Outline The Key Factors That Need To Be Considered When Organising And Planning A Multi-Event UK-Based Tour

Outline the key factors that need to be considered when organising and planning a multi-event UK-based tour.

Introduction

Nowadays tourism represents one of the most important industries in the global economy. However, huge changes have to be made, namely because of several events, in order to restore consumer trust in travelling. Moreover, the “new” consumer, seeking new experiences more suitable to his individual needs, forces the tourist industry to develop its relationship with destinations and their heritage. The complexity of the demand, caused by high bargaining power and the number of opportunities and segments to serve, corresponds to a more specialised offer based on synergies among primary resources, infrastructures, firms, residents and tourists.

The increasing demand for new destinations exerts a constant pressure on development in order to satisfy the growth of this complex and pervasive industry. However, the price war competition of undifferentiated mass market operators is a threat to destination development and environmental planning, given that the exploitation of natural assets by mass tourism, ruins the very thing the tourists seek (Poon, 1993). Thus, issues regarding tourism need a new framework based on a systemic approach, both in place governance and tourism marketing. Many factors, such as more experienced consumers, global economic restructuring and environmental limits to growth, require rapid change, especially in destination strategies (Pechlaner and Weiermair, 2000; Franch, 2002). The complexity of the tourist market, the supply type diversity and the evolution of tourist buying behaviour require competitive strategies in distribution and the search for constant differentiation.

Choices made by tourists are changeable, due to the economic conditions in their country of origin and perception of status associated with destination (Shaw and Williams, 1994). Therefore, from a sustainability point of view, tourism is expected to be part of a programme for integrated rural development. Consequently, there is an increase in the quality of holidays for customers and in margins for operators.

Since specialist operators are relatively price inelastic, “alternative” tourism has a huge potential in contrasting mass tourism, given that smaller numbers with greater spending power grant substantial returns just by differentiation (Hall, 1994). The so-called “ecotourism” can respond to many of the drawbacks of conventional tourism, namely the international organisation of ecotourism, the high economic leakages, environmental degradation and socio-cultural disruption and exclusion (Cater, 1993; Prosser, 1994), especially if large tour operators see large profit margins and local controls happen to be inadequate.

Tour operators are not only intermediaries, as they do not act only as distributors, but also influence and address the demand towards destinations, stimulating the need of tourism, influencing the primary choice of destinations and providing the means to satisfy it.

This paper, in an attempt to measure tour operator preferences that impact on the offer features, investigates the relationship between tour operator needs and place features, in order to develop actions and policies which can strengthen place negotiating position and competitiveness. Moreover, the potential of each new form of tourism throughout ...