Tour Operations Management - GTi Travel Group, Shearings Holidays, Greatdays, Audley Travel - Assignment Example

Tour Operations Management Table of Contents Task 4 1 Introduction 4 2 Major TourOperators 4 1.2.1 Inbound Tour Operator: GTi Travel Group Ltd. 4 1.2.2 Domestic Tour Operator: Shearings Holidays 5 1.2.3 Outbound Tour Operator: Greatdays Travel Group 5 1.2.4 Specialist Tour Operators: Audley Travel 6 1.3 Current Trends and Developments 6 1.4 Horizontal and Vertical Integration 7 Task 2 8 2.1 Analysis of Brochures 8 Brochure of GTi Travel Group 8 Brochure of Shearings Holidays 8 Brochure of Greatdays Travel Group 9 Brochure of Audley Travel 10 2.2 Ratings 11 2.3 Planning Decisions 11 2.4 Suitability of Alternative to a Traditional Brochure 12 2.5 Suitability of Various Methods of Distribution 12 Task 3 13 3.1 Strategic Decisions 13 3.2 Tactical Decisions 14 Task 4 14 4.1 Conclusion 14 Work Cited 15 Appendices 16 Appendix 1 16 Appendix 2 17 Appendix 3 18 Appendix 4 21 Name of the Student: Name of the Professor: Course Number: Date: Task 1 1.1 Introduction The paper is designed in order to plot the structure of market that has been unnerved by current development in tourism and travel, and air transport markets. A tour operation sector combines travel and tour components to generate a holiday and designs routes of travel for the tourists as well as offer perfect planning or arrangement of hotels and airlines. In other words, it presents package holidays. Some of the tour operators have possession of the channel of distribution; they establish close associations with the travel groups under contracts. With the aircraft invention, demand for the travel increased quickly. But, in current years, the situation became more complicated than before as the tour operator sector of the United Kingdom (UK) are fluctuated in terms of growth (Delener 1127). 1.2 Major Tour Operators The list of major tour operators are GTi Travel Group, Shearings Holidays, Greatdays travel Group, and Audley Travel. 1.2.1 Inbound Tour Operator: GTi Travel Group Ltd. It is deemed as one of the top inbound trip operator of the United Kingdom. It specialises in offering travel services for global visitors to Northern Europe, Ireland and Britain. They offer an extraordinary selection of planned day trips, shore transfers/excursions, and overnight tours for their customers (“GTi Travel Group”). The environmental factors that supports the growth of GTi Travel Group involves the pleasant weather; attractive physical characteristics such as lakes, and mountains. 1.2.2 Domestic Tour Operator: Shearings Holidays Shearings Holidays are the number one vacation tour operator of the United Kingdom. They offer air, coach, hotel, cruise, and rail breaks to over 165 destinations in Europe, UK and worldwide. They have 50 hotels in the United Kingdom, assuring the authentic experience, helpful and friendly service, comfortable accommodation, great entertainment and customers get worth for money (“Shearing Holidays”). The economic factors that contribute to their growth involves communication and transport; accommodation centres and hotels. The environmental factor that supports their growth involves characteristics such as vegetation, and coastal beaches. Tourism boosts at the picnic spots through beautiful sceneries and it attracts several tourists. 1.2.3 Outbound Tour Operator: Greatdays Travel Group It is also one of the major tour operation sector in the United Kingdom for outbound tourism thereby serving Europe, London, Great Britain and worldwide. They offer exciting travel ideas and competitive prices; includes three, four, and five star hotels; sightseeing, ferry crossing; theatre tickets; and guide services. Greatdays offer personal, friendly, and efficient services along with immense wealth of experience and knowledge of tourism. They help more than 80,000 customers with their holiday and travel arrangements. The economical factors which contribute in the development of Greatdays Travel Group are the entertainment and shopping facilities; well-trained staff; and the water supply to the tourist centres (“Greatdays Travel Group”). 1.2.4 Specialist Tour Operators: Audley Travel Audley Travel offers unforgettable trips to the people. The proficient knowledge of their specialists allows them to choose the best accommodation, excursions, and guides to suit the budgets and tastes of customers. They provide hundred percent tailor-made vacations which means that the entire holiday of customer is planned according their requirements. Audley Travel receives the “Best Tour Operator” award in the current Telegraph Travel Awards (“Audley Tailor-made”). The cultural factors which lead to the development of Audley Travel is the affluent cultural heritage as people enjoy and love exploring destination of famous monuments and palaces. 1.3 Current Trends and Developments The big confront in tourism sector is the difficulty to describe the typical tourism, hospitality, and travel organization. This is for the reason that tourism is usually an amalgamation of subsectors for example accommodation, tourism and service facilitation, transport, and attraction, each of which comprises of different groups. Tourism sector also vary across the national boundaries. There are few emerging multinational or global companies in the tourism, and the division is affected through trends through internationalization in business. However, most of the operators are influenced by economic, political, technological, and socio-cultural context inside which they are situated, usually at a local or national level (Pigram and Wahab 6). The tourism companies also function within an extremely unstable demand environment, mainly demonstrated through seasonality however also through the fluctuation in demand within the week (for example airlines and business hotels face a main downturns at weekends) and also within the working day. The tourism companies fit within the economies service sector. They are very dissimilar in the manner they operate as well as how they are managed from the organizations which mainly focuses on the production and processing of the manufactured goods. They have particular characteristics of the service companies, and the services they offer to their customers distinguish them from manufacturing sector (Pigram and Wahab 6). 1.4 Horizontal and Vertical Integration Vertical integration is done in two different ways. First, the brochure grading space in the retail outlet is mainly dominated by brochures of related tour operators. Clients will normally inspect the standard between five to fifteen brochures which will be critical in their process of decision making. Secondly, with almost thousand tour operators in the United Kingdom, clients are most likely conscious of most of the companies as well as the propagation of selection is very confusing. Thus, trust is frequently found in the suggestion of friends and relatives, and also in the opinion of travel agent (Carey and Gountas 69-75). Horizontal integration means that the company moves positively in the sequence to get a supplier. This provides the company easier access towards the resources as well as tighter management on the accessibility of these resources towards competition (Carey and Gountas 69-75). Task 2 2.1 Analysis of Brochures Brochure of GTi Travel Group The Brochure of this company shows that it offers cultural tours in Rhineland, Barcelona, Andalucia, Edinburgh, London, Manchester and many more places. It also offers classical tours to Greece, Rome, Turkey, Beijing, New York and San Francisco (See Appendix 3). Overall quality and content: The overall quality of the brochures of the GTi Travel Group is extraordinary with extremely fine content. The content on the brochure reveals the days of vacation it offers to its clients. The brochure of this company is very attractive. Use of images: The images which are used by the company are crystal clear and outstanding. The brochure encompasses the images of interesting places and monuments. Style of copy: The style of copy is clear and concise. Ease of use: The simplicity of its brochure is that it provides the idea of number of days and night taken by each tours. So, the people can plan their vacation accordingly and can also enjoy the different sites. Brochure of Shearings Holidays It shows that Shearings Holidays offers vacation to Britain, Europe, Ireland and United Kingdom. It also reveals that the company offers grand tour, river cruise tour, as well as autumn and winter tour. Moreover, the brochure also shows the total collection of hotel (See Appendix 1). Overall quality and content: The overall quality of the brochures is up to the mark. Its content shows that the company offers grand tour, cruise tour, as well as autumn and winter tour. Use of images: The images of the brochure Shearing Holidays reveals the interesting destinations across the world where the company offers tour to its clients. Style of copy: It has adopted a good style of copy by shortening the text and providing the important information of the destination. Ease of use: The brochure of Shearing Holidays is user friendly. It indicates how much the clients can save by making their trip with this company. The total amounts which the customers can save are different for different tours. For example, the customers can save £100 on their trip to Europe and Britain and also on the river cruise tour. They can also save the 10% of the total amount on their winter and autumn trip. Brochure of Greatdays Travel Group The brochures of this tour operator are very attractive. The company reveals the brochure of 2015 also. It indicates that the company is offering the tours to the cities of North, Ireland, Great Britain, Paris, London and New Jersey (See Appendix 2). Overall quality and content: The overall quality of the brochure of Greatdays Travel Group is stupendous. The front cover of the brochure signifies that the company is offering vacation to various places. The content indicates that the company is providing holidays to all the age groups i.e. children, adults, and matured people. In Paris, they are providing holidays in the Disneyland. It also shows that the tour to Jersey is by sea and by air. Use of images: The images which are used in the brochure are very attractive. The image of Mickey Mouse on the brochure for the trip to Disneyland Paris will attract the children to plan their vacation with Greatdays Travel Group. Style of copy: The style of copy is very clear. They have made the use of headers & footers to provide the information about the holiday destination. Ease of use: In terms of ease of use their brochure indicates that the North Day Trips offers free lunch for groups. So, it will help to draw more customers and ultimately add to the revenue. The brochure is very easy to use as it guides the clients how to plan their vacation i.e. by sea or air. It offers tours by several means such as by air, road transport as well as by sea. Brochure of Audley Travel Their brochure is not so attractive. However, it shows that the company offers vacations to various places such as Australia; Alaska and Canada; Central Asia, Russia and China; South Pacific and New Zealand; Hidden Beaches; South America; The United States of America; Central America; Japan; Indian Subcontinent; Southeast Asia; Middle East and North Africa; as well as The Indian Ocean and South Africa (See Appendix 4). Overall quality and content: The overall quality of the brochure of Audley Travel is okay but not as good as the brochure quality of other three companies. The brochures of this company is very simple in appearance as well as the content is also not clearly visible. It will provide difficulties to the viewers to plan their vacation. Use of Images: In terms of the use of images on the brochure, the company has done a great job. They put the images of the people according to the respective places where they are offering the holidays. For example, the brochure which is indicating the trip to Japan shows the image of Japanese girl. Style of copy: The style of copy is very simple and not very clear. Ease of use: It is little difficult to view the online brochure of Audley Travel. The contents are not clear, so, the customers will find it difficult to gather the information relating to the trips. 2.2 Ratings On the basis of overall quality and content as well as images; GTi is ranked first, Greatdays second, Shearing third, and Audley is ranked fourth. On the basis of style of copy Greatdays is ranked first, Shearing second, GTi third, and Audley is ranked fourth. On the basis of ease of use GTi is ranked first, Shearing second, Greatdays third, and Audley is ranked fourth. 2.3 Planning Decisions There are some shortcomings in the brochure of Audley Travel. The contents are not easily viewable and it will provide the people with difficulties as they will be not able to get the details of the destinations and this will lead in the complications in planning their vacation. Moreover, the brochures of this company are also very simple in appearance. Another point is that the brochure of all the three companies except GTi Travel Group does not present the total number of days and night involved while travelling to different places. There is a need of planning decision especially for the brochure of Audley Travel. They need to make their brochure more attractive by putting the image of different destinations to where they are offering tours to the people. The contents on the brochure should be big which provide the customers with the details of the places and offers related to the trips. They also offer trips to the Indian Subcontinent therefore the brochure should reveal the images of different monuments and oceans. This will assist to draw more customers. The brochures of all the three companies except the GTi Travel should mention the total number of days involved in the vacation to different places. This will also help the people to arrange their schedule and plan their holiday accordingly. 2.4 Suitability of Alternative to a Traditional Brochure The alternative to traditional brochure for various tour operators is eBrochure which can be viewed by means of internet, television, online videos as well as can be send through different types of distribution channel for example direct mail, haulier, specialist carriers, travel agencies, and through delivery companies (Medlik 210). For the tour operators, launching eBrochure will be more suitable and beneficial to them as it will help them to be more environmental friendly. They can save cost which is involved in printing as well as mailing the printed brochures. No energy will be employed to produce the paper and they can also avoid carrier and postage costs. Moreover, the updates of brochure on the website do not mean costly reprints. Therefore, eBrochure will be suitable for the tour operators for the reason that it is cheaper than traditional brochure and it helps the company to go greener or to select greener option. 2.5 Suitability of Various Methods of Distribution The online brochures and websites make the place more accessible to the potential customers. It is common for the marketing budgets of most of the tour operators to spend on the production of brochure even though the materials which are web based now become a main component of investment. Tour operator is required to carry out a sequence of work comprising research planning, administration, negotiation with the suppliers, and marketing. The various ways of distribution which is used in order to sell a vacation includes travel agents, telephone text, and call centres (Rodgers 154). The holiday brochures which are distributed by travel agents achieve several objectives such as obtaining sales; providing information in order to help in the process of decision making in terms of destination, prices, and product offerings; as well as allow the agents to sell vacation trips with detailed booking codes. It also affords cost effectual distribution for trip operators, through having an attractive cover, being eternally racked in the travel agencies and therefore generating business amongst agents. The holiday brochures which are distributed through call centres seek to attain an objective of allowing an agreement to be arranged between customers and tour operators, providing procedures and information for adjusting the booking and changing the refunds, complaints, details of products purchased, and detail information of clients. Task 3 3.1 Strategic Decisions The strategic decision of Greatdays Travel Group includes making of the sales policies as well as processes and to also support the staff of sales department through e-mail and promotion of product offers. Their decision also includes to bargain and to deal a wide variety of products. They propose competitive pricing as well as exciting travel ideas along with friendly service to its travellers (“Greatdays Travel Group”). The strategic decision of Audley Travel involves providing local marketplace insight for their international travel programs and to work with the Country Specialists in order to boost sales through the optimization of product offerings. Their decision also entails to promote the information flow from the UK-based teams to the US-based Specialists in order to keep the same benchmark of excellence as before (“Audley Tailor-made”). 3.2 Tactical Decisions The tactical decision that could be taken by Greatdays Travel group in respect to its competitive pricing is that they may set the price of their products above the price of its rivals. As they are offering extra features such as vacations for the children by providing holidays in the Disneyland as well as providing tours via sea and by air, therefore, they can set higher price than its competitors. They can also adopt promotional pricing strategy by giving dual offer in single holiday package. Greatdays can do their promotion through press releases and television promotional campaigns and thus can provide information about their destinations and new products. The tactical decision that could be taken by Audley Travel in order to boost sales is to adopt seasonal pricing strategy. In summer people prefer beach for vacations, and the winter season is considered as peak seasons so, in that time they can use discounting prices to draw more customers and it will result in more sales (O’Shannessy Minett and Hyde 9). To keep the same benchmark of excellence for their services, they can distribute their brochures with the help of travel agents by doing more modification in their brochure. They can also use their own website to sell the brochure along with some additional feature in their brochure such as mentioning of total days taken for each destination. Task 4 4.1 Conclusion The tour operators are likely to sell tailored holiday packages as well as flexible pricing tactics. This will guarantee hundred percent selling of vacation package. The trip operations are more like marketing, designing, selling and negotiating which fetch positive impacts in the business of tour operators. This report has highlighted the functions of different types of tour operators as well as current trends and developments in the tour sector. Further, an analysis is done on the brochures of four different types of tour operators. Planning decisions is also required to make the brochure more attractive and to add extra features on them. The various ways of distribution has been taken into consideration which includes travel agents, telephone text, and call centres. The idea of adopting competitive pricing is a good strategic decision for Greatdays Travel group and working with the Country Specialists in order to boost sales is also considered as an excellent decision for Audley Travel Group. Work Cited “Audley Tailor-made Journeys for the Discerning Traveller.” Audleytravel. Audley Travel, 2014. Web. 27 Dec. 2014. Carey, Sandra. and Yani Gountas. “Changing attitudes to mass tourism products – The UK outbound market perspective”. Journal of vacation Marketing 6.1 (1999): 69-75. Print. Delener, Nejdet. Current Trends in the Global Tourism Industry. Journal of Global Business and Technology 44.5 (2010): 1127. Print. “Greatdays Travel Group.” Greatdays. Greatdays, 2014. Web. 27 Dec. 2014. “GTi Travel Group.” Travelgti. Travel Gti, 2008. Web. 27 Dec. 2014. Medlik, S. Dictionary of Travel, Tourism and Hospitality. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print. O’Shannessy, Vivienne, Dean Minett, and Geoff Hyde. The Road to Tourism. Australia: Pearson Education Australia, 2009. Print. Pigram, John J. and Salah Wahab. Tourism, Development and Growth. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Rodgers, Janet. Avce Travel and Tourism Advanced. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2001. Print. “Shearing Holidays.” Shearings. Shearings, 2014. Web. 27 Dec. 2014. Appendices Appendix 1 Brochure of Shearing Holidays Appendix 2 Brochure of Greatdays Travel Group Appendix 3 Brochure of GTi Travel Group Appendix 4 Brochure of Audley Travel Read More