Assignment on Tour Operations Management is based on the tour and travel industry and its information. The report discusses the detail description of the travelling industry and discusses the tour operators and their work or activities. The report also explains about the contribution of the tour operators in the tourism industry. In tour operations management assignment report the explanation is based on the scenario provided in which a tour is organized of 45 students of the Chinese culture for visiting London to Paris covering 5 days of the vacation. The tour operator is provided with the following information and asked to prepare a proposal for the tour to manage the resources in the efficient manner and to make the trip in time and effective.

This report is divided in 4 different tasks including the different methods contracting with the components of the holiday, decisions to be taken while designing a brochure, alternative of the traditional way of promoting the tourism and the various methods of distribution and selling the holiday. It also includes the evaluation of the selling price in which the company can earn 20% of profit.

Task 1

1.1 Analyse the effects of current and recent trends and developments on the tour operators industry.

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Task 2

2.1 Assess the timescales involved in developing this holiday.

For the effective planning of the tour it is important to develop the timescale of the holiday to provide the effective planning and better utilization of the holidays. The development of timescale provides the better management of the time duration in the holiday. By timescale the given minimum time of the holiday can be effectively utilized.( Mann, et.al, 2002) Some of the major timescales involved in developing the holidays are discussed below:

• Analysing the destination-The important activity in the timescale involves the examination of the destination place for better understanding the culture, weather, and various places of the particular destination to visit.
• Research-The research activity includes the investigation of the various features that can be offered to the visitors of the selected place. By the research various other aspects can be investigated and examined for providing better tour.
• Negotiation-The negotiation with the service providers is important to include as the activity in planning the holiday.
• Financial evaluation and pricing-The evaluation of the  financial resources  needed to be done in the planning activity of the holiday. The determination of the pricing is also needed to be done during planning.
• Tour operator’s brochure-The brochure for the tour is to be considered while planning the holiday.( Barr, et.al, 2010)

2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of the holiday.

The contracting refers to the dealing and enters into the agreement. It is the deal done for the agreed value for the product or service. For planning the holiday different contracts are to be made to make the holiday success and plan facilities.

Components of holiday are the included places and various features of the holiday. The hotels, transportation, sightseeing places and the different things included in the holiday package are the components of the holiday.

There are different methods of contracting adopted by the tour manager. These methods are:

• Fixed contract-The fixed contracting refers to the dealing done on the high consumption basis. Fixed contracting has the fixed package provided by the provider in which the same offerings are provided on the fixed prices to everyone. The fixed contracting is effective in the bulk consumption or the high level of consumption done by the large number of people. The fixed contracting involves the higher discounts offers as the large group is assumed to consume the product or service. In this contract the service providers fix the rates of the bookings on the basis of volume or the number of people takes the facility. The fixed contracting is beneficial for the larger number of booking so as to get the maximum discounts and class facilities at the low prices.
• Sale only contract-Sale only contract are the contracts which are comparatively high in prices and costly. The Sale only contracts are generally done in the peak season of tours where the need of getting the facilities are prior and the service providers take the benefit of such prior needs. The cost of the services is marked as high to generate extra profit and create the maximum benefit. The service provider offers the high cost to the potential consumers and earns the maximum benefit. These contracts basically focus on the prospective customers and provide the facilities on the way higher prices. But these contracts bear the risk of less response as they are the costly and focus only on the particular segment.(Popp, R.K. 2012)

These are the two methods of contracting with the components of the holiday. These methods are adopted by the service providers during the tours. The more suitable method of contracting is the fixed contracting method. This method is much reliable and less costly. This is done for the bulk or the large number of tourists.

Tour operator is the person guiding the tour and managing the tours and the provided services. Tour operator is the assistant to the people visited for the holiday. Different types of tour operators are:

• Inbound tour operators- The inbound tour operators are those who are directly bounded with the tourists and provide them the facilities and services from their arrival till their departure.
• Outbound tour operators- The outbound tour operators offer the services to the group or individual of the same country as well as another country.
• Domestic tour operator- The domestic tour operator is the person who provides the services domestically to the home country of the operator. The domestic tour operators guide the people who visit in the domestic country of the operator.
• Ground operators- The ground operator is the particular agency and the service providers who book the destinations and hotels etc. from their particular place. Ground operators provide the facility of bookings ready at the destination places.(Marinov. et.al, 2010)

2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information below.

As per the present scenario the hotel St. Michelle providing the special rate to our group that is the room as big as shared by 2 adults is offered at 54 euros. The transportation company providing whole cost of transportation in £5,400 in which the 50- seater luxury coach is included plus the two drivers and fuel and taxes included. The local guide will be needed for visiting the destined places is to be provided for the £900 for five days. The company is expecting or demanding 20%of profit margin for the tour conducted. The calculation of selling price is shown below:

Calculation of selling price of tour:

Task 3

3.1 Evaluate the planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure.

The tourism sector uses the various brochures and pamphlets to attract the visitors and determine the travelling features. The traveling and tourism industry provides the detail information of the travelling and its expenses by providing the brochures and enhance maximum attraction of the visitors by making the brochure or the pamphlet attractive. (Baur,A.,et.al, 2014)

For making the brochure attractive the design of the pamphlet or the brochure should be effective as well as attractive. The various planning decisions for the design of the selected brochure are:

• Identification of the factors affecting planning decisions:The major factors that should be considered while planning the design of the selected brochure is that target of preparing the brochure, its format, its aim to provide the information, and the time to prepare the brochure.
• Brochure format:The brochure format should be considered while planning the brochure. To make the format of the brochure things that should be taken into consideration are name of the tour company, time of the tour, destination explanation, transportation, cost involved and other important issues.
• Determining budget and target market:The planning decision of designing the brochure is also affected by the budget and target market. The budget and target audience should be considered to determine the actual cost that could be incurred and the target audience which need to be focused for selling the tour.
• Stage and the time limit-The determined time limit to complete the designing of the brochure should be considered in planning the activities of the designing the brochure and the stages which should be accomplished within the time limit should be remembered.( Capsule, et.al, 2011)

3.2 Assess the suitability of alternatives to a traditional brochure for different types of tour operators and recommend the most appropriate for your tour package.

In the particular task the two different tour operators are taken these are Air tours summer and Thomas cook cruises summer. The present task will be describing the alternatives to the traditional way of promoting and selling tour through brochures. The two tour operators have been chosen for analysing the alternatives.

Due to the online system and the new technologies various techniques and the methods have changed. The tour operators are now generally providing all the information on their websites regarding the tour. The traditional way of selling and promoting can only be existed by the modern ways. The online technology has changed the methods of promoting the business. To attract the large amount customers all over the world the tour operators has the alternative available of e-brochure. By the use of e-brochure the tour operators can improve the communication as it provides fast and effective communication. These new availability of alternatives provides the tour operators a big opportunity of attracting the customers and the visitors and attracts the higher profits.

The online technology has given the opportunity of e-brochures to access the maximum public all over the world which helps in promoting as well as getting business in a huge amount. In case of Air tours summer and the Thomas cook summer it has been seen that the customers are the attracted by the strategy of e-brochures to their websites and earning greater revenues with the lowest cost. The online technology which enables the e-brochures has provided the facility of accessing the greater public within the low cost of promotion and attracting them by offering them the offer prices of the services. These e-brochures must contain the attractive visual effect which grabs the attention of the people or the visitors of the site. These effective visuals provide the benefit of clear understanding of the package or services and impact highly on the customers through attractive images.

Visual e-brochures involve the benefit of promoting them on the other social or public sites which grabs the attention of the public. There are various types of video brochures which can be easily uploaded on the different sites such as Youtube. The visual effect clears the picture of the destination in the mind of the customer and helps in taking the various decisions related to tour. The visual e-brochures include the prices as well as the explanation of the destinations.

The appropriate alternative for our tour package is the online e-brochures. For enhancing the productivity and providing the effective promotion and selling of the tour our tour needs to adopt the e-brochure facility. The company needs to adopt the visual and video of e-brochures to promote and expand the business all over the world. For increasing the productivity of the touring company it is important to adopt the e-brochures and online technology methods.( Leon, et.al,  2013)

3.3 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of distribution used to sell a holiday for different types of tour operator and recommend the most appropriate for your tour package.

There are different methods of selling the tour or the holiday for different types of tour operators. These methods are the direct selling, online selling, telephonic selling, promotions and selling via call centres. These are the methods help in the attracting the customers easily as this information are provided at their door step to increase the effectiveness and providing ease to the companies. Email marketing is the popular method for the companies to promote and get sales through emails. These emails provide the complete information of the tour with the prices. The different packages of the company and different schemes are completely described in the brochures and the email.

For our tour the appropriate method of distributing and selling the holiday will be the online and telephonic selling. For promoting the tour it is important to grab the attention of the mass public all over the world. Taking business online is the most important aspect for the business to get the maximum benefit and to create the maximum existence of the business all over the world. The email method is the popular and effective method of promoting the business. For our tour it is the appropriate method to adopt.(Popp, R.K. 2012)