Unit 15 Resort Management Assignment

Introduction

The Unit 15 Resort Management Assignment is based on the operations of the resort management taking into account the tour operator based out of United Kingdom, AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators). There are 3 tasks covering the complete operations and management of the resort and tours and travel business associated with the resorts. Task 1 would discuss on the functions, structure of the resort operations. It will also lay down the importance of the tour operations in the country and its association with the arrangements being done at the resorts. Task 2 would lay down the importance of quality and its management at resort. It would discuss on the output that could be generated from the resort operations and the working as well. Various types of incidents, accidents and their control mechanisms would be analyzed in the task 3 of the assignment help on the resort operations and management. The assignment would start with the profile of AITO and then how it will help in the effective resort operations and management in United Kingdom.

Task 1

Functions, operations and the structure of the resort operations, management and organization would be discussed under this task. It will highlight the importance and the functions of the various profiles working in the resort. This would be representing the report on how the structure and functions are working in coordination with each tour and travel operator AITO.  

(A). Using a couple of resorts you have chosen to focus from your company portfolio, investigate and analyze the various functions of resort operations, including the coordination and handling of various suppliers and customer service function as well as managing the legal requirements, e.g. health and safety issues, contracts, meeting local laws etc. 

Profile of AITO (Association of Travel Operators)  

Association of Travel Operators is one of the organizations that represents as an umbrella of more than 120 tour operators that are operating in Britain. The organization specializes in all kinds of holidays ranging from individual to the corporate levels. AITO selects and has a stringent process of selection of the tour operators in Britain. The members or the tour operators falling under AITO have to follow certain standards and the regulations as per the tour operator standards act. They have to abide by certain charters and the regulations that could not be missed out.
This association since handles many kinds of tour operators and even is an independent entity therefore offers its services and even streamlines the processes of the various tour operators that have been operating in United Kingdom. It has to make sure and keep a consistent performance of itself as well as for the other tour operators in UK (Uzumeri, 1997).

The functions that are performed in the resort management and operations are:

• Coordination and handling of suppliers and vendors – In resort the various suppliers and the vendors are handled and given the negotiated prices and the costs for the various materials and the supplies that have to be provided.
• Customer Service – This is the function that will attend the customers in terms of providing them the proposal of the services and the product options. The customer queries and problems are also attended through means of this function
• Legal Regulations and legislations fulfilment – This is the function or the department that will activate and make the legislations and the rules implemented and adopted in various departments as per the governmental regulations and the functions.
• Health and safety issues – The resort has to make sure that food is hygienic and the safety and health issues with respect to the equipments used and food catered to the customers is paid special attention.
• Responsibility for handling and managing the tour operators - It has to make sure that all the tour operators are following the standards, regulations and the rules of the hospitality business plan. It coordinates and does a deal on behalf of all the suppliers, vendors and even the resource providers for the various tour operators so that they could get good and competitive deals with the various resorts.
• The other function is to design and develop the standards and regulations for the various tour operators so that they could follow them and remain competitive in all aspects.
• Check and Audit of the Tour Operators as well as the Resorts management for the following of the various legal and statutory compliances. It also maintains certain quality standards that have to be operated and abide by in all cases.
• This will maintain the health and safety act 1974 in UK is being abided by the tour operators as well as the management of the resort in all the ways. The sanitation, food and residing conditions in the resort and the hotels offered in the packages are in good conditions.
• Meeting the proposals and other requirements – It makes sure that the packages offered have the rates and costs as per the competitive standards as maintained in the industry. It studies the market and prepares the competitive rates and the packages for the various travel and tour operators and even sets up the consistent standards for the operations.
• Resort operations make sure the quality and efficiency of the tour and travel business is enhanced by developing and review of the various policies and practices that are being followed by various tour operators (Getz, 1997).
• Resort management consistently monitors the manpower and the people employed in the resorts, hotels and the tour and travel operators and make sure that they are of right skills and competencies. It also helps in arranging certain training and development programs and activities for the people who are employed in the tour and travel operators.

As per the above diagram also the customer service, attracting the customers and even the improvisation in the services making them efficient plays a great role.

(B). critically examine and analyse the resort management structure for the various types of tour operators and their guest-related activities, including specialist programmes such as driving or seasonally varied events such as winter sports.

The structure for accommodation could be explained as follow:

• All Inclusive resorts – This will comprise of all kind of services inclusive in the package that would be offered to the clients and the customers like: room stay, food, leisure activities, transfers, airport taxes, tickets etc.
• Full Board – This will have all combined excluding the airport transfers and the ticket pricing for the customers.
• Self Catering Restaurants – These are self catering restaurants that are present and will offer the buffet as well as ala-carte food menu to the customers.

The overall structure of the resorts will represent the services, networks, costs and the facilities that should be provided to various customers and clients.

The tour operators have to follow a certain standardized structure for the resort management and other guest-related activities:

• Signing of the contract and other terms and conditions – The tour operators as per the revenue and the business targets have to tie up with various resorts confirming them on the business revenue that they will be able to commit them. These terms and conditions will comprise of the period of services, level of clients and groups, revenue figures and the facilities that they need from the resort for their clients.
• Development and circulation of hard copy and e-brochures and offers to the clients, groups, individuals and even to the resorts so that the people get aware of the kind, quality and level of offerings that are present.
• Planning and organization of resources – Based on the activities, season and kind of operations and offers, the tour operators have to give business ideas to the resorts and they have to accordingly plan for various resources like manpower, financials, services and the facilities as additional offers that they need to plan and provide to their staff.
• Pricing and Terms agreement – This is separate clause that is being signed with the various tour operations and management of resorts to finalize on the prices and the costing (Go & Govers, 2000).

All these functions are based and divided into various departments as per the above diagram. Administration will handle all kinds of suppliers and the vendors. The trade department will be handling the rules, regulations and the legislations that have to be implemented and adopted within the organization.

Task 2

Effective and efficient quality systems are the key and success ingredient for the resort operations and management. In this task a discussion would be carried out on the effective implementation of the quality system and operations in the resort management.

(C). Discuss the importance of effective quality systems in resort operations and discuss how resorts usually apply and monitor the quality procedures in managing conflicts and legal issues.

It is very important in order to attract and retain the customers and the clients, the quality systems and processes have to be operated and carried out in the resorts. Quality helps in providing the best and first class services to the customers and even promotes the resort as one of the brands in the market. Quality systems check the require processes, systems and practices with respect to the quality system and standards thereby improving the operations and management process of a resort. In order to improve sales, business and revenues, quality component has to be brought into the system. Now a days, most of the resorts have been bringing various quality systems and mechanisms that check each and every single process in terms of the checklist and audit list. Resorts have also been employing the Six Sigma and Total Quality Management in business Processes for ensuring those errors and the mistakes in the practices and processes are negligible. The quality systems and processes are implemented in the form of several checklists and audit schedules:

• Checklist on Technical Services – This checklist will cover the attributes pertaining to the various technical devices, equipments and the tools that are deployed and handled in the resort. These are DC, AC, Refrigeration plants etc.
• Checklist on Internal and External Security in Resort – This will combine the processes of frisking, checking the internal controls and the visits to the resorts and maintaining the various processes.
• Checklist for Housekeeping – This will cover the common area, floor, terrace and toilet cleaning checklist. This checklist has to be maintained well for all types of housekeeping or cleaning processes that are operated and done in the resorts.
• Checklist for operating a new vendor or the supplier – There are set norms and standards that are kept in mind while taking any kind of a supplier or the vendor on board. They have to have certain processes and practices so that the vendor is registered for providing the services to the resorts under AITO (Sousa & Voss, 2002).
• Checklist of various other departments – All the other departments like admin, HR, finance will have their own standard checklist for various processes.

AITO and other tour operators have also to take care of the standards as per th checklist and then accordingly operate in the tour business. EU code of conduct also has to be abided by as a part of quality systems and processes.

(D). Analyzing how implementing an effective quality systems and procedures by your organization (tour operator) produced results and impacted on the operations of the resort. 

Quality refers to an attribute in which the efficiency and the effectiveness of the process or the system are handled. Quality has to be present in each and every process, system and operational standards. The major processes in terms of Quality Systems and processes implemented by the resort are Total Quality Management and Six Sigma. These processes help in reducing the defects rates. There is customization approach that is being used by the resort to offer packages and the offers. Resort has to make sure that the processes, practices and the systems are also audited and checked upon as per the regulations and the standards. When the systems and processes are maintained then surely the quality is enhanced thereby enabling the systems to become better and admired by all the customers. The advantages of the Quality Management approaches and techniques are:

• Improvement in Services – When the systems and processes are audited, checked and monitored on quality aspects then surely there exists quality in the level of operations of the resorts enabling high business and revenues.
• Higher Revenue and business – Resort is able to generate more income, revenue and business volume (Kandampully et al, 2001).
• There exists satisfaction among the internal as well as external customers of the resorts.
• There is ease in monitoring and regulatory processes in the complete systems and operational working of the resort.
• The branding and marketing of the resort is taken to various countries and all over the world.
• There has been increase in the retention of the employees within the organization of the resort.
• The revenues and the targets are over achieved enabling best businesses for the resorts.

Quality management systems will review, check, audit and monitors the processes and the systems. This will again make modifications and amendments in the existing processes resulting in the changes and improvisations being brought about in operations and the several related resort operational processes.

Task 3

Under this task a discussion would be carried out on the various kinds of incidents, accidents and the problems that exist in the resort. An insight would also be given on the handling process and recommendations for handling of these incidents.

(E). Analyze a range of incidents that affect the resort environment and evaluate the procedures to be implemented by a tour operator to deal with different force majeure situations in the resort.

When people work in the organizations then surely there arise incidents that have to be managed and controlled. There are certain set standards, processes and criteria that have to be followed within the resort to manage them. The kinds of incidents that arise are:

• Medical Incidents – The people working together may be catching certain diseases or illnesses from each other. These incidents are common as many people work together.
• Transport Incidents – These are the ones in which the vehicles are either hijacked, taken control of or are crashed. These have to be controlled and managed.
• Unions and Trade formations – When people work together then they may want certain rights and responsibilities with increase in their salaries. There is necessity that the revision has to be done. These incidents are very common in the resorts where blue as well as white collar people work together (Tan, 2001).
• Natural Incidents – These may be fire, earthquakes, volcanoes and tornadoes nearby or in the resort harming the resources.
• Political Incidents – When anything changes with respect to the political or governmental front then surely there are supposed to be changes in the resort operations and management.
• Budget and Accommodation Incidents – These are with respect to the limited budgets and the accommodation of the people or the visitors (Harvey & Green, 1993).

The checking and monitoring of these incidents will surely help in avoiding or controlling the occurrences of these incidents. The processes for the same are:

• The display of the Standards, quality control and the emergency evacuations should be done on notice of the resort administration office. This should be accessible and visible to all.
• There should be following of the certifications and the guidelines within the resort for various kinds of processes.
• Fire evacuation and mock drills should be done thereby enabling the people in getting the knowledge of handling the natural incidents like fire.
• Government officials and higher officials in the resort contact details should also be displayed in case of emergencies.
• Rules pertaining to ABTA, EU code of conduct should also be displayed and followed by at the resort.
• FTO and other guideline trainings and developmental programs are also to be organized and appointed in the resort for all the manpower.
• The profiles and responsibilities for the crisis management team has to be declared and given. This will help the concerned team to take up the tasks accordingly.

(F). Discuss how procedures to be implemented in dealing with incidents comply with guidelines of trade associations and government bodies.

The government as well tour operators associations have given certain set mechanisms, rules and regulations that have to be abided by. These will help in implementing the procedures in controlling the incidents that are happening in the resorts:

• The fire drill and other disaster management programs should be modulated and organized in the resort. These mechanisms would help in training the people on the processes and the practices that they need to follow in case of emergencies.
• There should be a crisis management committee in the resort that will keep monitoring the various processes and in case any emergencies and incidents happen then they may guide and assist the teams in following the said and underlined processes.
• There should be review and evaluation of the various processes and practices so that other sudden faced incidents are handled and evaluated for future non-occurrences.
• Inspection and checklist are updated and monitored on regular intervals.
• Internal as well as external training team is appointed that will analyzed the needs of the trainings and accordingly make them organized in the resort.
• Staff should be trained to be encouraged to participate in making the management know on problems and their resolutions rather than forming the unions and going on strikes that just waste the time and other related resources.

There incidents cannot be avoided but if the preventive maintenance once taken will help in preventing or taking actions against them and saving the various resources. The guidelines of the ABTA, FTA and EU have to be followed while doing business or entering into the agreement with various other vendors, suppliers and the clients. Crisis management team will set the rules and internal guidelines that will help in monitoring and auctioning the change that is required in the resort operations and its effective management.
Resort Operations and its management is very much associated and linked with the tour and travel management. It is always advisable that they cooperate and coordinate with each other in order to make the processes and practices stronger. This will help in making he processes, systems and practices stronger and easier to be followed and implemented.
Quality plays a key role in the adoption of strong and effective systems. Resort has to make sure that each process and practice has quality systems and management in place. Six sigma and total quality management will ensure that quality exists in systems thereby enabling the resort to take up and apply for the international ISO standards that will help in branding and marketing of the resort. This will in turn increase business and revenue in the resort enabling the sales and business to rise in resorts (Tar?? & Sabater, 2004).
Incidents of various types as discussed above are bound to happen in the resort. Unless they are taken care of in terms of trainings, formulations of rules, regulations and processes, they could not be stopped. Preventive maintenance has to be scheduled in order to prevent these incidents and accidents. This will help in creating a healthy and safe working environment within the resort and also leave a great impression in the eyes of the clients and the customers.
Resort operations and management comprises of various kinds of processes and practices. These have to be done as per the guidelines and code of conduct of the various authorities and checking associations. These will ensure that the processes and systems are streamlined and followed by various resorts, tour operators and making the processes strong and of higher quality. Quality should be adhered to as per the various attributes and quality guidelines. This will enable the systems to improve and remain set as per criteria.

References

Tan, K. C. (2001). A framework of supply chain management literature. European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, 7(1), 39-48.
Go, F. M., & Govers, R. (2000). Integrated quality management for tourist destinations: a European perspective on achieving competitiveness. Tourism Management, 21(1), 79-88.
Harvey, L., & Green, D. (1993). Defining quality. Assessment & evaluation in higher education, 18(1), 9-34.
Tar??, J. J., & Sabater, V. (2004). Quality tools and techniques: are they necessary for quality management?. International Journal of Production Economics, 92(3), 267-280.
Bowen, D. E., & Lawler III, E. E. (1992). Total quality-oriented human resources management. Organizational Dynamics, 20(4), 29-41.
Getz, D. (1997). Event management & event tourism (p. 5). New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation.
Uzumeri, M. V. (1997). ISO 9000 and other metastandards: principles for management practice?. The Academy of Management Executive, 11(1), 21-36.
Sousa, R., & Voss, C. A. (2002). Quality management re-visited: a reflective review and agenda for future research. Journal of Operations Management, 20(1), 91-109.
Kandampully, J., Mok, C., & Sparks, B. A. (Eds.). (2001). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Psychology Press.