Management Of Travel & Tourism Operations

The Place

• Inhabited places
• What makes a place?
• Population growth
• Natural characteristics
• The built environment
• The people and the patterns of life
• The economic situation
• Political standards and systems
• Historic and artistic characteristics
• Media, entertainment and recreation
• International links
• Pace of change
• Urbanisation
• Places are unfinished

Tourist Destinations

• A destination
• Domestic market foundations
• Visitors
• Types of destination
• Purposes of travel
• General interest tourism
• Special interest tourism
• Special interest focus and purpose
• Business and professional travel
• VFR, health, religious and other travel
• The destination and its three stages
• The destination as a marketing mix

Visitors

• An initial framework
• Travel motivations
• What competes?
• Ego benefits
• Popular culture and mass tourism
• The tourism product includes other tourists
• Tourism communities
• Visitors’ interpretation
• Not meeting, meeting or exceeding expectations
• Visitor surveys

Product

• From destination to tourism product
• The total product
• Product components
• Diversification
• Change
• Space
• The intangibles
• Accommodation
• Predominant features
• Completeness
• The marketing mix

Accommodation

• Types of accommodation
• Size and characteristics of units
• The accommodation product
• Project feasibility
• Factors influencing a destination’s accommodation
• Shaping a destination’s accommodation mix
• The role of tour operators
• A commodity
• The hotel room as a commodity
• The health of the hotel and accommodation sector

Transport

• Access
• Change
• The travel marketing mix
• International links
• Road transport
• Railways
• Air transport
• Marine transport and inland waterways
• Visas and facilitating entry
• Key transportation points

Cycles

• Cycles in general
• Product life cycles
• Tourist destinations can fall away
• Changeability
• Proximity to major markets
• Obsolescence
• Staying alive

Market Research

• The objectives of market research
• The business climate
• Structure and complexity
• Desk research
• Intelligence
• Visitor surveys
• The performance of the tour operators
• Information systems
• Disseminating information
• Evaluating results

Image

• The image of a destination
• The core image
• The brand image
• Ethos
• The contemporary viewpoint
• Setting the tone
• Romance, familiarity and intimacy
• Sign systems
• Fiction and reality
• Other ideas of reality
• The unfinished image

Price

• Prices and tourism receipts
• Tourism’s economic impact
• Leakage
• Reducing leakage
• Elasticity of demand
• Price related to the image
• Currency exchange rates
• The Euro
• Anti trust and monopoly controls
• Two-tier pricing
• Yield management
• Key pricing criteria

Positioning

• The importance of positioning
• The positioning of ‘classics’
• Formulating the marketing mix range
• The positioning matrix

Promotion

• Where does promotion fit in?
• What does promotion consist of?
• Public and private sector roles
• Public and private sector disharmony
• The different levels of promotion
• Joint public and private sector approaches
• Indirect promotion
• The promotional budget

Governance

• Looking at governance
• Managing the tourism sector
• Approaching tourism sector management
• The role of the Government Tourism Administration (GTA)
• Words and concepts
• Tourism development planning
• Consensus building
• Involvement, participation and change

Sales

• Forecasting
• Selling tourism
• Facilitation
• The product on the travel agent’s shelf
• The tour operator’s catalogue or brochure
• Consumer protection
• Reservations systems
• The retail travel agency
• Checking the retail network
• Airlines
• Selling business and convention tourism
• The speed of sales decisions

Management Tools

• The relationship between the public and private sectors
• Different ways of seeing – types of approach
• Using the tools
• Public awareness
• A sector-wide training programme
• Developing the destination

Regeneration and Re-engineering

• Cycles and positioning
• Future development
• Improvement opportunities
• Modifying markets and repositioning
• Tourism policy
• The degree of development
• Incentives
• Listing the projects

Expansion

• Planning as part of management
• Tourism planning
• Carrying capacity
• Investment promotion
• Investment workshops
• Facilitating new investment
• Repositioning through expansion
• Expansion decisions

Quality and Standards

• Quality and quality management
• The control cycle
• The International Standards Organisation
• Management style
• A question of values
• Quality circles
• Tangible and intangible items
• Empowerment
• Quality control and improvement
• Quality management workshops and other training incentives

Legislation

• A legislative framework
• All sectors of society
• Registration, licensing, classification and grading
• Minimum standards
• Checklist for the development of tourism regulations
• The right of appeal
• An ombudsperson

Physical Planning

• The planning system
• Different planning levels
• Environmental impact
• Planning regulations
• Listed buildings
• Outdoor advertising
• Building regulations

Classification and Grading

• The purposes of classification and grading systems
• The failure of government-driven systems
• Helping the user choose
• Who can operate a classification and/or grading system?
• The difference between classification and grading
• Advisory services and training
• The Scottish tourist board
• Inspection
• Private sector guides

Human Resources

• The place of human resources development
• A human resources development strategy
• Working conditions
• Future workforce and training needs
• Minimum standards
• Training institutions and programmes
• A national council for tourism education and training

The Tourism Sector Checklist – Part II

• The tourism development strategy
• Human resources
• The management tools
• Organisation and management