Tour operators

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Tour operators

Tour operators can be considered the wholesalers of the industry. Their product, which is a service, is the packaged tour.

Packaged tours offer transportation, hotel accommodations and transfer to and from the airport. The tourist pays a lower price for this package than if he were trying to make all the arrangements on his own. In addition to the basic features, the tour package may also offer meals, entertainment, sightseeing, a rental car and many other extras. The first tour in the modern sense was put together by Thomas Cook in 1841. Cook was soon offering tours all over the world, and the idea gained acceptance very quickly not only in England but also in other European countries and in the United States.

The firm of Thomas Cook and Sons has remained a major force in the travel industry, despite the number of changes in ownership. The great increase in tourism that took place in the 1960s, especially in Europe, was in part the result of the emergence of a number of firms whose chief business was packaging and operating tours.

The typical package that the European tour operators put together consisted of the least expensive two-week holiday tour. It was primarily intended for northern Europeans who wanted a Mediterranean vacation. As the competition among the operators brought prices down, many people who had never travelled before were encouraged to try a trip abroad. Both tourism in general and the tour operating companies themselves expanded very quickly. The rapid expansion, however, has also resulted in many changes in management and methods of operation for the firms in the business. A sounder financial base became necessary, since tour groups were sometimes left stranded because tour operators did not have sufficient cash to pay the price of the aircraft charter.

Tours are also arranged for employees and their spouses by corporations. The corporations typically offer these vacation trips as a reward for superior sales effort or as an incentive to improve performance. This type of tour is not open to the general public, but it is welcomed by the airlines and by hotel operators in the established resorts that frequently attract business of this kind.

It is possible to distinguish between two general types of tours. One is the holiday package that has a resort hotel as its destination. While local sightseeing or entertainment may be included in the package, the tours are generally of the ''no frills" variety — in other words, without expensive extras. The major attractions usually include sun, sea and activities such as golf or tennis that are offered by the resort itself. Local colour is not important — many holiday-makers are hardly aware of what country their hotel is in.

The second is the guided tour that features sightseeing or some other special attraction. These tours are accompanied by a guide who is in charge of travel arrangement and activities. The activity offered by the tour is its principal attraction. The tour may combine travel with education. Most of these tours include several different destinations and a good deal of local travel within one region. Thus, they require careful arrangement and coordination of accommodations, local transportation, luggage handling, and all the other details that accompany any kind of travel. The person who leads such tours is the tour guide. He is multilingual, he relates well to other people, and he deals with the variety of problems that arise not only in making travel arrangements, but also in carrying them out. He deals with the problems of lost luggage and unsatisfactory hotel accommodations, with rainy days and fatigue, with sudden illness, and with interpersonal problems that arise among the members of the group. There are many advantages in the packaged tours, the most obvious being the price. When airplane tickets and hotel rooms are reserved in blocks by the tour operators, considerable savings are passed on to the customers. Many people would never travel at all without the price inducements offered by packaged tours.

A second advantage is the opportunity for tourist to make all his travel arrangements in one place at one time.

The independent traveller — one who does not travel as a member of a group — often has to go to considerable trouble to put the different pieces of his trip together. Airline seats may not be available when he wants them, or he may not be able to secure the hotel accommodations that he wants.

Even when a travel agent makes the arrangements, these difficulties still exist. The tour offers convenience as one of its inducements.

A third advantage can be summed up in the term accessibility. Tours make it possible for people to visit many remote areas that would otherwise be too difficult for them to try to see on their own. Tour operators have made countless places throughout the world accessible to the general public.

4. How did the emergence of a great number of tourist firms influence tourism in general?