Holiday Package and Tour Operations

Task 1

1.1 Effect of Current and Recent Trends in Developing the Tour Operation Industries

The tour and travel sector has gained importance in the arena of serving people by considering all their recent trends and demands. It is the most successful aspect by which an industry can largely and successfully meet its stated objectives of raising funds by gradually increasing its profits and revenues. Tourism is nowadays in high demand by many tourists who are tremendously attracted to the art and culture of different countries. Thus, it is equally important for tourism businesses to enhance their services to effectively meet the forecasted demand of customer which clearly defines their interest in utilizing an advanced approach. Some major impacts of the latest trends and developments are mentioned below...

Technological Development

Technical advancement has greatly and positively influenced the industry of tourism with a tremendous rise in its updated methods of serving clients. Here, the internet has worked as an active source with its increasing demand among the users. Thomas Cook also operates its own websites by which the clients can easily schedule and manage their bookings. They can also provide an option of booking cancellation where the clients can make necessary changes, as and if required. Therefore, such ease and convenience in services to the users are largely responsible for the growth of the tourism sector.

Cost-Effective Packages

The cited firm also provides an overall holiday package that consists of a tour destination with almost all other required services of traveling and accommodating clients. They too care for serving quality food at the time of tour by using varied healthy and nutrient contents. For this purpose, the cited firm has contracted the best catering service to work with them. Other than that, this methodology also helps the users to select from a wide range of services which together serves them as a cost-effective method by buying the services in bulk.

Measures of Promoting Services

It is yet another essential factor in which the cited firm is responsible for broadcasting its varied services to its prospected users by together educating them about famous destinations to visit. The tour operators usually create relevant brochures and distribute them among their agents for selling it to the customers. The organization is focused on providing an experience of grey tourism to its service users.

Task 2

2.1 Assessing Stages and Time Scales Involved in Developing Holidays

Below is an itinerary plan for an African tropical destination of Kenya. It comprises an overall holiday package for the service users of Thomson Cook. It is a one-week plan that consists of proper scheduling of time with the total number of days and nights in the beaches and deserts of Kenya with some other arrangements of transportation and flight services. Kenya is an authentic place to spend holiday in major number of attractive beaches and safaris. Therefore, travelers to Kenya often plan to visit both combinations (Connell, 2013). Thomas Cook too considered a similar aspect of creating the below-stated travel plan for Kenyan visitors.

2.2 Different Methods of Contracting for Various Components of the Holiday by the Tour Operators

Different tour operators have different plans to build their packages for the customers. Below are the two main methods of contracting which include-

1. Fixed Contracts

Such contracts are being used by the Airtours company, which it will book for the total transportation service. However, it will charge the customer for only the utilized part of its service. This kind of facility will undoubtedly attract many service users with the benefit of paying only for the consumed part of their service. Here at the seasonal time, the operators can generate a huge amount of profits. However, such type of contracts comprises certain risks where the operator has to bear a loss of non-utilized service and receives a payment of only underutilised portion by the customer.

2. Sale Contracts

These contacts are useful for the operators at the lean season where the risk-takers are generally associated with buyers. Here firms like Flight centers are responsible for selling their packages to customers, whose cancellations do not affect the firm on a large basis. Mostly, the high-end customers are targeted for such contracts.

Both the above-discussed methods can be profoundly used by the selected tour operator, Thomas Cook. These methods will equally help the cited firm to balance out its applied costs and expenditures.

2.3 Selling Price of a Holiday

The price range of a holiday package by ThomasCookk mainly refines the cost of overall acknowledged facilities to its service users. It comprises various fields which mainly include the cost of transportation facilities, accommodating charges, catering services, and ticket fares to check into the various places of attraction. The below-mentioned table however concludes a total cost of 3,330.00 EUR for buying the above package of Kenya.

Task 3

3.1 Planning Decisions Taken for the Design of a Selected Brochure

Selecting a prompt brochure is of vital importance because it works as the key element to attract a major number of customers. Therefore, it is important for the tour operating company to opt a flaunting look of their brochures. It conducts various levels of planning to recognize the exact psychology of the recent trends and demands of the customers by determining the latest use of techniques and approaches. The planning procedure of designing a brochure initiates its first impression by working toward the content in regard to the audience, a prompt selection of colors and images, etc. The basic creation of a brochure is to provide the audience with an overall overview of the purpose behind it. One doesn't need to be an affluent designer to build a prospective brochure. However, it just needs to be a vigilant consumer who knows about the ongoing market trends and opportunities to create a market-friendly brochure. Thus, the effective planning of Thomas and Cook depends on the below-mentioned points...

Fascinated Theme

It is the foremost step where the cited firm aims to create a single effectual message that contains the overall story for its viewers. They ensure its content to be the most dignified one to indulge numerous audiences in going through the below points.

Objective of the Brochure

It is the next step to plan the certified objectives that the cited firm is focusing upon. They mainly target the three different kinds of objectives which are-

Learning objectives- It will help the readers to determine the benefits of the package with the available services and its costs, etc.
Emotional objectives- This will build a sense of feeling among the readers as to whether to accept to participate in it or not.
Behavioral objectives- These objectives will showcase the above resultant of emotional objectives which may be either positive or negative as per the total number of participants who took interest to be a part of the package circulated by the cited firm.

Targeting Audience

In this step, the cited firm is responsible for deciding its targeted customer which typically defines some segments of...

• Families with small children or couples,
• Old-age people are,
• Oversees visitors,
• Groups from schools and colleges, or
• Tourists with some special interest of sports activities and wildlife, etc.

Accordingly, the cited firm will be posting some pictures of attractive destination arenas to largely attract customers.

3.2 Suitability of Alternatives To a Traditional Brochure

A traditional brochure represents the paper format of a booklet where it is quite impossible to cover all the information about the destination that one wants to convey to its audience. Thus, it comprises only a certain amount of data it which works just as an overview of the place. However, the internet comes to the rescue of it and effectively cops up with this traditional form of designing a brochure. It together shows a very profound outcome with some expected boom of responses by the viewers. This is a resultant effect of e-brochures which are now thoroughly available at various sites of the internet. Thomas Cook too owes its website which covers almost all famous destinations around the world.

A digital form thus helps the cited firm to intensify certain inner feelings of its audience to view the spellbound presentation of each and every corner that one dreams of visiting at least once. It together prompts its services by mentioning all rendering facilities to the customers. It proves to be beneficial for both the firm and its customers where the cited firm will get a major number of active online customers with an ease of viewing the required data of both the place and its traveling costs. As a result, the cited firm will attain more participation from travellers to gain a huge amount of income.

3.3 Suitability of Different Methods of Distribution

The circulation of brochures highly reflects the sale of packages by a tour operator. Therefore, one should opt for an effective method of distribution that attains a fluent number of potential customers. Thomas Cook also uses several methods of distribution that mainly refer to either making a direct telephonic sale by operating a separate call center for such specific purpose, by trading online, or by making various promotional offers, etc. Direct sale by the cited firm involves selling through the means of online medium, or by making telephonic calls to its existing clients by acknowledging them about the current ongoing plan or package and asking them to give a few references of certain prospected customers who are presently planning for a tour and interested in utilizing the services of a tour operator. It is a cost-effective measure by approaching a major number of service users.

Another methodology is email marketing in which the cited firm impersonally communicates with the targeted consumers through emails to broadcast them about their recent tour packages. It too works as a low-cost method where the prospected customer receives all required data specifying the features of their package which becomes together becomes easy for its audience to judge and decide. The cited firm also hires some certified agents in regard to selling the brochures among the targeted segment of customers. They are also responsible for conducting various promotional activities to enhance their sale which lastly affects the growth of the organization. Hence, Thomas Cook utilizes a combined form of all these approaches to successfully reach the stated objectives.

Task 4

4.1 Evaluation of Strategic Decisions

A strategic implementation is considered an important element to attain a major outcome of positive results. Thus, Thomas Cook too believes in applying a similar approach of building a strategic plan for operating their business which mainly involves making decisions regarding the design of its booklet, by identifying the targeted segment of customers, fixing a cost-effective price to attract more people toward its services and choosing a prompt method to circulate or distribute its action plan by covering major number of audiences. Developing an effective strategic plan often emerges a profitable firm with a dynamic nature of changing the plans by considering outside propositions of demand. However, the strategic decision of Thomas Cook relies on the below-mentioned factors...

Segmentation followed by targeting and positioning

The firm starts with a particular segmentation of its targeted audiences whereas the cited firm focuses on building a demographic segmentation. It is done by determining the age, income, and interest of its prospected customers on which the other factors are being framed. It mainly reflects the pricing strategy of the cited firm to competitively strike its major competitors.

Seasonality factor

It defines a pricing strategy of the cited firm at the peak time of travel and tourism when there are a large number of prospected customers to focus upon. The seasonality highly states the firm's revenue and thus it is important to make a firm and effective decision of pricing by together selecting a sound area.

Promotional activities

This is a factor in broadcasting the services to its prospected users. It defines the process of selecting an appropriate channel of designing and distributing brochures to attract huge numbers of public. The cited firm also provides various discount offers at the peak season to pull more audiences.

4.2 Comparison of Tactical Decisions

Building a tactical decision involves the functionality of the daily operations of Thomas Cook where it is solely responsible for managing all its expenditures. Therefore, it is important for the cited firm to negotiate with its service providers of accommodation and transportation. There are various service providers for different facilities of transportation, accommodation, catering, etc. The cited firm has to set a pre-defined budget of their own and build an effective proposal to invite those service providers. They then select the most effective quotation out of the available options which are suiting the most to their pre-planned budget. The main motive of the cited firm is to opt for a minimal cost plan which together serves at its best to the clients. The most effective form of negotiations to select the most suitable proposal is often done by personal meetings with the service providers. It also helps the cited firm to gain a complete understanding of its policies and procedures by eliminating any existence of uncertainty. However, evaluating the experience of customers is also included in building a tactile decision that involves rectifying and resolving any issues or concerns of the service users.

Conclusion

The present report has effectively covered various aspects of a tourism operating firm by concluding all its major components to always lead the way ahead. It has showcased four major parts of understanding the formulation of this industry, identifying various stages it involves to create a profound holiday package for its service users, the comprehension of framing and distributing its brochures in the most needed form by using and considering all the latest means of techniques and lastly by making an appropriate decision of building its both strategic and tactical action plan that further reflects its day to day operations.

References

• Barker, A. D., 2014. Identity and Intercultural Exchange in Travel and Tourism (Vol. 42). Channel View Publications.
• Becker, E., 2013. Overbooked: the exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and Schuster.
• Carmody, J., 2013. Intensive tour guide training in regional Australia: an analysis of the Savannah Guides organisation and professional development schools. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
• Cheng, C. K. and et.al., 2011. An examination of tourism journal development. Tourism Management.
• Connell, J., 2013. Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture, and commodification. Tourism Management.
• Dickinson, J. E., Lumsdon, L. M. and Robbins, D., 2011. Slow travel: Issues for tourism and climate change. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

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