Touring the World

1. Touring the World

2. Touring the World Learning the objectives : • Understand the different elements of a tour • Name the types of tours • Define niche marketing • Describe tour development • Explain a tour operator

3. Touring the World • List the fixed and variable costs of a tour

4. Evolution of the Tour • Early days of travel only meant for the rich • Present society can afford to travel for short and long hauls • Usually Circular trip – travelers returning to where they started off

5. Mass Tourism • Many paxs (passengers) from different backgrounds travel together • WWII, England requires its residents to observe travel allowance as they needed to keep money at home to rebuild its economy

6. Mass Tourism • Social equality between the rich and the rest of the population • Created mass tourism and in the evolution of the travel industry after the war

7. Mass Tourism Affinity Charter • Started to be popular in 1960s and 1970s and still continued to be popular up to today that formed by social clubs and special interest clubs

8. Fly-drives • Became popular in 1960s and 1970s, Americans’ travelers decided to utilize groups’ airfare and car rental. • With flying element, it brings you further to a destination and with the driving element it brings the travelers to many attractions

9. Independent Tours • Descendent of the custom made FIT (foreign independent travel) or DIT (Domestic independent travel) tour. • Foreign Independent Travel or Foreign Individual Travel (FIT): An international pre-paid, unescorted tour that includes several travel elements such as accommodations, rental cars and sightseeing. A FIT operator specializes in preparing FITs documents at the request of retail travel agents. FITs usually receive travel vouchers to present to on-site services as verification of pre-payment.

10. FIT FIT package includes 1) Air, Hotel, roundtrip transfers, Breakfast, travel vouchers (certain tours or visitors’ attractions) 2) likely to join other passengers and nationalities

11. Charter Tour 1) Tour operator rents a plane capacity from 200 onwards 2) Total package that include air, hotel, and land components 3) Fly to popular destinations e.g. Tasmania, North Korea etc

12. Escorted Tours 1) Structured program or itinerary 2) Package includes :- Air, Land, meals, transfers, hotel, visitors’ attractions etc. 3) Tour Leader or Tour Guide assist in logistics and arrangements

13. Benefits of an Escorted Tour • Advance knowledge of 85 percent of the price • Baggage handling • Comfortable motor coach seats with someone else doing the driving • Group security • Prechosen meals of familiar food

14. Special-interest tours • Clients’ personal interests, hobbies, or avocations • Motivated more by the special interest than by the destination • Offered by tour operators, agents and tourists boards in organising such tours

15. Adventure travel • Trips or tours organized for adventure travel • Trips that include white-water rafting, biking, mountain climbing, hiking etc

16. Advantages of Organising special-interest travel Some Advantages :- • Volume – possibility of organizing groups • Easy-to-target groups and fairly low communication costs • Travelers with high incomes, high education, and experience with traveling • Growing market

17. Disadvantages of Organising Special –interest Travel Some Disadvantages :- • Labor-intensive, requiring research and attention to detail • Knowledge of the special interest • Tours almost always tailor-made • Requires a longer planning cycle than most tours

18. Religious group tours • Steps of pilgrimages to shrines thousands of years old or making visits to sites of recent religious experience is one of the biggest travel specialities • Typically travel in groups • Common interest develops among participants on religious pilgrimages

19. Rules and Regulations • Tourism regulated by federal and international laws and, within the industry, by various organizations and trade associations

20. Niche Marketing • Targeted their tours to population segments (niche markets or special interests) identified by demographic and psychographic research

21. Tour Development • Tour operators take travel, tourism, and hospitality products and put them together – package them – for resale to the public • Tour organizer :- person who brings together a group for travel purposes, usually a one-occasion tour

22. Tour Development • Tour’s ground operator are called destination management companies or ground operators • Choose a tour operator that has experience using destination management companies, ample insurance, and the capital reserves to cover the inevitable problems of the tour-operating world

23. Assessing demand • Involves market research based on historical performance • Planning stage of a tour takes place about one year from the conceptualization to implementation and marketing

24. Assessing Demand • Tour companies that offer multidimension and season-round departures work several years in advance • Political upheavals, currency fluctuations, and weather disasters eliminate areas from consideration.

25. Negotiating with Suppliers • Components of a tour that require research and negotiation are (1) transportation, including air, sea, or motorcoach (2) transfers, (3) lodging (4) baggage handling (5) meals (6) taxes and tips; (7) sightseeing (8) entertainment; (9) cost of an escort or host; and (10) local guide services

26. Determining Costs • Taking into consideration of all tour elements e.g. hotel, airfare, transfers, meals, inbound operators’ costings, taxes, tippings, Tour leader cost etc. • From the cost price, tour operators may put a mark-up in order to make profit

27. Break-even point • Sales income equals costs anything above this amount is profit • Fixed costs and Variable costs • Fixed costs :- costs that do not change e.g. coach, tour leader, tour guide, etc.

28. Break-even point • Variable costs are meals, hotel rooms, and entrance fees, depend on how many people area actually on the tour, paxs pay only for what they use

29. Tour Sales and Operations • Promoting the product • Preparing the brochure and printed advertisements • Setting up distribution outlets

30. Tour Sales and Operations • Processing reservations and collecting money • Providing documentation • Operating the tour

31. Tour Sales and Operations • Create goodwill for repeat customers

32. Promoting the Product Through different sources :- • Advertising in newspaper and travel trade magazines e.g. TTG, TTR • Direct Mail • Trade Show e.g. NATAS, MATTA

33. Promoting the Product • Sales Presentations • Internet • Faxes

34. Tour Brochures IATA requires some of the following :- • Form of transportation, length of tour and type of tour • Itinerary

35. Operating the Tour-The Tour Director • Host of the party • Facilitator of movement • Maker of arrangements • Handled difficult customers

36. Operating the Tour – The Tour Director • Escorted or Tour groups are accompanied by a representative. • Also known as Tour Director, Tour manager, Tour conductor • Different names but same functions

37. Operating the Tour-The Tour Director • Tour Leader :- may not may not work for the company, meet the customers, coordinate the arrangements from the airport till the end of the trip • Tour Guide :- also known as step-on guides, expert in their own territory e.g. Bangkok, accompany the group, give commentary

38. Operating the Tour – The Tour Director • must be licensed, pass tests. • In Singapore, Singapore Tourism Board issued the licenses and courses are conducted in some appointed institutions.

39. Following Through • Important to get feedbacks and improved on the next similar tour necessary • A thank-you or a phone call will definitely improve customer service or public relations

40. Summary • There are several elements that made up of a tour • Tour Director can also be called as tour leader or tour manager depending on the circumstances • Fixed and Variable costs are also important elements in calculating profit margins