TOUR OPERATION MANAGEMENT

Tour Operation Management



Tour Operation Management

Tour operators industry

Tourism is defined as travel to a place outside the usual residential environment, involving a stay of at least one night but no more than 1 year, with varying motivations, such as business, pleasure, visits to friends and relatives (VFR), and education. It is one of the world's largest industries. Tourism has long been of interest to geographers, given its spatial, temporal, and activity patterns and given its major economic and environmental impacts, ranging from the local to the global (Allen, 2005).

Tourism as an Industry

Tourism is seen as a system which is geographically bounded and consists of both the industry facets and the consumption experience of travel. The concept of tourism as an industry represents the supply side view of what tourism is, and it concerns with what business entities should be included in, or excluded from, the tourism industry. Although many commentators argue that tourism should not be considered an industry, it is contended that a supply-side view is needed in order to signify the economic value and thus, to gain the recognition of the society, of tourism. From a planning and development perspective, tourism is defined as an agglomeration of land development and programs designed to meet the needs of travellers, which consists of a variety of business and non-business sectors (Allen, 2005).

There are three important aspects of tourism explained by this definition: 1) tourism is a retail-service industry with businesses that completely or partially involved in serving travellers; 2) the motivation of a traveller is not important. That is, the status of a business, as part of the tourism industry, does not depend upon whether the traveller consumes the product for leisure or business purposes, as long as he/she is a traveller in a certain way; and, 3) the concept of home environment is open for interpretation and further operation depending upon practical purposes. Although it recognizes the nature of the goods in terms of making the trip more successful, easier, or enjoyable, this definition largely downplays the demand-side with the intention to emphasize the contributions of tourism to the destination's economy (Dickinson, 2010).

Impact of the Internet on Travel and Tourism Industry

The travel and tourism industry has been impacted by the Internet in many ways, the most important of which is the destruction of the traditional travel distribution channel structure. The Internet has revolutionized the relationships between suppliers, intermediaries and consumers, essentially creating a flat distribution channel where consumers have access to suppliers and intermediaries simultaneously. The travel industry is suited particularly well to rely heavily on the Internet as a distribution channel as the majority of offerings within the travel and tourism are intangible services rather than durable goods. These services are almost exclusively purchased before the customer has begun to travel. Thus, it has become extremely important that tourists receive timely and accurate information in order to satisfy their demand for pre-purchase information. The Internet provides the perfect opportunity for travel and tourism organizations and ...