Tour Operations Management Role

PART 1

Exploring the Tour operating sector

Different roles and functions of a range of tour operators.

There are several types of tour operators who plays an important role in operating the different types of functions and tour operations regarding organising tour packages (Dodaro, 2015). Tour operators helps in managing itineraries and arranging accommodation, transportation, food etc. services so that they can able to formed a complete holiday packages of individuals or groups. TUI is a tour operating business that plans holidays for their customers and provide better quality of services so that they can be generated high value for them.

Types of Tour Operators:

Mass market operators: These type of operator designs holiday packages for the individuals or group of persons by having the detail knowledge about the tourism business so that the tours of people can be properly designed at affordable prices. For instance, TUI is a well known company for creating holiday packages for mass population at the affordable fairs and with the superior quality of services.

Incoming operators: These are associated with those operators who make arrangements for travellers who wants to travel from different locations. Services of these operators are tourist guides, car rental, sightseeing and so on (Goffi, 2018).

Independent operators: These are that kind of operators who works for organising packages for people in the individual capacity as well as making arrangements regarding the accommodation, travelling, food services as well. They are mainly focused on the customers affordability while making tour packages and satisfy customers.

Outbound operators: They make holiday packages for their customers who want to travel from one nation to other of their choices as it helps in increasing the promotion of international tourism.

Domestic operators: These are related to that people who manages tour packages in the local or national boundaries that means they promotes the local tourism.

Roles of tour operators:

Product development: It is related to the development of products and services as per the requirements of travellers so that the services which are being offered by company can be customised according to the customer preferences and budget estimations. TUI develops their offerings according to the needs of customers so that they can able to provided maximum value for their customers.

Marketing & sales: TUI markets their services of travelling and packages through the use of social media, internet, print media for the advertisement of services in order to attract large number of customers and increase sales.

Advising customers: Tour operators play a role to provide advice to their customers regarding the prices and suitable locations and budget which will be needed and facilitate detail information to the customers regarding the tour packages (Manente, 2015).

Travel information: Tour operator is responsible for providing information to their customers related to the destinations, travelling mediums, itinerary as well as accommodations so that travellers can happily and safely travel to their wanted destinations.

Operations support: For handling the operations of businesses tour operator plays an important role which includes hospitality, transportation, accommodation, travel etc. so that they can assist customers in having the comfortable experience of their travel. Order assignment help from our experts!

Scale and structure of tour operating industry.

The scope of travel and tourism industry is rapidly increases so the role of tour operators is also increasing so that it has been seen that the annual growth of number of tour operators in UK is 2.3%. whereas, the estimated value of those tour operator industry is approximate £14.9bn along with the raise in packages which are being purchased by the UK travellers. Total number of workers in that industry are 29,038 (How is the Industry Trending in the UK?, 2020). There are several tour operators such as AITO, Thomas Cook etc. that operates within UK. Comparison between mass market and independent specialist operators are:

TUI company: It is well known as a mass market tour operators that creates tour packages for the people and provided them at a low cost because of the bulk purchases. The company has their operating income more than the £297 million and the product range includes travel agency, passenger transportation, accommodation etc. so that the travel of travellers can be result in high convenient and comfortableness (Snyman, 2015). The employees of TUI are more than 70000 and their operations are in around 100 countries. The tourism information board is termed as an authority which operates the structure of tourism industry.

AITO: It means Association of Independent Tour Operators which is a trade group that shows 120 specialist & independent tour operators along with the operations in more than 170 nations. AITO agent facilitate specialist offerings to their travellers on the basis of customised according to their requirements and budget requirements so that the experience of customers can be increased. Mainly they focused on promoting quality as well as choices by providing customers a huge variety of choices of their travel destination as well as facilitating them special services with the expertise, knowledge and experience.

Impact of integration on scale and structure.

As the scale and structure of large mass market and specialist tour operators are governed by the board of tourism information that ascertain the way in which companies work legally and ethically. The mass market tour operators supply to the expectations of group of people so that tour packages can be made at best fairs and provide better quality of services as well. The specialist tour operators supply to the niche market tours and specialise in the specific destinations. The integration of specialist and mass market tour operators can assist in raising the scope of tourism along with the better quality of services to their customers. It will also assist in expanding the tourism industries in the UK market that will lead to the development of countries along with the employment opportunities (Allahyari, 2015).

PART 2

Step by Step guide on How to create a package holiday.

For creating holiday packages several stages are followed by the company TUI in order to provide satisfaction to their customers and create high value for them. Such are as follows:

Market research: It is done by the TUI so that the customers expectations of tour packages can be ascertained with the better understanding of the key aspects that are closely associated with the tourist market and destinations. This will help in determining the requirements which are to be satisfied by the tour operators such as tour packages for couples, students and pilgrimage as all these have different requirements (Khairat, 2017).

Tour itinerary development: It involves the sequences of activities that are organise at a time of trip which starts from the assembling point and ends to the departure so that a well systematic and planned travel can be created. This will aid travellers in keeping informed about the different places which will be visited with the required time.

Contracting suppliers: In this, prices are negotiated with several vendors on the basis of size and nature of tour such as lodging services, hotel, airlines, car rentals etc. This will ascertain the entire cost of holiday packages that will be different according to the varied requirements of customers.

Costing of packages: It is related to the cost of all facilities in which the tour packages after adding profit margin of company includes (B. DiPietro, 2019). This assist in ascertaining the entire cost of holiday packages so that travellers can buy them as per their requirements and affordability.

Brochure production: In this stage, brochures are prepared which assist in marketing their services and brochures to the target audience. This will aid in making attractive promotion of services so that the sales of TUI can be raised.

Marketing & sales: Through the marketing strategies as well as advertisements TUI can attract large number of customers and increase their sales which will help in raising the profits of company as well.

Critical path analysis: It includes the determination of time for completing all the activities with the dependencies on each other which will help in ascertaining the required time for finishing all the stages successfully so that the better services are provided to the customers.

The timescale of all the above activities are discussed as:

Forecasting changes in customer demand

With the emerging market situations the customers preferences are changes over the period of time which is needed to be traced by the TUI in order to predict customers demands so that customers needs can be satisfied effectively (Evans, 2016). On the basis of past demand pattern the future needs are also be forecasted by the analysis of factors. Such are as follows:

1. Economic factors: Emerging economic conditions of a country impacts on the buying power of customers that impacts on the travel and tourism industry. If economic factors is strong in nation then people can easily afford tour packages that helps in growing the businesses of tour operators.
2. Social factors: It is associated with the demographical aspects of nation which includes age, caste, sex etc. that determine the living of standard and preferences of customers towards the spend of money on leisure and travel events. These trends are closely related and in favour of TUI as they followed in order to predict the demand of customers. Get Assignment Examples.Talk to our Experts!

Step by step guide on 'How to cost a package holiday.

Name of package: Educational tour package

Target customer: Adult students (above the age of 18 years)

Target destination: Students from London, UK to Belgium

Number of targeted students : 50

Inclusions: 7 nights tour in Ghent at Van der Valk Hotel, Nazareth-Ghent.

Price:

Marketing and sales: Marketing of tour packages will be done by the TUI by using the social media marketing, websites, advertisement on radio, TV as well as using brochures in colleges and schools.

PART 3

A review of package tour programmes

In present scenario, package tour and holidays are one of the most important thing which any of the customers like while travelling to any of the place. Number of activities are required to be included so that holidays can be enjoyed in a best possible manner. It is necessary for the business organisation like TUI, to operate those tours and travel for their customers which can be comfortable for them and objective of tourist can be attained. It will be important for TUI to focus more upon those students who are above 18 and mainly likes to visit new place on a regular basis. They can prepare their programmes related to educational tours (Naji-Azimi, 2018).

• Traditional brochures: It is one of the effective way for attracting customers for organisation like TUI. With the help of brochures, they will get the option to make people aware about the product and services which they are going to offer during the course tour and travel. Here, brochures can be distributed to public and students by meeting them at different places such as school, colleges, traffic singles and many more.
• E-brochures: This are the brochures which are being used mostly as number of people as well a students who uses social media sites to find out the best deal for completing their desire. In context of TUI, it will be the brochures which will allow them to reduce overall cost and time to reach customers on specific time period.

The brochures which has been designed by TUI is just for the purpose of attracting the student who are above the age of 18 years. It is also necessary to understand that the prepared information is contained in three page leaflet which will describe about every single information which traveller would like to know before visiting to any of the place.

This is the brochures where 4 page leaflet has been prepared. In this respective brochures all of the detail information has been mentioned. The information which has been prepared is related with dates selected on different months (Luis, 2017). The main purpose of use this form of brochures to clarify that company like to deliver the travel experience in group which can be much and more entertaining. This brochures is of one of the Australia travel and tour company which prepare different adventure trip for students about the age group of 18 years.

Comparison and contrast of package tour programmes

There are different business travel and tour organisation but their main motive is to attract customers who can join their organisation at the time of travelling from one place to another. The brochures which has been prepared above is helpful to attract the students who like to visit several place at small age group. It has been found that company is providing the high quality of accommodation and transportation facility. Their major target is those students who like to have high comfort during the time of travelling to any of the place. Also, budget required to travel with this respective organisation are quite high which means the major target is of uppar class families.

There are number of other organisation who provides similar form of services which has been mentioned within their brochures which can meet out the requirement of students above the age group of 18 years. Below, some of the differences has been mentioned in the brochures of two different organisation and those differences are:

• Talking about the brochures of TUI, it has less informative as compared to the brochers of other company because they had mainly mentioned about the time duration of travelling but in case of TUI there major focus was on attracting the customers with pictures of attractive destinations (Wu, 2016).
• The information which were mentioned within TUI was clear and attractive but on the other hand of side it was found that less pictures were used due to which interest to traveller can reduce significantly.
• In present situation brochures can be prepared in number of styles which can be effective. Similarly, in case of TUI they have adopted two different ways to develop brochures and they are E-brochures and traditional brochures which means they will get the chances to attract traveller from different source. But, in case of rivalry firm they only uses traditional way of brochures which mean chances of attracting students will be very less.
• Not on brochures helps the business organisation, but it has been found that brand image plays the crucial role in attracting the customers at a greater speed. Similarly, TUI will have more opportunity to attract people as they have strong base in the market and in case of rivalry firm they have rear presence in the market.

Evaluation of a range of package tour programmes

After having the detail analysis on the brochures, it can be clearly said that business organisation requires to deliver number of additional facilities which can attract tourist. As two different brochures has been selected but both of them has a common object i.e., to attract more students for educational trip (Hoyos, 2015). Among two different brochures, it can be easily said that the brochures which has been prepared by TUI was more attractive as it providing the information in detail which travellers like to know before travelling to any of the specific place. Here, TUI was also able to give clear indication that in any of the situation quality and services will not be compromised but in case of rivalry firm they were not more focused towards their their respective goals.

In simple words, whenever students would like to take their decision regarding travelling they will be able to take it easily. Here, high chances will be their through which customers can be attracted and suitable quality of transportation, accommodation as well as car rentals can be provided which will be result oriented.

PART 4

Strategic and tactical decisions review

The strategic decision are define as the decision that are linked with surroundings in which resources and business activities are mage with performance of firm. It is vital for business organisation as important decision can be made by initiating services and product. As the decision are occur by establishment of management from which they can examine needs of people by delivering products to them. In other words, this trade with con-cording capabilities of resources of company and identify opportunities including threats.

The tactical decision are refer as decision which is occur on regular basis through operators so that day to day operation can be execute. For example, the TUI has take some decision in order to promote the performance of their organisation. It involve increment in activities of their business. Thus, the operator involve some strategic decision by using such feature:

Images of branding and tour operator - This impact customer behaviour which includes motivate to them so that they can purchase products from TUI organisation. As with this, loyalty of customers can gained which also effect image of business (Cook, 2016).

Packages variety - This occur in strategic decision in which TUI operator deliver packages variety. The different places, regions, features, facilities and regions can attract customers effectively. As each people have different perspective of their needs and the facility from organisation deliver according to them.

Decision respect to distribution - The TUI operator establish strategic decision which help in process of distributing by analysing methods. The main aim of there is to improve activities of organisation that influence goal of organisation.

Funding - This feature is linked with decision that are linked with decision that are associated with investment. The management of TUI create decision according to investment so that business activities can be increased effectively that includes services of tour (Robinson, 2017).

Therefore, decision are enhance by management and operator of tour. This help in increasing productivity and performance of organisation. In addition to this, TUI management implement decision by positioning of market. This help in remaining competitive which result in high performance in market.

The external factors which are adversely affecting strategic and tactical of TUI

Business can grow and develop in the international market by understanding the demand and preferences of the customers. By this set goals and objectives can be attained easily in the specified time duration. The strategies are influenced by external factor because organization need to alter their plans respectively. In order to overcome the issues which are emerged due to external forces business associates invite staff members in their decision making process so that best results can be attained. The external factors which are adversely affecting strategic and tactical of TUI are illustrated as under:

Changing demands of the customers: TUI strategic and tactical are influenced by changing demand of the customers this is because management need to modify their longer term goals accordingly. Due to raising globalization the demand for travel and tourism is raising tremendously (Moutinho, 2018) Customers are more demanding for solo trip and family vacation in foreign nation. Organization is responding positively towards it and management is framing solo trip in affordable prices as well as are coming up with innovative product and services. By this sales ratio of the trip can be raised easily.

Advancement in technology: Changes in technology can hamper the business overnight. TUI strategic and tactical are influenced by up-gradation on technology because they business associates need to makes changes in their set goals and objectives respectively. Modern plant and machinery cut down the labour cost so firm need to modify their set standards accordingly so that desire outcomes can be attained in the specified time duration. Business administration is responding negatively towards it because implementation of modern plant and machinery is incurring huge capital. This reduced profit maximization ratio which is directly or indirectly impacting the business growth and development tremendously.

Political factor: Foreign trade policy, trade restrictions, bureaucracy, corruption and many more are examples of political factor. TUI strategies and tactical are impacted by this because at the time of expanding the business globally firm need to alter their marketing strategies as per the political condition of that nation where company is going to expand its business. Firm is responding positively because in order to remain competitive in the market manger need to change their strategic and tactical accordingly (Bazargan, 2016). Get Academic Writing Services from our experts!

Critical examination of present strategic and tactical decisions made by tour operators

Recommendations for improvements:

• More innovation should be done in family and solo trip so that in limited budget best experience can be given to the customers.
• Advance technology should be used by the travel and tourism industry in order to make payment mode more easy and safe from hackers.
• Separate research and development team should be build in order to monitor the external environment activity.
• More short plans should be prepare so that in the dynamic environment they can be attained easily in less time despite of framing long term plans.
• Organization structure should be made flexible in nature so that changes can be adopted easily with less resistance from staff members. By this competitive advantages can be gained against rivalry.

CONCLUSION

From the above it has been concluded that operation of tour management attain an activity which is require by management to execute. In order to enhance business, it is necessary to focus on factors that impact on operation. This help organisation in developing more profitability. The operator create packages and plan which help organisation to target customers. This assist in attracting customers more and enhance operation of business. They can also make plan from which they achieve their business goals. The tactical and strategic decision are create by management in business. This provide organisation to improve their activities and help in increment in profitability. There are different role, structure and scale occur of a tour operator with in tourism industry. As this helps in attracting people towards plan and also assist in business run appropriately.

Read more - Tour Operations Management Assignment

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