TOPICS
TOURISM AS BUSINESS
What is tourism? Tourism is the temporary short-term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work, and their activities during the stay at these destinations. Tourism is the business of providing and arranging holidays and services for people who are visiting a place.
The travel and tourism industry consists of six sectors. They are:
1) tourist attractions;
2) transport;
3) accommodation and catering;
4) tour operators;
5) retail (travel agents and online);
6) public sector tourism.
Tourist attractions are places that tourists want to visit. Transport means ways of traveling between different places, such as trains and airplanes. Accommodation and catering sector includes places to stay, such as hotels, and the food and services that are provided there. Tour operators are people or companies that organize and assemble the different parts of a holiday or tour. Travel agents are people or companies that sell the holiday or tour to the customer. Public sector tourism includes government organizations that promote and develop tourism.
Tourism is one of the biggest businesses in the world. There are nearly 800 million international tourist arrivals every year. It employs, directly or indirectly, one in fifteen of all workers worldwide, from A to Z, from airport cleaners to zookeepers, and includes bar staff, flight attendants, tour guides, and resort reps. It is a huge part of the economy of many countries – in countries such as the Bahamas over 60 % of the economy is based on tourism.
Tourism is a fast-growing business. When Thomas Cook organized his first excursion from Leicester to Loughborough in 1841, he probably didn’t know what he was starting. Key developments in the last 150 years or so have led to the rise of mass tourism. There have been technological developments in transport, in particular the appearance of air travel and charter flights. There have been changes in working practices, with workers getting paid holiday time and working shorter and more flexible hours.
In recent years we have seen the growth of the internet and globalization, making the world seem a smaller but very fascinating place. The tourism industry grows faster and faster each year. In 1950, there were 25 million international tourist arrivals. In 2004, the figure was 760 million, and by 2020 it is predicted to be 1.6 billion.
But what are the challenges today? The tourism industry is affected by many different things: international events, economic change, changes in fashion. New concerns and worries appear every year, for example as people become more worried about security and international terrorism, or as the value of their currency changes. But new destinations and new sources of tourists also seem to emerge every year.
Tourism survives. It is a powerful and sometimes dangerous force in the modern world. Tourism creates many good jobs and careers, but it also produces many poor and badly paid jobs. Tourism can help to protect environments and animal life, but it can also damage them. Tourism can save cultures and the local way of life, but it can also destroy them. Tourism can change countries – and people – for the better, but it can also change them for the worse.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL
I. People travel for many different reasons. In the tourism industry we divide the reasons for travel into three main categories: leisure tourism, business tourism, and visiting friends and relatives (VFR).
Leisure tourism can mean anything from excursions, day trips, and weekend breaks to package holidays, pleasure cruises, and longer independent trips such as hill walking or treks in the mountains. It also includes cultural trips (for example, to music festivals), educational trips (for example, study tours), and religious trips (for example, pilgrims on a walking tour to a holy place).
Business tourism includes any travel away from one’s main place of residence, for such events as meetings, conferences, and trade fairs. It also includes special trips when workers are given a reward or a ‘thank you’ for good work (this is known as an incentive tour).
Travel in order to visit friends or family relatives is also regarded as part of the tourism industry. This could be for a special family party, such as a wedding or a regular trip made every year.
II. When we look at the movement of tourists there are three types of tourism: domestic, inbound, and outbound. Domestic tourism involves people who take holidays in their own country. Inbound tourism means people entering the country from abroad to take holidays. Outbound tourism involves residents of one country traveling to another country.
The things that attract travelers to a particular country are the following: climate and natural features; built attractions; accommodation; events; food drink and entertainment. The top ten tourist destinations of the world are France, the USA, Spain, Italy, China, the UK, Mexico, Russia, Canada, and Germany. The biggest tourist spenders are the USA, Germany, the UK, Japan, Spain, and France.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page. (St. Augustine).
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it. (Moore).
DESTINATIONS
Tourist destination is a place or area to which tourists travel. It may be a resort, but it also may be a city.
The Balearic Islands – Mallorca, Menorca, Ibitsa, Fotmentera.
- Sun, sea, and culture – with a Spanish style.
- 300 days a year of guaranteed sunshine.
- Fabulous beaches.
- Great entertainment.
- Something for every type of tourist.
Floating between Spain and the North African coast, the Balearic Islands offer the perfect location for a fantastic holiday. There are four main islands for you to choose from, each with their own special atmosphere.
The gorgeous climate boasts 300 days a year of guaranteed sunshine, making the islands the ideal setting for a beach holiday. The long hot summer stretches from may to October, with temperatures around +27 C – just right for relaxing and getting a tan.
The islands offer a number of attractions for tourists. Sun-seekers will love the fabulous beaches. Fun-seekers will enjoy the exciting nightlife – the clubs of Ibitsa provide plenty of entertainment for young people. But there’s more to these islands than sun and fun. You can also enjoy wonderful architecture (the Gothic cathedral at Palma is well worth visiting), hilltop villages, olive groves, and hidden beaches. You can take a relaxing fishing or sailing trip, or go to one of the many festivals. If you go in June, don’t miss the spectacular Fiesta of San Juan at Ciutadella on Menorca.
Whatever you want from a holiday, the Balearics will help you find it.
Giving a short presentation.
1) climate (seasons, temperature, and rainfall);
2) getting around (metro / trains / bus services);
3) entertainment (discos / nightclubs / shows / festivals / concert halls / funfairs);
4) s ightseeing (museums / galleries / historic monuments / parks / gardens);
5) food and drink (bars / restaurants / takeaways / local specialities).
Visiting Moscow
The best time to go to Moscow is July and August because they are the warmest months of the year. Summer days are long and it can rain quite a lot.
Getting around is easy and relatively cheap. You can get between all five airports and the city centre by a combination of bus and metro or suburban train. It’s good idea to book a transfer.
Most visitors to Moscow come to see the Kremlin, Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral and to look at Lenin’s tomb and it’s best to see the central area around the Kremlin on foot. For the other parts of the city, the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to get around is on the metro. Buses, trolleybuses and trams run everywhere the metro doesn’t go.
The most famous of Moscow’s parks and gardens is Gorky Park which stretches almost three kilometers along the river Moskva. There’s a fairground, an ornamental garden and river excursions.
There’s a number of festivals that are worth seeing. The Moscow Film Festival takes place in the autumn and the Russian Winter Festival is a must, with troyka rides, folklore shows, games and vodka.
As far as eating out is concerned, for an authentic Russian experience go to Petrovich where the walls are covered by all sorts of reminders of the Soviet past.
For a quick snack, there are three chains of food stalls – Niam Niam, which sells all kinds of sweet and savoury pies, Kroshka Kartoshka, which are jacket potatoes with fillings and Russkie Bliny, which of course needs no explanation.
ACCOMMODATION
Tourist accommodation is one of the six sub-sectors of the tourism industry. It can be classified as: serviced accommodation and self-catering accommodation.
Serviced accommodation refers to any sort of accommodation where the guests receive a place to sleep, meals, porter services, reception services, and so on. Typical examples of serviced accommodation are hotels, motels, guest houses, bed and breakfast.
Self-catering accommodation. In this sort of accommodation the guests prepare their own meals, and very few other services are provided except for reception. Types of self-catering accommodation include apartments, campsites, caravans, motor homes, villas.
Hotels are the most popular type of accommodation in many countries. They can be small, family-owned hotels, hotels at popular resorts catering for holidaymakers, business hotels, and so on.
All hotels offer a range or services and facilities. Services involve a member of the hotel staff doing something for you. Typical services are reception services, transportation and transfers, tourist information, ticket reservations, laundry, and room service.
Facilities make the guest’s stay more enjoyable, and include restaurants and bars, business centers, sports facilities, minibar, pay TV, internet connection in room, direct dial telephone, and so on
Depending on the range of services and facilities on offer, a hotel can be classified as 1-star through to 5-star. The star rating system is the classification that is used most around the world.
Reservation for hotels can be taken in different ways: face-to-face in the hotels; by phone; by email, fax, or in writing using a conventional letter; through a travel agent; through the internet.
Internet bookings are increasingly common and use computer reservations systems like Sabre or Apollo. Major hotel chains usually have their own system.
TYPES OF ACCOMMODATION
A wide variety of accommodation is available to the modern tourist. They vary from the guest house or tourist home with one or two rooms to grand luxury hotels with hundreds of rooms.
An inn is a place that offers shelter and food to travelers, often in rural areas. It was more common before railroads and modern hotels came to existence. The word “inn” now has a quaint old-fashioned sound.
Guest house or a tourist home means a small establishment that accommodates travelers. They usually have relatively few rooms.
Motel is a hotel with special facilities for motor vehicles. The word “motel” is made by combining “motor” and “hotel”. Condominium is a building or group of buildings in which a unit can be bought by an individual. The public spaces are owned jointly by all the purchasers of the individual units.
Pension, which is pronounced in French, is another type of accommodation for travelers, especially in Europe. Nowadays, it usually offers bed and breakfast at low prices. In Britain it is traditionally called “B and B” and means a boarding house which offers breakfast.
Caravanning or camping means traveling with one’s own facilities for shelter and often for eating. A caravan or van is a type of vehicle with sleeping space. In camping, the traveler carries a tent or other equipment with him. Marina is a place at which boats can dock. The marina usually offers electricity, telephones, water, etc so that people can use their boats for accommodations.
A hotel is a temporary home for people who are traveling. In a hotel the traveler can rest and have meals. The hotel may also offer facilities for recreation, such as a swimming pool, a golf course, or a beach.
It is possible to place hotels in four broad categories: commercial hotels, resort hotels, hotels aimed at the convention trade, resident hotels. Another way of categorizing hotels is by the quality of services they offer. At the top are the luxury hotels, which offer their guests the greatest comfort and convenience possible. At the bottom are those that provide merely a place to sleep. A system for rating hotels according to quality is widely used in France and other countries. This system puts the top hotels in a special “deluxe” category, with others receiving from five stars to one star.
A PLACE TO STAY
All hotels, big or small, have a staff structure. In medium to large hotel, the staff are organized into departments. A simple structure might have only three departments:
- food and beverages (restaurants, bars, kitchens);
- housekeeping and maintenance;
- front office and administration.
In a big hotel the restaurant and the kitchen are separate departments. The same would happen with housekeeping and maintenance, and also with front office and administration.
The department in closest contact with a hotel’s guests is the front office, which is often called the reception. It is responsible for taking reservations, registering guests when they arrive (check-in), and preparing the bill for guests who are leaving and charging them (check-out). Hotel receptionists are in constant contact with the public and need very god customer skills.
The check-in and check-out procedures in all good hotels will be written down in the hotel manual. Front office staff follow these procedures exactly.
The check-in procedure involves filling in a registration card and getting the guest to sign it. Part of the card is kept in reception and part of it is given to the guest with the room key. Today many hotels use electronic key cards. Computers allow hotels to create a file called a guest history. This contains information about the guest’s previous stays and about any preferences – smoking or non-smoking, upper or lower floors, and so on.
The larger the hotel, the greater the number of services offered. The services directory is a document that tells the guest how to obtain different services. Usually a services directory is left in each room. Large hotels will also have a concierge, who has a desk in the hotel lobby near the reception. The concierge’s job is to help guests find the facilities and attractions that they want both inside and outside the hotel.
Hotel facilities
The range of hotel facilities and services depends on the type of a hotel. Large, modern hotels usually contain restaurants and cocktail lounges, shops and recreation facilities such as swimming pools or health clubs. Other facilities and services include: 24-hour room service, valet service, children facilities, air conditioning, minibar, hairdryer, TV, information service, wheelchair access etc. Many hotels also have facilities for social functions, conventions and conferences – auditoriums, ball rooms, meeting rooms of different sizes, exhibit areas and the like.
El Hana Beach
Tunisia
Official Rating – 3* – Bed and Breakfast / Halfboard
A comfortable, 3-star hotel situated in a garden of palm trees, next to the lovely Sousse beach and within walking distance of the Medina.
Accommodation
Twin and family rooms that can accommodate up to four guests. Modern furnishings with bright colours. Air-conditioning, telephone, private bathroom with WC. Balcony with partial sea view.
Facilities and services
The main restaurant in the hotel serves a large American-style breakfast buffet and dinner buffet. There are three indoor bars and a comfortable snack-bar.
Radisson SAS Hotel
Nice, France
Discover a new world of sensations at the French Riviera – stay at the landmark, Radisson SAS Hotel in Nice where excellence meets originality in a modern ambience.
The hotel features 331 rooms and suites decorated in three imposing and original designs.
With 11 excellent meeting rooms, our hotel can accommodate 400 in the new ballroom and 300 for lunch or dinner on the rooftop terrace.
Ideally located on the famous Promenade des Anglais between the romantic old town and The Arenas Business Park, the Radisson SAS Hotel in nice is easily accessible by train, plain, and car. The hotel is five-minute drive from Nice International Airport, and ten-minute walk from the train station.
TOUR OPERATORS
Tour operators are a people or companies that organize and sell package holidays.
Package holidays, which are also known as package tours, include all of the components necessary for a complete vacation:
- transport to and from the destination;
- transfers between the airport / station / port and hotel;
- food and accommodation at the destination;
- other services at the destination such as a guide or holiday ‘rep’.
The professionals who bring these elements together to create a holiday are called tour operators. They buy in advance and in bulk from the principles: airlines, shipping lines, hoteliers, and so on. Because they buy hundreds of seats or rooms from the principle, they pay a much lower price for them than an ordinary member of the public. The tour operator then converts this bulk into individual packages known technically as inclusive tours (ITs). These are marketed to the consumer through travel agents or by other systems.
In the past tour operators sold almost entirely through travel agents, but today they also use direct selling. This strategy eliminates the travel agents from the chain of distribution, and this reduces the final cost of the holiday package because direct sell operators do not have to pay commission to a travel agent. Many smaller tour operators, for example, prefer to deal directly with their clients.
Not all tour operators sell the same type of holiday. The really big operators, the mass market operators, produce low-cost holidays traditional sea, sun, and sand destinations like Spain, Greece, or Turkey. Other operators limit their product to customers who want a very specific type of holiday. These specialist tour operators sell adventure holidays, holidays for single people, holidays for motor-racing fans, and so on. Domestic operators specialize on tours for people who want to holiday in their own country, whilst incoming tour operators are specialists in providing holiday packages to visitors coming from abroad. For example, ‘Vastravel’, an Italian incoming tour operator, sells tours of Italy to people from the rest of the world.
HOTEL MANAGEMENT
Management is the process of managing people. A hotel manager is a business executive and this means that he must have a knowledge of accounting, tax and business law, sales and promotion, public relations, as well as a command of the traditional services and functions of the hotel itself.
The manager is responsible for establishing the policies and procedures of operation for the hotel and for seeing that they are carried out. In other words, he is the boss. A good hotelier likes people and likes variety. He can think like a child and entertain like a clown.
The personal influence of the manager varies from hotel to hotel according to the policies of the owners. In a very real sense, the manager is the host who offers the hospitality of this establishment to his guests.
In a large hotel, the manager coordinates the work of the department heads who supervise housekeeping, advertising and promotion, food services, and the rest of the operation. Hiring and training are two other vital responsibilities of the manager. The personality, experience and expertise of every employee in a hotel is a matter of importance in a business where courtesy is one of the major services.
In the addition to the manager, many hotels also include one or more assistant managers on the staff. The assistant managers usually have a desk in the lobby near the reception area. They deal with routine problems such as unsatisfactory room assignments or overbookings.
The management and administration of a hotel have a dual responsibility. First, they must return a profit to the owners. Second, they must deliver the services and quality that the guests expect.
DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS
Tourist industry is a people industry. Our main principle is: “The customer is always right”. It’s about always smiling, it’s about always listening, it’s about loving your job, not just doing it.
However we live on the Earth, in the world of people who have different tastes, viewpoints, positive and negative features of character. People can make mistakes; it’s so natural for human beings. Mistakes in any business and in tourism in particular cause complaints.
Well, how to deal with complaints in tourism business?
1) Of course, most important of all is to accept them. Complaints are a way of getting better, so be positive.
2) Secondly, most complaints are about things that are easy to do something about. And for the really difficult complaints, you’ve got a manager. So, put yourself in the situation.
You’ve got a customer complaining. What’s the first step?
a) Let the customer speak. Listen without interrupting.
b) The next step is to apologize. Apologize with care in your voice. Feel sorry.
c) The third stage is about questions. We only ask relevant questions, and we shouldn’t ask too many questions.
d) And the last thing is giving the customer a solution to the problem.
Many tourism organizations set “quality standards” or “performance standards” for their employees.
Quality standards for checking out customers at a hotel might include the following:
- to smile and to be courteous to the guest;
- to use the guest’s name when addressing him or her;
- to process a guest’s account quickly and efficiently;
- to check all items are included in the bill and to agree them with the guest;
- to check the guest was happy with the service provided and, if not, to note any problems and pass them on to the management.
Customer satisfaction is the extent to which a customer is pleased with a particular product or service. Customer satisfaction is our priority.
TRAVEL AGENCIES
Travel agents are people or companies whose business is to make travel arrangements for people, for example buying tickets, arranging hotel rooms, or selling package holidays.
