Unit 14 Tour Operation Management Assignment - Taj Tours

Introduction

In this Unit 14 Tour Operation Management Assignment Taj Tours we will talk about therecent and current trends related to tour and development industry, which can be technology development, tourism marketing and economy of country and so on. New methods also need to be discussed which are related to contracting. In this two methods have been discussed well with examples, which are sale only method and fixed contracting method. Different types of brochures also we will discuss so thatbest option can be choose for thetour and travel operators. Planning decisions also needs to discuss so that best option can be choose.And different decisions like tactical as well as strategic decisions we will also talk about in travel and tourism industry. In this report Taj tours is taken as the example for the tour and travel agency.

Task 1

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

In United Kingdom the tour and travel is gaining more and more importance. On the other hand it contributes a significant amount to the economy.Tourism and tours have the gathering of people to visit different places, to spend holidays and that also can be for the pleasure and refreshment.In United Kingdom in GDP it is contributing more than 9 %.  Other than this, the recent trends and development in the tourism industry with their effects are depicted below-

• Technological development- Now a day key areas are changing.Technology is being used at vast level for e.g. booking over internet, call and mobile texts are taking place more and more.tht can have the vast impact on the travel and tourism industry because all over internet is being used and people are also losing interest to go to travel operators and booking the tickets. Booking over internet is much in trend now a day. On the other handthe tour operators also updating their schemes and brochures on the sites to attract the customers.Taj tours also provide the facility of reservation as well as cancellation facility is also provided in online booking.
• Expansion as well as magnification of airports- In United Kingdomwe can see a regional growth in airports. So many airports have been opened with low prices. In last decade United Kingdom’s airports have been expended at large level.Facts and figures presented by the civil aviation authority (CAA) also shows that there is a great increase in the numbers of the tourists and travellers.With the development and growth of airports more flights can take by the tourists.
• Independent travellers– Independent travelling is also in trend now a day. And people can use cheaper holiday packages by surfing over the internet. Mostly, independent travellers are the persons who go for meetings and generally book long haul tickets.Taj tours also focusing on independent travellers to provide them better services(King & Gardiner, 2015).
• Increase in income of the individuals- As the income of the consumers is increasing the individuals also showing interest in tour and travelling. Because of that people investing their money in tour and travelling that is also increasing the income of the tour and travel industry.
• Verities of holiday packages- Now a day so many companies are putting steps in tour and travels to maintain the competency in the market travel operators are providing more and more verities to service seekers. That is also helpful in brand building as well as in increasing the customer loyalty.Tajtour is also providing the varieties of the holiday packages to maintain the pie the market(Balomenou&Garrod, 2014).
• Tourism marketing- Marketing in travel and tourism play a vital role to attract the service seekers.Tourism marketing is also helpful in acknowledge the service seekers related the destinations and other services which the travel operators are providing so that they can choose the best suit option.Taj tour is also focusing on the marketing so that the awareness can be generated among the service seekers(Kozak, et. al., 2013).
• PESTEL factors- Political, economical, social, technological, ecological and legal factors play a crucial role in shaping the travel and tourism industry.The growth of the tour and travel industry is mainly depends on the PESTEL factors only. For e.g. if there is no political stability the economy of that place is also not in sound condition. That will create the distraction of the travellers from that country.
• Satisfaction level of the service seekers- Customer satisfaction is thecrucial factor for the tour and travel operators or service providers. It plays the vital role in deciding the future of the agency. Positive consumer feedback is very helpful in creating the brand building as well as revenues of the travel operators.To increase the customer satisfaction employability skills need to be there among the employees or workforce of the TajTours. This can help in serving better to the service seekers.Tajtour majorly focuses on the customer satisfaction to maintain the customer loyalty as well as brand building(Evans, et. al., 2012).
• Economy of the country- Tour and travel industry play a very foremost role by contributing in economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) also gets effected by this and it also reduces the unemployment by providing the employment of the people of the economy.Other than this, tour and travel industry also helpful for the other stakeholders of the United Kingdom by generating profits in the economy.
• Niche segment of tourism- Niche segment refers the particular place for visiting in United Kingdom for e.g. who wants to travel London or Manchester. Other than this, newly married couples mostly prefer this service.Taj tour also prefers niche segment to attract the premium customers by providing them high quality services(Nessel, 2013).

Task 2

P 2.1 Assess the stages and timescales involved in developing holidays.

The stages and time scale involved in developing the holiday starts with the finding new destinations and ends up with the completion of the tours. This is mainly conducted for the satisfaction of tourists. The certain stages described below-

Finding of new places and destinations- The main purpose of this first stage in developing holiday package is to analyse the factors which are linking with the particular or specific destinations by Taj tours(Picard & Robinson, 2011). In this certain factor also followed like-

1. Analysing the political, social, economical, technological and legal factor so that the future of the tourism industry can be determine.
2. Targeting the customers so that; marketing can be done accordingly.
3. Preparation of tour and travelling needs.
4. Analysis of new destinations with other alternative destinations.
5. Commencement with suppliers.
6. Preparation of policies of Taj tours etc.

• Tour development- As the analysis is completed regarding the destinations and preparation of polices, second phase takes place that is development of attractive tours and journey. It is dependent on the two things mainly, which are research on new destinations as well as preparation of other things like questionnaire for acknowledging the satisfaction of service seekersand brochures etc.(Kozak, et. al., 2013)
• Contracting with vendors as well as other tourism operators- TajTour operator needs to work with so many vendors. So the management of the Taj tour need to negotiate with the others like hotel owners for accommodation of the passengers, air carriers through the other travel agencies etc. it is best that there must be contract sign that will reduce the conflicts in future.
• Costing of the tour and travel package-This is very crucial aspect of organisation behaviour which a tour operator like Taj tours needs to be keeping in mind.Taj tourgenerally does not design the tourism or holiday package. But it assembles its services from the other travel operators. It needs to be analysing the cost of the tour package. That cost can be divided into sub-categories like- accommodation prices of hotels and conveyance facility charges(Buckley, 2014).
• Evaluation of finance and pricing as well- After the costing; evaluation of finance is done. That can be very complex step for the Taj tour because of so many external factors like government policies and exchange rates.Pricing can be decided on the two bases by Taj tour, first is cost basis and second is market basis etc.(Hsieh, et. al., 2010).
• Marketing of tour package- Tour marketing is very sophisticated strategy. It is done to understand the requirements of the service seekers and so that tour operators canfulfil these requirements. Tour package marketing is totally different from the other marketing.For e.g. the marketing strategy for the adventurous trips is having the different marketing story.
• Developing of the tour package marketing plan- In this step the tour marketing plan is focused. This provides a crystal clear understanding to the Taj tour operators that what they want to achieve.Proportion can vary according to the tour packages(Balomenou&Garrod, 2014).
• Marketing of domestic as well as international tours- For the tour operators like Taj Tour Company domestic destinations conduction is far much easier rather than conducting the international trips.
• Brochure of the tour operator- Brochurefor the travel operator play a very important role.Brochures of the Taj Tours provide the details regarding thedestination, modes of the transportation, prices and extra charges etc.
• Implementation of tour- The success of the tour can be measured only when the tour is implemented.
• Post tour management techniques- After the tour conduction Taj Tours use certain management techniques so that the satisfaction level can be measured by the management(Kozak, et. al., 2013).

P2.2 Evaluate the suitability of different methods of contracting for different components of the holiday and different types of tour operator.

For the booking of thetour package two methods have been designed by the differ tour operator, which are named as –

• Sale only method and
• Fixed contract method

Here two travel operators which have selected for providing two methods areTaj Tours and Hays travel for the comparison of services. The methods are described below-

• Sale only method- Hays travel chooses the sale only method. And develop the tour and travel package for the service seekers in Manchester, which is established in bowl shaped area. This package is generally designed for the particular individuals who wanted to visit that place. This includes the high amount. And in this method the Hays travel is ready to pay the advance payment to the hotels and conveyance facility providers. Hays travel uses this method to reduce the risk of other packages, which are not performing well(Cheng, et. al., 2015).
• Fixed contract method- Taj tours adopted this method to use the optimum capacity on the basis of volume. This method is also helpful for the Taj travel to increase the revenue. In this method certain measures are set so that the requirements of the service seekers can be fulfilled.The payment of the services is done on the basis of utilization of services by the Taj tours. This reduces the risk f non-utilised service capacity. The peak season for visiting the Manchester is December. So in this season Taj tours have less non-utilised capacity charges. So this is the best suited method for the travel agency(Hsieh, et. al., 2010).

P2.3 Calculate the selling price of a holiday from given information below.

The project for the 10 days package of Chinese studentsis shown below in the table-

Serial number	Particular	Charges (in pounds)
1	Hotel charges( 7 rooms have to be booked for the 15 students so calculation will be, 24*7*4*78)	524.16
2	Guide charges	150
3	Transportation charges	750
4	Meal charges ( 10 Euros charged for the BB for 15 students and for 4 nights,	475.80
5	Total cost	1899.96
6	Profit margin 10 % (Given)	189.99
7	Total of selling price	2089. 96

Task 3

P3.1 Evaluate the planning decisions taken for the design of a selected brochure.

Tour and travel agencies use the brochures as the medium of providing and communicating the knowledge to the service seekers or to the clients of the Taj tours. The brochures of the Taj tour is updated online as well as also available offline in hard copies.The main function of the brochures for the Taj tour are that it acts as the informative provider, it also play as theadverting role and an attractive design of the brochure attracts the service seekers to the travel operator(Balomenou&Garrod, 2014). The brochure of the organisation must be attractive otherwise the purpose won’t get successful.The planning decision making  taken for the designing the brochures of Taj tours are depicted below-

• Analysing the issues impacting the planning decisions- The certain factors needs to be identifies as well as analysed before designing the brochures. The Taj travel also needs to be keep in mind certain factors like target customers, information or content of the brochure, format or design and objective as well(Snyman, 2014).
• Design of the brochure- In second step, the design of the brochures is evaluated. The format as well as the design of the brochure is depend on the target customer for e.g. the destinations which has choose by the Taj tours are domestic or international.The format of the brochure also contains enough content that it is enough for the service seekers to understand the packages information (Avraham& Daugherty, 2012).
• Budget of the brochures as well as target market- The Taj tours must select the target market or target customers. This may include the niche segment also of the service seekers. Budget is the very important part because this explains the will power of the service seekers. So the brochure also keeps in mind the budgetary constraints. (Hsieh, et. al., 2010).
• Time frame and procedure- The Taj tour must keep in mind the time frame in which it has to complete the brochures. The procedures of the brochures also flowed in time frame.

P3.2 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 this task we will describe the opportunities for the convenience of the visitors or for the service seekers. The new and innovative brochures of the Taj Tours and Hays travel are designed for pulling the new customers and maintain their old customers for the longer period of time. On the other if we talk about the traditional brochures of these companies they were also attractive and fulfilling their objectives by providing the knowledge of their tour and travel packages to the service seekers. But with the changing era as well as the development of the technology it has become for the tour and travel agencies to move forward with the time rather thensticking with the traditional brochures.In current scenario the E- brochures are getting more prevalent.By designing the E- brochures that can be made available to the vast level and service seekers will take more and more interest to acknowledge about the new offers, which are provided by the Taj Tours and Hays travel. E-brochures also provide thecost reduction facility to the both travel operators because it reduces the cost of printing, paper and labour cost as well(Avraham& Daugherty, 2012). Cost reduction facility can also make the travel operator more effective and it can enjoy the competency over the competitors.Video based brochures also used by the both travel operators to attract the customers and maintain their customer base with the growth rate. Beautiful scenes of the travelling destinations can be seen in the videos that are more attractive. If E-brochures as well as video brochures are designed properly by the Taj Tours andHays travel revenue generation can be increase to vast level that will lead further in the generation of profits. Other than this the video brochures provides the visualisation of destinations and more eye catching, which make high impact on the service seekers and can be understand clearly by the customers or visitors.Major destinations can be highlighted in the video brochures that are very helpful for the service seekers as well as for the travel agencies. Newly launched schemes can be can also be depicted clearly inthe video brochures.Now a day, video quality is also improving with the technology, so video brochures can be very helpful in fulfilling their objective of making new customers for theTaj Tours and Hays Travel. Other than this, the video brochuresare also helpful in withholding the old customers of the tour and travel companies(Vogt & Schaefer, 2012). So by the above discussed points we can say that the E-brochures as well as the video brochures are beneficial for theTaj Tours as well as for the Hays Travel agency.

P3.3 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.

So many methods can be adopted by theTaj Tours for increasing the sales of holiday package. These methods can be direct selling by thetravel operators, online selling of the holiday package,through telephonic conversation and sales can also be done through call centres.Direct selling in current scenario can be done online rather than door to door selling.Taj Tours can create online brochures and can provide the holiday packages. Customers’intentness can be grabbingby implementing E- brochures andvideo brochures. Video brochures can also be used as the promotion strategy in the Taj Tours. Unlike, using printing methods of brochures video brochures can be adopted by the Taj Tours in attractive way to sell the holiday package(Avraham& Daugherty, 2012). If video brochures don’t get successful in selling the holiday package of Taj Tours, the video brochures can be modified in more attractive and in innovative way whereasin printed brochures or traditional brochures;modification and alteration is not possible and if possible that is much costly for the tour and travel operators.  Additionally,E- mail marketing can also be done by the Taj Tours for the selling of the holiday packages. Whole background or entire scenario can be send through the E-mail to the service seekers and they can be invited by the tour and travel agencies. Now a day, external agencies are also used for the promotion in each sector so by the adoption of this Taj Tour can also increase its sell of holiday Package.Taj Tours can use these methods as a mix strategy for the increasing revenue as well as the profits of the organisation(Balomenou&Garrod, 2014).Other than this these methods can be used as the direct marketing or direct promotion for the travel and tour agencies.

Task 4

P4.1 Evaluate the strategic decisions made by different types of tour operator.

In tour and travel industry so many strategic decisions are taken by thetour and travel operators for the smooth running of the business. Generally strategic decisions are concerned with the overall aspects in which the business is running. Strategic decisions in the tour and travel industry deals with the wide range of activities and also involve the risk element.On the other hand for the successful of selling of tour packages strategic decisions play a vital role. And these consist of the direction in which tour and travel agency is moving. Strategic plans which are made by the tour and travel operators are including designing as well as developing the brochures,estimating the cost and price fixation as well, identifying customer satisfaction and analysing the distribution of channel(Evans, et. al., 2012). Strategic planning in tour and travel are discussed below-

• Discounting of price strategy- This strategy is adopted by the Taj Tours so that large customers or visitors can avail the services of tour package. At the low prices the services which Taj Tours is providing can be doubled. But by the adoption of this strategy the Taj Tours have to minimise its costs and have to be competitive for this so many strategic decisions have to be taken for the survival of the travel agency. Discounting strategy is very fruitful for the Taj Tours for increasing the volume of the customers as well as the customer loyalty can be developed(Hsieh, et. al., 2010).
• Segmentation, targeting and positioning- In this step the organisation takes the decision regarding thesegmentation of customers then group of consumers is targeted and finally positioning is done by the Taj Tours. Target service seekers can be identified by the organisation; according to this the holiday packages can be provided to the customers keeping in mind the positioned customers.At the time of taking such strategic decisions the TajTours’ management need to be keeping in mind thecurrent position of the organisation with respect to the competition.
• Seasonal factors- The tour and travel operators also have to take strategic decisions regarding the seasonal factors. For e.g. the tour package of the Manchester, which is conducted in the December by the Taj Tourshave to provide discounts in peak seasons, so that the sale of the holiday packages can be increased. On the other hand the pricing structure and selection of the destination of the TajTours also comes under the strategic decisions, which get affected through the seasonal decisions.
• Promotional strategy- Promotional strategies of the tours and travel operators also come under the strategic decisions of Taj Tours. It is important in pulling the visitors towards the organisation. And the profitability of the Taj Tours depends on the promotional techniques that are being used by the organisation. By the adoption of thebest fit strategy service seekers can get aware regarding the holiday packages and sales as well as revenues can be generated by the Taj Tours(Tang, et. al., 2013).
• Competitive pricing strategy- This also comes under the strategic decisions, which involve the determining of prices that are charged by the competitors of the Taj Tours. By the adoption of competitive pricing strategy the organisation can create more customers and can also facethe competition in the market(Roy &Raju, 2011).

P4.2 Compare the tactical decisions that could be taken by a selected tour operator in different situations.

Tactical decisions are taken by the organisation for the smooth running of the company. Tactical decisions are helpful in increasing the revenue and sales, perpetual improvement in the organisation etc. Tactical decisions are taken by the management of Taj Tours keeping in mind the big picture.Tactical decisions are implemented in the Taj Tours for achieving the strategic goals.Tactical decisions are directed towards for the development of structuring and workflow of the Taj Tours(Sims, 2010).These tactical decisions can also include the negotiations with the hotel manager for providing the accommodation facility to their service seekers as well as the negotiation with transportation agency that can be buses and air carriers(Gursoy, et. al., 2015).Tactical decisions are generally taken by the lower level managers rather than the top level managers. Other than this the tactical decisions can be tie-up with the other service providers. For this the personal meetings can be held for the best price selection and quality services, which are provided to the service seekers by the Taj Tours. Analysis of service seeker’ssatisfaction is also a tactical decision.This is done to acknowledge the experience of the customer and it is also helpful in customer retention. This practice can be done by taking the feedback from the visitors. Other negligible issues can be removed from the system. The management of the Taj Tours have to take decisions regarding that how to take feedback from the customers, whether it can be taken from the telephonic conversationor by drafting thequestionnaire.This also comes under the tactical decisions.Internet survey can also be conducted to understand the views of the service seekers and visitors. So all these discussed operational activities which are essential for the running of the business comes under the tactical decisions.

Conclusion

In the above presented Unit 14 Tour Operation Management Assignment Taj Tours we talked about the recent trends which are prevalent in current scenario. That may include expansion of transportation modes, technological factors and tourism marketing and so on. After that we discussed the various aspects related to the stages which are involved in the preparation of holiday package. This section includefinding of different new places, tour development,costing of tour package andpost tour management techniques and so on. Then different methods of contracting discussed with the suitable examples that involvethe sale only method and fixed contract method.Planning decisions also discussed related with the designing the brochures.Then thesuitability of traditional alternativesfor the traditional brochures is also described well.Methods of distribution of holiday package are also presented in the above report.Additionally, the strategic decisions and tactical decisions which are made by the tour and travel operators also described which are helpful for the daily operations of the organisation.

References

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Unit 14 Tour Operation Management Assignment Taj Tours we will talk about therecent and current trends related to tour and development industry, which can be technology development, tourism marketing and economy of country and so on, We are posting units solutions so scholars can explore the our Assignment Help in UK and get review the quality of our work.