Tour Operations Management

Tour Operations Management in Travel and Tourism

Task 11

Introduction1

Recent Trend and Developments in Tour Operations1

Itinerary Plan and Holiday package3

Places of Attractions to Be Visited In the Goa4

Flights booking and scheduling4

Number of nights and Accommodation Arrangements5

Local Transport Arrangements5

Cost of the package6

Brochure Design8

Communication and Promotion Methods9

Selling holiday packages - Non Traditional Methods10

Task 211

Introduction11

Strategies employed by the tour operators in the UK11

Tactical decisions13

Strategic Decisions14

Tactical decisions taken by chosen tour operator14

REFERENCES (Task 1)16

REFERENCES (Task 2)17

Appendix18

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-Flight Arrangements5

Table 2-Accommodation Arrangement5

Table 3-Costing table7

Table 4-Standard Category of Our Holiday Package8

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: UK People Visit Abroad3

Figure 2- Brochure8

Tour Operations Management in Travel and Tourism

Task 1

Introduction

Being in the position of a Product Development Manager of a large UK-based Tour Operator, I am entrusted with the task to develop a new holiday package for new breed of clients interested in visiting historical sites, together with zoological parks and beaches in a tropical destination. Considering the needs of target clients, Goa has been chosen as a suitable destination to develop a complete holiday package for them. Moreover, the task is to determine costing and pricing of the package, along with the dates of travel, flight bookings, number of nights, places to visit, local transport and accommodation arrangements.

Recent Trend and Developments in Tour Operations

In the last decades, the Tourism Industry has experienced many positive changes that led a significant impact on the future demands of tourist. Likewise, the Tourism Industry has observed many important changes in the role of tour operations. The role and functions of tour operators have changed radically over time when Thomas Cook first planned a travelling package by rail in the year 1840 (Cavlek, 2000, p.4). Nowadays, tour operators organize different elements of the travel experience and offer a complete package that is known as inclusive tour. Tour operators are often termed as wholesalers of holidaymakers, selling travel products through retailing services that are travel agents (Cavlek, 2000, p.4).

Traditionally, tour operators have been the 'creator' of holidays. In simple terms, they just buy the elements of a holiday trip like: flight seats, accommodations and etc. Over time, the trend has been changed and became more diversified in nature. Now, tour operators offer a diverse range of holiday packages to holidaymakers. They are now able to show brochures and catalogues that lure the demand of clients to explore wonders of natural world. These current trends have encouraged more people to avail this service and make their travelling experience memorable (Cavlek, 2000, p.5).

Traditionally, travel industry was limited to serve the leisure purposes only for clients. But now type of holidays taken by people across the globe has been changed. For instance, business tours, adventure holidays, holidays on cruise, escorted tours and visiting safaris are some types of holidays that people usually take. Figure 1 shows that in UK, increasing number of people loves travelling as compared with those who visit UK.

Tour operators in UK foresee a constant interest in itineraries that merger the elements of adventure, cultures and natural world with improved transport and ...