Tourism is local or international travel for leisure. Tourism involves traveling to a tourist attraction site and spending time either on beaches, historical sites or game parks. Tourism can either be for religious purpose, business or family purpose. Tourism can either be domestic or international. Tourism contributes immensely to economic growth in terms of foreign income and creation of employment opportunities (Page, 2011, p. 99).
Advancement in technology has led to tourism development in air travel and development of low-cost carriers. Advancement of internet technology has enhanced tourism development due to ease of communication. Technological progress has made easy for people to access travel brochures and get information on tourist attraction sites easily. Tours and travel development can also be attributed to advancement in innovation that has led to the development of seaside resorts. Development of tourism can also be attributed to changes in consumer needs, fashion and expectations; there increased time availability for leisure and high-income levels (Molz, 2012, p. 234)
Globalization enables people to move from one continent to another. It has enhanced interaction between different countries that has affected worldwide suppliers in the tourism industry. Globalization has resulted to liberalization of the air transport, and it has also enabled countries to invest in foreign carriers. Globalization has also enhanced economic growth, advancement in technical knowledge and development of new and advanced practices in environmental conservation. However, globalization can result to inequality in income distribution leading to unbalance development (Buhalis, 2008, p.158).
This paper will provide a new tour package in Egypt by Thomson Airways Company based in the UK. The tour package will include a description of costs, sites and a brochure consisting of excursions, wildlife and beach holidays in Egypt. Thomson provides tour packages for family holidays, all inclusive holidays, luxury holiday, and adult holidays, weddings and cruise.
Recent Trends
According to travel trend report of 2013, there has been a significant development in tailor-made holidays. In the year 2012 the industry was faced by low consumer confidence altitudes. As compared to the year 2003 and 2004, travel trend has been increasing giving the highest figures in 2013 and 2014 as shown in the table. Most travels were described as holiday related travels. Between 2003 and 2004, traveling was hampered by an increase in the level of insecurity such as terrorism in the various countries. As according to Australian bureau of statistics, UK had the utmost travel trend score.
According to ABTA travel trend report 2013 show that the tendency of people taking package holidays increased between 2010 and 2013. In 2012, 48 % of travelers who took an overseas holiday requested it as a package. This was an increase of 11 % of the people who requested a package holiday in 2010. In the year 2013 UK's travel industry reported to reduction in travel trends due to lack of consumer confidence. Consumers are focusing more on value achieved from a holiday than previous years. Due to high demand for value companies are continuously researching for new methods to improve the value of their services (ABTA Travel Trend Report, 2013).
Table 1
Technology has led to an increase in advertisement of travel companies through social media websites such as Facebook and twitter (Kovacevic, 2013, p.651-652). People have shifted from the traditional trend of going to offices to book for a holiday package, and now they can do it online. Online services provided by different companies allows individuals to compare prices and choose businesses that suit their budget and value.
Holiday Package to Egypt
With the increase in demand for holiday packages, it is important for operators to research on consumer behavior and identify their needs and changing trends. Tour operators are the forefront to create meaningful packages for customers who have ever changing needs. Holiday packages should be able to satisfy all types of customers. Tour operators work as a team to package their holiday products and sell them through travel agents, through the internet or directly to the public.
A package holiday is a holiday that provides an inclusive of transportation, accommodation, and other costs pertaining to the travel. The package should take a minimum of 24hrs. The prices should be inclusive of at least 24hrs and costs of the overnight stays.
As a Package Tour Development Manager at Thomson Airways that is a UK based organization, I would like to present to you a holiday package in Egypt that will take place for seven days. The costs will be £ 649 for each package for an adult. Children of between 3 to 13 years will be charged £ 150. Children of below two years of age will not be charged anything. The package will be inclusive to cover your transport; to and fro air ticket and local transport within Egypt. The cost also includes your accommodation, meals in Sharm Resort, tour guide fees and entrance fees. However, the costs do not include your drinks for the trip
Accommodation will be available for you in Sharm Grand Plaza Resort. The hotel is only 8km from Sharm airport. The resort is built on the beach to give you a calm and relaxed environment. The resort offers a spectacular view of the sea and the Tiran Island. You will be able easily to access major tourist attractions such as the city of Dahab and the colored Canyon. The resort is located within Nabq National park which is a well-protected park that gives you the opportunity to have a view of the local wildlife.
Foods in the hotel are inclusive of all meals; you will be taking your breakfast between 7:00-10:00 daily and morning snack between 11:00-12:00. Lunch will always be available between 13:00-15:00 and afternoon snack. Dinner is served between 18.30-1.00. Drinks of all types are available; both alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages. Locally produced alcohol is also available for those interested.
Day 1 will be dedicated for resting and familiarizing with the resort environment. This day you will be able to familiarize with the beach, and have a swim or sand bath if you want to. You can also decide to spend you day on the sunbeds, sauna or any other relaxation activity of your choice.
Day 2 you will have a chance to visit Egyptian heritage in the famous pyramids of Giza and the great sphinx of Giza. The journey will start at 8.00 in the morning by a bus to Sharm airport where you will take a flight to Cairo together with your entomologist tour guide. Firstly you will visit the Great Pyramids of Giza before heading to sphinx. Most people come to Egypt only to see the amazing pyramids. They have been known as the highest man-made constructions since for about 3,800 years now. After seeing the pyramids, you will head to sphinx plateau to see the sphinx. Sphinx is an ancient Egyptian figure made of limestone signifying artists and poets’ ingenuities. You then have a lunch break to dine on the Nile. The Nile offers all types of food to make sure everyone is provided for. After taking your lunch, you will visit the famous museum of Egyptian Antiquities. From the museum, you will get information about ancient Egypt and its civilization. Tour for the day will end at Cairo city where you get the opportunity to do shopping. After you finish with your shopping, you will be taken to back to the airport to fly back to the resort.
Day 3 is you will have time for relaxation. Day 4 will be dedicate to see wildlife. This will be a fantastic inclusive tour into the desert. Departure time will be 2.30 where you will ride on a bus to Quad Center. From here, you will have a trip into the wilderness and have a chance to interact with the people who live in the wilderness. From here, you will enjoy mountain climbing in the desert and enjoy the fanciful view of the sunset and the mountainous region of the desert. You will also have a chance to enjoy the freshly made foods of the Bedouins. After your time in the desert, you will take half an hour drive back to your hotel.
Day 5 will be a beach day. Will have time to take pleasure in the Sharm resort beach you will have time to relax swim take sand baths and enjoy the cool breeze at the beach. Day 6 you will have a chance to enjoy local music and sports in your hotel. You can also decide to participate in sporting activities for instance football, tennis, diving and water sports activities.
On day 7 which is the last day you will take an adventure of your choice. You can just relax in the resort or decide to have a tour outside the resort. You can decide to visit the nearest beaches only ten kilometers from your hotel, such as Baron Palm and resort beach or Coral Rotana Resort.
Terms and conditions
All travelers should have their Visa and visa and other identification documents. Payments should be made in time since late bookings are charged higher, and you will be forced to pay 10 % extra. Information regarding room sharing should be given earlier to avoid unaccountability of members assigned to a particular room. The company will cover any damages resulting from our negligence. However, any damage or loss resulting from personal negligence will not be compensated. You have the right to change the travel date however that should be done a week before the day trips. You can be expelled from our tour if you fail to comply with our terms and condition; or if you interfere with the enjoyment of the fellow members of the tour, or if you are a security threat.
Brochure
To arrive at the above prices stated in the tour package cost analysis should be established. According to cost theory, the cost is arrived at by adding up all the fixed costs and variable costs of the undertaking. In this case variable costs include air ticket costs, costs for meals, entrance fees, and accommodation. Fixed costs are the long-term costs incurred by the company such as costs of machinery such as computers. The theory of price states that the price is determined by the point of interaction of supply and demand. When the demand is high prices also increase. Therefore, for a holiday planned to take during festive seasons should be charged high since demand is high (Lanen & Anderson, 2011).
Tour brochures are well-designed flyers designed with a lot of creativities to give information regarding the place of destination. It is aimed at capturing audience interest to take up a particular tour package (Sullivan, 2004). Traditionally tour operational companies used to create brochures and distribute them manually to the public or use the travel agents. The non-traditional methods used by organizations that are up to date are; the use of internet to make booking and sending of brochures through social media websites (Hudson, 2010).
Evaluation of Various Strategies as used by Tour Operators in the UK
Tourism has been growing rapidly over the past few years. The growth is attributed to changes in the global economy where leisure has become part of the society (Walker & Harding, 2009). Modern technology has changed the manner that operators are marketing their products. Rapid globalization has also led to change in the traditional methods used by due to internationalization of holiday business. Globalization has resulted in the formation of large tourism corporations through integration of existing mall companies either through horizontal integration or vertical integration (Carey, Gountas, & Gilbert, 2007). Amalgamation of firms has resulted to the formation of firms such as Thomas group and Thomson travel group. Tour operators have embarked on this strategy to gain competitive advantage in the market. In the past two decades, tour destinations were mainly concentrated on developing countries. Developing countries have been relying on tourism as a major foreign exchange. The trend of traveling to the developing countries has changed, and many are also considering visiting developed nations. The following table shows some of the destination areas in developed countries.
Table 2
However, even though there is an increase in the tendency to visit developed nations the majority of destination places is in the developing nations. People tend to travel for leisure mostly in low-income countries than in middle-income countries. The vastly growing place of destination is South East Asia. South and Central America are also emerging as areas of destination while Africa is relatively small.
There are around 600 companies working in tours and travels in the UK. They can be categorized into the following groups; special operators, mass-marketers inbound operators, and domestic operators. Mass marketers mostly deal with high volume of holidays. Specialized operators employ specialist to handle particular fields and packages, unlike the mass marketer operators.
The most widely known tourism companies are Thomson, Thomas, cook, My Travel, and first choice holidays. These companies specialize in selling large volumes of holidays especially package holidays. Thomas cook and Thomson companies are more competitive than First Choice holidays and My Travel because of their specialized tour operators. Their operators specialized in a particular type of holidays than engaging in a high volume of products. Such tour operators can provide their customers with in-depth knowledge in areas where they operate. Company's offering individualized products are becoming more competitive than firms that do not provide specialized products to their clients. Other non-specialized organizations try to compete with the big specialized companies by offering lower prices. However, the quality of their services are quite low than the specialized organizations. Other famous operators in the UK marker are domestic operators such as WA Shearing, which is an amalgamation of Wallace Arnold and Sheering.
Operation managers are geared more in investing in more sustainable markets in newly emerging economies. For instance, UK operators are investing more to grow their operation in China due to the emerging demand for abroad holidays. European operators identify a segment that is likely to spend on high-quality holiday products. Segmentation strategy allows operation managers to design products that fit every market niche.
Operators have also changed in their distribution strategies to new strategies supported by advancement in technology. The UK has traditionally relied on travel agents in their operation. However, recently, online marketing has replaced the role of travel agents and the distribution channel. The new strategy of using online booking has led to an increase in sales by around 30 % over the past two years. The increase in the percentage of sales is due to an increase in accessibility of internet among UK consumers (Bywater, 2012). Operators also use the strategy of advertising products through digital televisions. Another newest strategy the use of mobile application in as a marketing method. People can quickly access brochures via their smarts phones. Therefore, organizations can reach a lot of people than before. Travel operators are also using social media such as Facebook and twitter has been used for promotion by posting various types of products offered by the company (Burns, & Holden, 2010).
For an organization to be more competitive in the future, they need to keep up with the latest technologies (Kibedi, 2012). They should also aim at specializing in their operations since people are shifting from mass produced products with more specialized products. As stated by Clarke (2009), operation managers should be more innovative, and design services that suit every market segment. Organizations also need to be vigilant in conducting research on consumer behavior and satisfaction. Small companies should merge with each other to be able to enjoy the economies of scale (Journal of Sustainable Tourism: Editorial Board, 2010).
The difference Between Tactical and Strategic Decisions
There are mainly three levels of operation in any organization. There are the top lower and middle levels of management. The top level composed of the administrative management which is composed of the chief executives and the board of directors. The board of directors constitutes the owners or the shareholders of the institution. They spend more time thinking, organizing and planning. The top level of management formulates organization's policies and objectives. The top level of management makes the strategic decision of the organization. The next level is the middle level of management. It is composed of departmental managers such as the human resource manager, sales manager, finance manager, and marketing manager. Their duty is to implement plans as developed by the top level of management. The lower level of management is composed of the supervisors and the foremen. Their work is to direct employees. Tactical decisions are carried out in the lower level of management (Robbins, Decenzo, & Coulter, 2013).
Strategic decisions are made before tactical decision. There is no way a tactical decision can be made without tactical decisions. Strategic decisions address broader goals of the organization while tactical decisions address sub-goals that later supports the overall goal. Strategic decisions are held accountable for overall activities and process of an organization. While tactical decisions are accountable to particular resources assigned to a department. Strategic goals and tactical goals differ in terms of time frame allocated to each (Heizer & Render, 2006). Strategic decisions are made for long-term purposes while tactical goals are made to address short-term issues.
For an organization to make a strategic decision it has to research on the issue, use experience and analyze the situation. Tactical decisions do not need extensive research or analysis it only requires teams cooperation experience and use of best practices (Griffin, 2013). Tactical and strategic decisions also differ in terms of output. Strategic decisions results to formation of institutional plans, goals, and performance measures. Tactical decisions outputs include proper time allocation, usage of tools and other resources. One example of a tactical decision made by a tour operator is to sell ticks and books for a holiday through the internet rather than use travel agents. A tour operator can also make a tactical decision by choosing to take a trip to various resorts to identify resorts with high-quality services and favorable costs rather than searching for such information via the internet.
