Management of Tour Operators and Travel Agencies (in English)

Syllabus

1. Tour operators and travel agencies - characteristics, functions. Tour operators and its suppliers on the domestic and foreign markets. Relationship between outgoing and incoming tr tour operators. Distribution channels of the tour operators in relation to the customer. Organizational structure of a travel agency. 2. The most important tour operators on the Slovak market. Product portfolio of the tour operator. Tour as a product, typology of tours. Statistics of organized tourism in the conditions of the Slovak market. 3. Business opportunities for tour operators and travel agencies. Revenues, costs, the result of the management of travel agencies. Cash-flow of tour operators in specifications for individual months of the year. Risks affecting cash-flow, preventive measures, elimination tools. 4. Algorithm for creating a standard package holidays in time intervals. The tour as a package of basic and additional services. Creation of a residential tour product - the idea of introducing a new product to the market, personal examination of the destination, criteria for selecting suitable accommodation facilities, the importance of a foreign partner in the destination. 5. Creation of a package holidays product - contracting of air transport and accommodation services (guarantee, allotment, on request, ad-hoc), average room occupancy rate, specific contracting situations, finalization of the product being prepared, staffing of the tour operators at the destination, marketing. 6. Contracts and their content requirements when contracting the services of service suppliers in relation to travel agencies on the domestic as well as foreign market. Price negotiation in relation to the volume of contracted capacities. Payment terms. 7. Calculation of residential tours with an emphasis on determining the selling price of the package holidays. Cost items included in the calculation. Stages of tour sales with emphasis on first minute and last minute sales and their specifics. Factors affecting the determination of the amount of discounts. Special discounts in relation to selected client segments. 8. Destination management under the conditions of a tour operators. Functions, tasks, activities of the destination manager in individual stages (from product preparation to its actual implementation). Invoicing in relation to hotels, foreign partners. 9. Contracts between tour operators and their business partners. Pre-contractual information, general terms and conditions and important information. Possibilities of increasing the package holidays price on the part of the tour operators, withdrawal from the contract on the part of the tour operators as well as the client. 10. Cooperation of tour operators and travel agencies with the aim of selling tours. The contract concluded between the tour operator and the travel agency, mutual rights and obligations. Specifics of payment conditions for travel agencies. Tour operators reservation systems. 11. Reservation systems used by travel agencies and their functionalities. Searching, filtering tours according to specified criteria. Non-binding reservation and tour order. Personal data of the tour participant. Instructions for the tour. Invoicing in relation to travel agencies. 12. Crisis management of a tour operator. The COVID-19 pandemic, geo-political threats, natural disasters and their impact on the smooth operation of a tour operator. Cooperation of individual actors – tour operator management, foreign partners, representatives at the destination, assistance from the state in order to stabilize the situation. 13. Slovak Association of Tour operators and Travel agencies. The importance and tasks of the association, clubs of the association. Cooperation with the media and other stakeholders.