MTRME 201 Tourism Industry Assignment Sample
Here’s the best sample of MTRME 201 Tourism Industry Assignment, written by the expert.
Evaluating a detailed value chain of the Tour operator Industry
Value chain plays a crucial role in the tour operator indoors as one of the main roles of the value chain in this industry is to produce supreme customer service which may result in the competitive advantage of the tour operator. Considering the case study, the tour operators industry mainly focus on providing flight services, accommodation and delivering supreme tourism experience to customers. The main concept of value chain indicates that it generates a positive impact in managing the chain of activities in a company which will help the company producing and delivering a valuable service and product to customers (Simatupang et al., 2017). In addition to that, there are several phases in the value chain of the tour operator industry and it generally contains travel agents, transport facilities, Hotel services and accommodation, site operators, food service and tourist sites.
Travel agent
Travel agents may be considered as the first layer of this value chain model as one of the main tasks of the travel agents is to advise tourists and make proper topic planning with the customers. It is the duty of the travel agents or tour operators to provide overall tour related operation and entire tour package to customers.
Transport
Transport is one of the main elements of the value chain and it is one of the prime responsibilities of the tour partners to provide comfortable transports. There are many modes of transport which need to be provided by the tour operators according to the tour planning such as airline, shipping, road transport via buses and rails. According to the case study the transport services always have a good demand in the tourism industry as generally maximum customers purchase and select the mode of transport in online platforms.
Accommodation
A tour operator needs to provide accommodation to all of the tourists such as providing quality hotels and lodges. On the other hand, providing a comfortable room with all modern facilities and a wide range of food options is also rescued in the accommodation phase which needs to be executed successfully to fulfill the satisfaction level of customers. The quality of accommodation needs to be top and it consists of multiple activities such as self-catering, providing bed and breakfast, dinner and many more (Camilleri, 2018).
Site operators
The main role of the site operators is to provide local travels to the customers through car rentals, taxis and cabs and it is also an important phase of the value chain
Food service and tourist sites
The food services of tourist operators also need to maintain a high quality such as providing foods according to the preference of individual tourists may enhance the brand image of the tourism company. Additionally, the operators also need to provide local tour to the tourist which will include local market sitting and local foods.
Evaluating the positive and negative impacts of Tour Operator industry
Considering the case study, it has found that there are many positive and negative impacts of the tour operator industry. One of the most positive impacts is that after 2000, the business model of this industry has changed and it also provides new facilities to tourists which improves the growth of this industry. Additionally, there are huge margins in this industry which denote that the industry is profitable so proper tour planning may help tour companies to become profitable. The industry is extremely competitive while if a company will not be able to attract tours to the company then it may result in the financial loss of the company. Thomas Cook was a renowned tour operator company which also faced multiple problems such as the debt of the company has increased and net profit level decreased accordingly.
In the digital era, the tour operator industry needs to implement technical tools while the manager of Thomas Cook was not able to make the business model more technically driven. Brexit also has created a negative impact on the tour operator industry as due to Brexit the tour operator of the UK has faced multiple shocks such as the currencies of the UK became weaker in countries to US dollar and other currencies and it also created many political problems which disrupted the growth of this industry. The main positive impacts of the tourism industry are that it helps a country in improving its economic growth such as the Gross Domestic product (GDP). Another negative impact of the tour operator industry is that it may increase the price of local shops as foreign tourists are generally wealthier in many countries and most of the shopkeepers are looking for extra profit in selling the local food products at a high price. It is one of the main duties of the tour operator industry is to focus and analyze the life cycle environmental impacts and needs to minimize the negative environmental impacts such as reducing food waste with the help of a value chain model (Oneplanetnetwork.org. 2022).
Identifying the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of Thomas Cook
Considering the case study and by applying a SWOT analysis framework the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats of Thomas Cook may be analyzed significantly. SWOT analysis that stands for strength, weakness, opportunity and threats is a strategic tool used in business to assess an organization’s presence against its competitions (Teoli et al., 2019). The strength of Thomas Cook may be regarded as the fact that the company is quite a reputable organization that operates within the tourism industry within the UK owing to the company’s longevity in the same business market. Over the years, Thomans Cook has been able to build a brand name and image for itself and as a result of that most of the consumers within the UK have a positive perception about the brand. Brand image is a significant perception that is held by consumers about a certain company or brand or its products and it is instilled in the consumer’s memory which is further reflected in consumer’s purchasing decisions (Amron, 2018).
However, it is one of the aspect that may also be regarded to be a weakness for the company as Thomas Cook was established so long ago that the company has failed to keep up with the modern trends and the advancement of technology that the majority of the organizations are adopting these days for sustaining in the competitive business environment. From this analysis, it may be derived that new competitors are entering the market and giving tough competition to the company by providing more customizable services to the people of today’s generation who prefer to do everything through the means of the internet. The age-old business model of Thomas and Cook that does not have an online presence is causing the company to have one of the most relevant of the threats to stay relevant in the competitive game for the organization as well.
Sites similar to booking.com and more provide consumers the options of comparing prices of all services so that customers are able to choose the best offer for themselves. Therefore, the decaying business model of the company may be regarded as one the threats that Thomas Cook is facing in the contemporary world. However, there are still opportunities for the company to completely reinvent itself and adopt the current market trends and technological advancement, which further will enable Thomas Cook to find its way back to the top.
Strategic decisions that Thomas Cook might have taken to avoid bankruptcy
From the case study, it is explicitly visible that the income revenue of the organization has gradually decreased, which led the organization to experience bankruptcy. However, if Thomas Cook had taken the help of certain strategies and approaches to change its business model then, it is assumed that the firm might have avoided suffering the bankruptcy. One of the relevant strategies or theories that the organization might have adopted was following the model and framework of change management theory or Kurt Lewin’s change management model. According to Kurt Lewin effective change needed a detailed plan of actions made by senior managers and change is achievable through the process of unfreezing, changing as well as refreezing (Ratana et al., 2020). This significant model might have ensured that the changes required to stay relevant in the competitive world in today’s age took place in the most systematic manner and no disruptions were caused in the organizational activities.
Another approach that the company might have taken to avoid bankruptcy is by following the cost leadership model and by doing that Thomas Cook might have been able to reduce the prices of the company’s products and services. Cutting down on cost and simultaneously offering the most premium quality products might have made sure that consumers did not deviate from purchasing the company’s services owing to the high price. Moreover, it further might have helped the organization to earn a significant amount of revenue as well and the company might have avoided bankruptcy.
The adaptation of technology, similar to companies, such as AirBnB and TUI and staying relevant with the current requirements and demand of the consumers is another strategy that Thomas Cook might have taken or followed for avoiding the bankruptcy that the company had faced. The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 is an approach characterized by complete digitization and has the potential to provide an extensive range of customization and efficient business model (Arnold et al., 2018). Investing in various service offerings, such as cruise, apart from airlines would have also been beneficial for the company to avoid bankruptcy, since companies, such as TUI earn most of its revenue from cruise and also different hotel chains across the globe.
References
Amron, A., 2018. The influence of brand image, brand trust, product quality, and price on the consumer’s buying decision of MPV cars. European Scientific Journal, 14(13), pp.228-239.
Arnold, C., Veile, J. and Voigt, K.I., 2018, April. What drives industry 4.0 adoption? An examination of technological, organizational, and environmental determinants. In Proceedings of 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Management of Technology, Birmingham, United Kingdom, April (pp. 22-26).
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. The tourism industry: An overview. Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product, pp.3-27.
Oneplanetnetwork.org. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/sites/default/files/tourism_value_chain_mapping_methodology_-_april_2019__1.pdf> [Accessed 16 February 2022].
Ratana, S., Raksmey, C. and Danut, D., 2020. Conceptualizing a framework: A critical review of the development of change management theories. Studies in Business and Economics, 15(2), pp.205-214.
Simatupang, T.M., Piboonrungroj, P. and Williams, S.J., 2017. The emergence of value chain thinking. International Journal of value chain management, 8(1), pp.40-57.
Teoli, D., Sanvictores, T. and An, J., 2019. SWOT analysis.
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