Incoming tour operators
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 429.
Specialist operators
Mass market operators
Tour operators in UK.
Spotlight
There are approximately 600 UK tour operators. Most operators fall into one of the following four categories.
These tour operators include some of the best-known names in the industry, such as Thomson, Airtours and Cosmos. They organize inclusive tours, often referred to as package holidays, for around 11 million British people each year, thereby dominating the UK outbound tourism market.
If we consider that travel agents are the retail arm of the travel business, then tour operators can be likened to wholesalers, since they buy in ‘bulk' from the providers of travel services, such as the hoteliers and airlines, break the bulk into manageable ‘packages' and offer the finished product, the inclusive tour (IT), for sale via a travel agent or direct to the consumer. Figure 2.1. shows the relationship between travel agents, tour operators and the suppliers of travel products and services.
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Figure 2.1. The relationships between travel agents and tour operators.
1.Read the text and fill in the grid.
  Travel agent
|
| Definitions of the Term | Travel agent's functions |
1. . 4. . 7. .
2. . 5. . 8. .
3. . 6. . 9. .
2.Read the following sentences and decide which of them are “true”
or “false”. Make your comments.
1. The travel agent is always the “retailer” and never the “supplier”.
2. The travel agent is merely a ticket seller.
3. Travel agents make travel arrangements on behalf of individuals or groups
who, for a variety of reasons, choose not to arrange their own journey.
4. The travel agent's customer becomes his or her client when he or she goes
directly to the airline, hotel, or tour operator.
5. Most travel organisers are looking to make a profit on the services they offer
to clients.
6. Clients shouldn't expect travel organisers to offer them specialist knowledge
and advice.
7. The work of travel agents can be exasperating, frustrating, irritating and low
paying.
8. Travel organisers act as intermediaries between the customer and organisations
that provide travel products and services.
3. Match the words in Aand B and their definitions
| A | B |
| 1. travel | a. a plan of how to spend an amount of money; |
| 2. agent | b. a someone who receives a service from a professional person; |
| 3. customer | c. a person or company who sells goods in a shop; |
| 4. retailer | d. a person who sells goods in large quantities; |
| 5. wholesaler | e. a person who gives or provides smth; |
| 6. supplier | f. a job or duty that you must do; |
| 7. responsibility | g. knowledge of or skill in smth; |
| 8. client | h. general activity of moving from place to place; |
| 9. service | i. a plan of a journey, route, etc; |
| 10. itinerary | j. a person whose job is to do business for a company or a person; |
| 11. know-how | k. the work or the quality of work done by smth; |
| 12. budget | l. a person who buys goods or services; |
4. Fill in the gaps in the text.
Travellers today are more knowledgeable about ...1… than before. Many travellers walk into a ...2… office with definite ideas as to where they want to go and will even tell the ...3… in what ...4… they wish to stay and on what flights they want to go. They go the ...5… because they depend on the agent's “know-how” to assure them of the type of ... 6… experience they want. But they are open to suggestions and the agent can bring them up to date on changes or new services available and can recommend the ...7… best suited to the ...8… . No matter how sophisticated the ...9… might be, he expects and prefers professional direction. However, travellers are looking at value, ...10… , and security measures more closely than at any time in recent years ...11… expectations are higher.
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| Key Vocabulary | | | Thomas Cook |