The Tour Operations Sector Introduction Tourists are environmental consumers and thus, the tourism industry axiomatically requires natural environment and human quality. In the broadest sense, environmental issues and social responsibility practices are academic and hence, are unrelated to business interests. As a result, the study aims to measure the awareness level of tour operations and ascertains the current practices that have enabled practical, positive, and professional pressure for the development of sustainability in the tourism industry. Tour operators are business entities combining two or more services of travel (sightseeing, transport, catering, accommodation, and entertainment among others) thereafter sell them through agencies of travel or to consumers directly as a package tour. In essence, a tour operator becomes an intermediary who brings both buyers and sellers together with the aim of expanding the market size through the creation of markets where they did not exist, and or ensure the existing markets work efficiently (Cooper et al. 1998, p.189). This study aims at recognizing the plan of their programs, which has enabled the tour operators to remain profitable despite the existing competition in the sector. Undifferentiated products and small margins particularly the mass marketers characterize the British tour operators. Furthermore, operators like Thomson, Airtours, and First Choice dominate the market although the trend is moving towards oligopoly.
This report will examine how to assist the international tour operator, Contiki to strengthen their business objectives so they can go above and beyond their competitors over the next five years in the international tour market in Australia. It will show different tour operator brands in the international tour market that can be accessed to Australian consumers, overview of the market that the brands operate in, charts and tables identifying the different market segmentations, identifying the target strategy, providing two perceptual maps and an explanation of the competitive advantages and a brief summary about promoting the business. All the information collected from this report is from credible sources.
Sustainable tourism development merges environmental concerns with economic policy (Dresner, S. 2008: 69) and allows for tourism’s products in the form of intangible services or the natural environment, to be environmentally cautious through a responsible trade off between production and use of assets. Some influences apparent are environmental, social, and economical and it is further important to emphasize that one or a combination of the aspects, with market cooperation, creates a sustainable agenda. Travel services are increasingly seen as less of a luxury good and more as an everyday purchase (Page, 2003:3) due to marketing becoming more prominent which means organisations must complete vigorous promotion strategies for long-term viability. Marketing therefore has a highly important role, as Holloway (2004) explains marketing understands the needs and wants of customers, ‘to what can be sold, to whom, when, where and in what quantities’ (Holloway J.C. 2004:7). Holloway (2004) writes that successful organisations anticipate demand “recognising it, stimulating it and finally satisfying it” (Holloway, J.C. 2004: 7). Marketing is absolutely crucial within creating and maintaining a sustainable agenda in a variety of ways, moreover reference to consistency among stages of development, unique benefits produced from varied strategies, relevancy of market research, adapting to changing market demand and the positive outcome of identifying new markets.
Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for conservation of the environment.
Tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) wish to encourage all countries to make sure that their policies and actions for its development and management fully embrace the principles of sustainability. Likewise, policies to promote sustainable development should take full account of the opportunities offered by tourism. Various international conventions and declarations have put forward principles and guidelines for sustainable tourism and the importance of tourism and its sustainability was underlined at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many countries declare that they are pursuing, or wish to pursue, policies for ‘sustainable tourism’. Despite this interest, there remains a degree of uncertainty over the scope and priorities for making tourism more sustainable and only partial appreciation of how to put this into practice (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).
As the economy develops, the individualized and diversified demand of tourists is growing. Tourism consumers in different regions, their needs and desires are vastly different, and also change with the change of environmental factors. Travel agencies highlight the characteristics of market positioning, emphasizing the differences, and establish
Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is
In such a volatile and complex industry as tourism, marketing research, an integral part of marketing planning process, plays a crucial role in shaping a framework that guides Destination Management Organisations’ (DMOs) decisions, be it public or private. At operational level, market intelligence would help DMOs gain market insights, bridge the gap between tourism products and visitors and potentially explore new markets. Without market data, goal and objectives would be unrealistic thus resulting in inefficient marketing programmes. The report discusses attempts to promote San Juan Islands - an archipelago part of the U.S. state of Washington, through their marketing plan. Drawing on the marketing process proposed by Middleton et al. (2009) and relevant literatures, what emerges from the plan is the lack of market data, lack of measurable objectives and lack of sustainable management practice. As a result, the report recommends a comprehensive marketing research and sustainable management practice.
Essay Question: Critically evaluate either the music, tourism, hospitality or events sectors role as a vehicle for sustainable development.
The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry
I choose sustainability in the lodging industry because with this being relevant in most of my major classes this semester. I wanted to do more research and become more knowledgeable on why sustainability is so important and the impact it has on this generation and generations to come. The three pillars of sustainability are the environmental, physical and social aspects that all affect one another, especially in terms of tourism and hospitality. The industry is only growing and if continues to expand while hurting the environment and using up resources that are scarce in one or more state or countries is questionable. These three articles are all relatable to the making hotels more green with research and steps taken before making short or long-term decisions within an organization that goes all the way down from developer to staff.
This paper discuses about the sustainable tourism and its practices within a hallmark event. Sustainable tourism is very important because tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industry and is major source of income of some countries. Tourism industry provide many jobs that help local economy. Olympic movement has been concerned with sustainable tourism practices to promote sustainability. This research will touch the impacts of London Olympics, 2012 had on economic side as well as social and how it helped local community in sustainable development?
This paper reviews Daniel Scott's article in the Journal of Sustainable Times "Why sustainable tourism must address climate change."
In this study, the first objective that being stated is to investigate consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible or green practices in the hotel industry. Attitudes are how to set the thoughts or feelings about something. It is also an inclination or tendency to respond positively or negatively to a particular idea, object, person or situation. Referring to past paper, the consumer attitudes towards green practices are mostly positive where many of the survey in the past study show a good reaction when being asked about green or eco-friendly practice. According to Tierney, Hunt and Latkova (2011), consumer responded that it is essential that travel industry to become green as they believes that the children futures depends on
ABSTRACT: A rapid and massive movement of tourists within a shorter span of tourist season puts a heavy pressure on tourist resources. The usage of tourist attractions is likely to be damaged beyond repair and their life span may even get shortened. In the absence of innovations or added sources of recreation, the regional tourism soon reaches its saturation point. If such a plateau stage of tourism gets prolonged, it starts cutting short the prolong stay of tourists. Some of them may not like to repeat their visits or may go elsewhere. Innovations must be talked about to pass over this stage. Encouragement of interstate package tours inclusive of the provision of budget accommodation at the wayside prime halting spots becomes obligatory. Only a National Policy can tackle the national level natural disaster which adversely affects tourism over very extensive areas. A regional policy has to take up a number of measures to avoid overcrowding at tourist places and saving them from deterioration even by co-opting private enterprise in the form of investments in socio-religious voluntary services.
According to Wold Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the development of tourism and hospitality employment is important in developing countries. WTTC had done the research and found out that in future 10 years there will be a shortage or a talent ‘deficit’ in tourism and hospitality industry in 46 different countries. (WTTC, 2015) Indirectly, this will become the biggest challenge for Human resource department if there is a shortage of talented employees in human resource department and in the hospitality industry. Therefore, talented human resource management is important to hospitality industry. However, the quantity of jobs is unquestionable the quality of many of these jobs is of great concern to academics and policymakers alike (Nickson, D., 2013).