Tour Operations Management of lCB Tours

Task 1

1.1 Analysing the effects of emerging trends and growth of the developing trends on the tourism industry

Tour Operators has been observed to be greatly affected by the changing trends and developments having a direct effect on the workings and business growth of the organisation. The current trends such as integration, technology advancements, rise and fall of inflation, effects of Brexit, low-cost carriers and increased environmental awareness greatly depends on the type of operators the tourism firm belongs to such as inbound tour operators, domestic tour operators, UK bound tour operators and specialist tour operators.

Further, the analysis would be done on the basis of the type of operators with respect to the different trends and developments.

Inbound Tour Operators: The inbound tour operators are the ones who provide services to the customers wishing to visit some foreign country and help the visitors in getting picked up from the airport, arrange for activities, hire local guides, etc. The current trends such as advancement in technology, low-cost carriers and fluctuation in inflation effects greatly to this tour operator (Mwesiumo and Halpern, 2018).The advanced technology would make the operations much easier and feasible while the low-cost carriers would lower its cost and the fluctuation of inflation is something which would affect every business, and so it does to the tour operator.

Domestic Tour Operator: This operator helps its citizens of the country to visit various different tourist destinations. The trends which affect hugely to the operations of the company include almost all the trends mentioned above. This is so because the changes in the current trends in the country would have a direct effect on the workings and execution of the companies.

UK Outbound Tour Operators: As the name indicates these tour operators takes the citizens of the concerned country to some different or foreign country. The trends prevailing in the UK would not affect much this business because the operations of this business get executed mainly in different countries and which depends on the trends and developments of that foreign country. But the fluctuation in the inflation rate and the effect of Brexit may be applied for this type of tour operator.

Specialist Tour Operator: This operator of tourism deals in some particular or specialized destinations and thus the trends and other advancements do not greatly affect this operator though the advancement in technology affects all the four types of operators, as it is applicable for all the citizens of the country. The current trends such as advancement in technology, low-cost carriers and fluctuation in inflation greatly affect the business performance of this tour operator.

M1: Carrying out research of one tour operator and giving details about its operations

Concerning the lcb tours, the company was founded by Mr Lim Cheng Boon. He started off with a transportation business for delivering the office factory workers at their destinations and ad a capability of analysing the market and identifying the increasing demand for public transportation. This made him start with the inter-state express bus services. Gradually he established his own business of travel in 1984 and the existence of Lim Cheng Boon Tourist Sdn .Bhd came into existence. It could be commented that he carried a sheer market analysis power due to which he recognized the growth of the tourism industry in the near future, and this made him establish every single process, and stages of travelling which included providing professional advice and guidance, planning and bookings and all other respective actions were taken care of by the company. In the current time, the concerned company provides services in about 50 destinations, including both domestic and overseas (Cetin and Yarcan, 2017). All the current trends from the technological advancement to fluctuation in inflation rate has been under consideration of the concerned organisation which has been the reason behind its success. Many different such firms emerged up but could not grow in the pace of the lcb tours, and thus it has been one of the oldest companies in providing such services.

Task 2: Group Presentation

2.1 Assessing the stages as well as the timescales concerned in developing a holiday plan

Planning a holiday involves a number of stages and steps which if attended carefully and accurately then the holiday plans provide the maximum benefit to the company and also the services delivered carries a quality mark which builds up the goodwill of the concerned company.

While planning for the holiday plan from the UK to France, some major stages have been considered which included the following. The holiday plans should include time frames too, as this would help in maintaining and calculating the costs and other relevant calculations for the plan. The stages of holiday plan are as follows

a. Market Research: This step helps in finding out the current trends and workings of the tourism industry. The demands of the customers get acknowledged, and the workings of the competitors also get revealed. Through market research, it was revealed that France has been gaining popularity as a holiday destination because of its culture and other attractions.

b. Planning and Scheduling: The plan would include the destinations such as Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame de, Palace of Versailles, 2 days in French Riviera, Marseille. The hotels that would be in reach would include Le Roch Hotel and Spa, Maison Souquet, Hotel des Grands Boulevards, and Hotels de Crillon. All these hotels are rated as 8.5 out of 10 in their services. The tour would begin on 24^th December 2018 and end on 14^th January 2019. The total number of people who could be a part of this holiday is 30.

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c. Contracting: Planning would include the contracts with the transporters, accommodation, dealers to hotels, etc. This has been done with no negotiation and on fixed rates.

d. Financial Evaluation and Pricing: The evaluation of the finances and the pricing has been done with a thorough analysis of each of the factors that would contribute to the plan and the pricing of the holiday for a couple has been estimated to be about 1000 pounds (Hollandand Leslie, 2017).

e. Creating the brochure: This would include the most marketing thinking which would attract a large number of people to the plan. The brochure has been framed with colourful and attractive pictures and providing every single detail about the holiday.

f. Advertising: This has been done through various modes such as television, hoardings, radio, emails to existing clients and distributing pamphlets.

g. Operation and Execution: The operations and the execution of the plan would be conducted by the respective departmental heads, and they would report all the information to the planner's head.

h. Post Tour Management: This requires that all the customers reach their homes back and safe with no complaints in their heart or mind.

i.The timescale for the activities: The time taken for all the procedures to be completed would be from the 24^th December 2018 to 14^th January 2019.

2.2 Evaluation of the suitable methods of contracting concerning various ingredients of holiday tourism regulators

Planning the holiday would be done by following the steps as mentioned earlier and this has been done quite smoothly but with proper analysis and accurate estimations. The holiday planning also involves the analysis of the contracts that need to be considered with the respective components so that the best suitable result is achieved. Contacting also needs to consider some regulatory bodies which help in the smooth and clear functioning of the contract namely, Association of British Travel Agents, Association of Independent Tour Operators, Federation of Tour Operators, UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) etc. Generally, there are three suitable ways of contracting which includes the fixed contract under which all the conditions and the materials are fixed as per the contract. This is suitable for market research, costing and creation of brochures contracts (Hsu et al. 2016).This is suitable for the domestic tour operator along with the other three types of tour operators. The other way of contracting is allocation which is suitable for the stages such as financial evaluation and pricing, advertising and operation and execution. This is suitable for the out bound and specialist tour operators. The last suitable and feasible contact is the ad hoc which is suitable for post-tour management and planning and scheduling. This feasible contract is suitable for the inbound tour operator.

2.3 Calculation of the selling price of the concerned holiday plan

The holiday plan from London to Paris can be seen to be comprised of various direct and indirect costs including the fixed and variable costs, by the calculation of which the selling price per visitor can be estimated as:

Task 3 - Report Writing

Providing a holiday plan and get success in achieving the desired number of customers for that plan, is something which hugely depends on the marketing of the plan and the presentation of the plan. The brochures framed for the holiday plans play a vital role in attracting the people towards a plan, and this includes a number of factors and considerations. Considering the Hotel Hilton, it has been known for providing quality services for its customers. The brochures of the concerned company have been quite effective and responsive. Every organization tries to deliver the best pictures and destinations with a complete and zestful of information in the brochures. The report would provide a discussion on the selected three brochures of a holiday plan which would help in acknowledging the pros and cons of the respective factors considered in the brochures. Get the best assignment help in the UK from experts.

3.1 Evaluating the planning decisions concerning the design of a selected brochure.

On selecting the above three brochures which aim at the same destination and that is the United Kingdom, the comparison of the designs and the planning decisions taken for each brochure would be made. The comparison could be made on the following basis

1. Cost: The cost of the three brochures could be identified through the quality that has been maintained by each one of it. The brochure 1 and brochure 2 appears to be more colourful and attractive and also includes a bit higher cost than the brochure 3. The cost for brochure 1 and 2 was close to 10 pounds while that of brochure 3 was around 8 pounds. The design of brochure 1 has followed a detailed and greenery view while brochure 2 has tried to exploit the children while brochure 3 has been following a traditional and cultural outlook and design. The printing quality of each of the brochure has been quite royal and smooth. The brochures amounted the wastage to 11, 7 and 4 respectively. This reveals that brochure 3 has been the most effective brochure out of the two other.
2. Deciding the format: The first brochure followed a twofold format while the other two followed the booklet format. The format of the brochure does not impact much the mentality of the customers (Mwesiumoet al. 2017). Be it booklet or a folding format the content is something which matters the most. And the booklet anyhow would contain more details than the folding format.
3. Target market and budget: Target markets determine the design and quality; the budget determines the quality and design and volume required which has been maintained by the hotel. Brochure 1 targets the youngsters and the adults while the brochure 2 targets the children to get attracted and brochure 3 would target the sophisticated and the cultural people. As per personal views, the idea of brochure 3 is much more appealing and desirable as this would attract the classiest people along with their children. The budget for brochure 1 was around 100 pounds while of brochure 2 it was around 700 pounds and the brochure 3 budget was around 850 pounds. Brochure 3 would anyhow be much more pleasant and attractive for the customers.
4. Determining print specifications: The destinations chosen for brochure 1 includes some of the relaxing and enjoying your company types while brochure 2 includes the destinations which would be joyful and exciting along with adventurous for the children and the brochure 3 includes all the destination of England and Wales which would reveal the culture and background of the country. Brochure 3 has rightly framed its brochure by considering its destination and its attractions.
5. Timescales and stages of production: The time taken for the launch of the brochure would be around 1 month. Brochure 3 would be the most beneficial one, as this would be distributed before the Christmas which is the main festival of England and Wales (Cetin and Yarcan, 2017).

3.2 Assessing the suitable alternatives to that of the orthodox brochure for a variety of the tourism business.

The traditional brochure if compared with some of the new trending brochures and the way of advertising those brochures includes a number of types of brochures such as E-brochure, IPad, Outdoor media, Internet, Social Media, radio, press, Travel Fairs. These brochures should be aptly chosen by the different types of the tour operators, and which results in the effectiveness of the distribution of the brochure. The alternatives have been adopted by the hotel which has been quite effective.

1. E-Brochure: It is applicable for all the four types of tour operators, but for the domestic tour operators it would be much more effective and reliable.
2. Android Applications: This source of advertising the brochure would be feasible for the inbound and the outbound tour operators. Even the specialist tour operators would get the maximum benefit.
3. Outdoor media: This is the most suitable form of advertisement for the domestic tour operators as the people would get to know the unknown places of their own country or city which would become easy for them to explore (Fallon et al. 2014).
4. Social Media: this is again applicable to all the types of tour operators.
5. Radio: The most suitable type of operator would be the domestic tour operator, but the other three would also get benefit from this source of advertisement.
6. Press: Again this is for all the tour operators.
7. Travel Fairs: The inbound, outbound and the specialist tour operators would be the most beneficial ones for using this medium of advertisement.

3.3 Evaluation of the feasibility of variety of methods of distribution to be used in selling a holiday plan

The method of distribution of the brochures decides the effectiveness of the distribution, and this could be done through the following mediums

1. Direct Distribution: This would be most feasible for the domestic tour operator. Knowing the unknown destinations residing in your own country or state would attract more people.
2. Two Level Distribution: This is feasible for the specialist and the inbound operators. The distribution through restaurants or other sources would reach out to the different countries people too.
3. Social Network Website: This is suitable for all the operators as all the people in the world are now on social sites (Snyderand Diesing, 2015).
4. Government Website: This is feasible for the outbound and inbound operators. This is so because it provides the most authentic and applicable information.
5. Online Travel Agencies: Again this is suitable for all the operators as it is related to tourism to be it within or outside the country.
6. Visitor Information Centre: This would be more feasible for the specialist and outbound operators because it would be distributed to selected people.
7. Review sites: All the operators would get a positive response through this advertisement or distribution centre.

Hotel Hilton has adopted all the mediums of distribution and has achieved its targets.

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Task 4

4.1 Evaluation of the strategic decisions made by a variety of tour operators

Due to the different ways of functioning and different targeting customers of the different types of operators, there exist different strategic decision makings.

The pricing strategies have been adopted by all the operators which may include the marketing price strategy or the customer pricing strategy. Surcharge policy is mainly adopted by the domestic tour operator. Positioning and image branding is mainly followed by the outbound and inbound operators. Even the specialist operators get hugely benefited by this strategy or decision making (Elliott et al. 2016). The decision of choice of product in respect of customer portfolio acts like the main ingredient of all the types of operators. Distribution decisions are made in respect of targeted customers.

4.2 Comparing the tactical decisions has been taken lcb tours and Hotel Hilton in different situations

Considering the lcb tour and the hotel Hilton for tactical decisions made by the two respective organizations.

Tactical Pricing: Once lcb tours took a tactical decision was taken in respect of raising the prices of the travel which took the growth of the business in a downturn, but it was soon realised and checked. On the other hand, Hilton has also been observed in doing so, the prices were raised which resulted in the loss of customers (tactical pricing) (Anantamongkolkulet al. 2017).

Tactical Responses: The other tactical decision was made considering the responses of the customers when the company was at its top position, and the company believed that the success is because of its quality and some cost-cutting was done through un-employing the employees who marked a downfall of the company with huge customer losing. Once the hotel took the feedback of the customers very lightly and did not try to meet the customers' expectations which resulted in a downfall of the sales

Tactical Marketing: The adoption of over advertising through hoardings just added to the cost of the company, and this was checked soon. The overconfidence of the hotel that it could survive without marketing its product, just on the basis of its goodwill, saw the tactical marketing decision-making effects (Mischelet al. 2014).

Conclusion

Overall the study has helped in getting knowledge about the tourism business and the consideration of various factors in executing a holiday plan has also been gathered. The study has revealed many fact full and interesting details about the touring and tourism industry. The study revolved around the planning of holiday packages, the effects of current and recent trends on the tourism industry, and all the different stages and effects that the tourism industry goes through. The study also explored the lcb Tours which is a tour coordinator in the United Kingdom.

Read Also: The Influence of Technology on Travel and Tourism Sector

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