Skotarenko A.V.
Usachev V.A.
Донецький
національний університет економіки і торгівлі імені Михайла Туган-Барановського
THE TOUR
OPERATOR’S ROLE IN TОURISM SERVICES
Tour operators - travel agency (organization) which
deals with the organization of tours based on contracts with
service providers according to the needs of tourists.
Tour operator
is a producer
of tour package. It deals
with the developing of routes and package
of
tours, provides their operation, arranges advertising, expects
prices for tours
to these routes,
sells tours directly
to travelers or through travel agencies.
Tour operator offers tourists a
variety of choices of tourist services and simplifies the order of
service in other cities and
areas, by being in charge of those
functions.
Tour operators have got a special role in the tourism
industry. They acquire the travel products (seats on
airplanes, hotel rooms), form
packages of tourist services and
sell them directly or indirectly to different users (tourists) in order to profit. Tour operator may sell tourist services separately.
They do this either for profit,
or as needed.
In the first case, when tour operator develops
tour package, it acts
as a producer of travel products. In the second case, when it sells the
services separately, it acts as a wholesale dealer of travel
services. This is this way if
the tour operator buys more tourist services
than it is necessary for the formation of tour package.
Besides, today there are specialized
wholesale tour operators, which
have got special discounted rates on hotels and other service providers as a result of
wholesale purchase of services.
This is a feature of
a tour operator, that is, its ability to insure against changes in prices of services
necessary for the
formation of tour packages
affordable for tourists. The wholesale tour operators have lower
prices than retail prices of hotels.
Yet tour operators should be
regarded as producers of new
products, and not as wholesalers of a wide range of travel products. It is quite
legally valid, because the main
activity of tour operators is to create tours or
packages (tour packages).
Sometimes, as already mentioned, they can sell the services
separately. This is an optional activity, or objectively necessary step in the
market. For example, tour operators
are selling seats on flights (charter
or regular, booked
flight or as agents) to fill the required number
of seats, bought out by quota of subsidized prices.
In these cases, they
act as wholesalers or brokers.
Besides, generally we
divide all tour operators into receptive and initiative [1].
The initiative tour
operators – tour operators which send tourists abroad or to other regions in
agreement with host (receptive) operators or directly through tourists
companies.
Feature that distinguishes them from the
other
travel agencies dealing exclusively
with selling foreign tours is that they form
a travel product, consisting of norms
of the World Tourists Organization (WTO), not less than three services
(accommodation, transportation of
tourists and one more not associated with these two).
Classic initiative tour operator forms
complex routing structure, completes it from the services provided by local
tour operators in different places visited (according to the routes), provides
travel to the starting point and back, and provides transport during the trip.
Receptive tour operators - these tour
operators are at the reception, which complement tours and maintenance programs
in the place of reception and tourist services, using direct contracts with
service providers (hotels, catering, leisure and entertainment establishments,
etc.). This is the purest form of tour operating.
Receptive tour operator is developing a
tour at the reception. Initiate specialized tour operator, as a rule, forms the
tour, completing it from the receptions at several points.
An example is the transtour
structure in the specialized leased vehicles (cruise by boat, bus shuttle tours
in several cities or countries, rail tours, etc.).
Tour operator in the tourist market takes
a position between service providers and their customers (tourists). Its
objective is to promote the services of individual producers to consumers in
the form of a comprehensive travel product, both basic services (tour package)
and additional (consumed by cash) [3, P.31].
Functions
of the tour operator:
- to examine the needs of potential tourists for tours and
tourist programs;
- to prepare prospective service programs, tours and testing them
on the market in
order to determine compliance with the needs of tourists;
- cooperation on a long term basis with such service providers as:
- hotels - to provide an
accommodation;
- transport companies, firms and companies - to provide
transportation services;
- administration of sports facilities - for
the opportunity to travel to sports facilities;
- show, movie, video
managers, theater companies - to have the opportunity to visiting
them;
- directorates of
national parks, sanctuaries, landscape
gardening, hunting
and fishing - to provide recreation and
tourist services in
such areas;
- providing the
tourists with all necessary materials such as promotional gifts, special
equipment and inventory;
- рreparation, selection and appointment
of personnel for the routes, functioning as contacts with tourists,
coordination and monitoring of the implementation of maintenance programs (tour
guides, instructors, animators, supervisors, etc.)
[2, P.86].
Litarature
1. http://tourlib.net/books_tourism/aleks55.htm
2. Александрова А.Ю. Международный туризм: учеб.пособие для вузов / А.Ю.Александрова - Ростов-на-Дону. - 2009. - 512 с.
3. Бессараб Д.А. География международного туризма: книга / А.Д.Бессараб - М. – 2010. - 187с.