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5.it’s tour rep’s responsibility the guests after to look.
6.at the airport the guests up tour reps pick.
7.the itinerary up she drew.
8.her uncle her up put for a few nights.
Listening and reading |
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Listen to the tape and read the text. |
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Pre-reading
In what way(s) do you think selling space on an aircraft differs from selling cars, food or other consumer goods?
Skim and scan
1. Which of the following words would you expect to find in a text with the title “The tour operator”? When you check your choices against the text, make sure you understand the words. 
budget |
stock |
pricing |
volunteer |
conservative |
fixed |
institution |
flight |
sell |
loan |
retail |
customer |
profit |
brand |
passenger |
alliance |
revenue |
variable |
costs |
negotiate |
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2. In the text the abbreviation is used which refers to a packaged tour, i.e. a tour which 
includes both flight and accommodation. What is the abbreviation? What does it stand for?
The tour operator
From the 1950s onwards tour operators have been very useful to transport carriers, especially airlines. If a carrier knows he will have vacant seats on a journey, rather than leave them empty it is worth offering them at almost any price to someone who can fill them. Let us take an example.
Example
Suppose the fixed cost of flying a 100-seat plane from London to Athens and back is
£8000 (that includes capital costs, fuel, crew’s wages and so on). Suppose also the additional, or variable, cost per passenger is £10 (to cover writing a ticket, in-flight refreshments and so on). If the airline wants to budget for a small profit and knows it normally sells sixty seats, then the pricing looks like this:
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Fixed costs |
£8000 |
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60 passengers x £10 |
600 |
Cost of return flight |
£8600 |
Sell 60 tickets at £144 each |
£8640 |
Profit |
£40 |
Of course, if only fifty-nine passengers show up then sales drop by £144, costs by only £94. This is a very risky business!
This is where the tour operator proves useful. By agreeing to purchase in bulk, say, twenty-five seats, he can virtually ensure that the airline will fly at a profit. The question arises: What should the ticket price be?
As far as the airline is concerned, anything above £10 a head will be profitable, as the fixed costs are already paid for. The tour operator will want the lowest price possible to ensure he can resell all twenty-five seats. Obviously customers are not willing to pay anything like £144 or else they would already have bought tickets directly from the airline.
Perhaps airline and tour operator negotiate and fix the price of £60 per head. The
airline’s budget now looks like this: |
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Fixed costs |
£8000 |
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85 passengers* x £10 |
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850 |
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Cost of return flight |
£8850 |
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Sell 60 tickets at £144 each |
£8640 |
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Sell 25 tickets to tour operator |
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at £60 each |
1500 |
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Revenue |
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£10140 |
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Profit |
£1290 |
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*Assuming the tour operator will reserve all his twenty-five seats.
The airline should now be happy; even if it loses three or four passengers it will still be in profit.
The tour operator now has the onus of selling the seats, which may entail heavy costs, but as long as he is sensible he should be able to resell at a reasonable and profitable price.
To ensure that tour operators do not poach carriers’ existing passengers, carriers have in the past imposed various conditions on the resale of tickets. The main condition has been that the tour operator must build the journey in as part of a package or IT. Other conditions from time to time have been:
a)a fixed or minimum length of stay permitted at the destination;
b)a minimum (or maximum) advance booking period;
c) a minimum price at which the IT can be sold; |
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d) stipulation of the type of customer (such as a group).
These conditions have all been used to protect carriers’ existing business, but have been progressively relaxed as tour operators and carriers have become more interdependent.
From filling empty seats on a particular journey, tour operator progressed to chartering whole planes or other vehicles that were unused for a period of time. The proportion of fixed costs, and consequently the potential saving in ticket price, was rather less, but still provided carriers and operators with exploitable opportunities. Eventually many tour operators came to own their own planes, coaches or railway carriages. The economic value of this lies not in the discount buying as above but in economies of scale,
controlling one’s own transport and ensuring it is fully and efficiently used. |
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“The Business of Tourism”, Holloway, J. |
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Christopher (MacDonald & Evans), 3rd edn, 2001 |
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Notes on the text
1.capital costs – капитальные издержки, затраты
2.variable costs – непостоянные затраты
3.fixed costs – постоянные издержки
4.refreshments – освежающие напитки, закуски
5.to budget for - предусматривать в бюджет
6.onus – бремя; ответственность
7.in bulk – оптом, гуртом
8.stipulation – условие, соглашение
9.the economies of scale – экономия на масштабе
Vocabulary
1. Find words or phrases from the text which, in the context, are closest in meaning 
to the following.
a)buy tickets as expected
b)a large number at the same time
c)per passenger
d)responsibility
e)lead
f)persuade (someone) to switch
g)precondition
h)used as a basis for making money
i)savings produced by dealing in large quantities
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Comprehension |
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What is the difference between fixed costs and variable costs? Give examples |
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of each with reference to airline operation. |
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2. |
Why it is in an airline’s best interest to sell seats “at almost any price” rather |
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than leave them empty? |
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3. |
In what ways are tour operators “useful” to airline companies? |
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4. |
The following is part of the budget for a coach tour. |
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Coach capacity |
– 50 |
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Fixed costs |
– $1500 |
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Variable costs |
– $5 per passenger |
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a) |
If tour operator knows in advance that 30 seats can be sold and wants to |
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budget for a profit of $150, at what price should the individual seats be sold? |
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b) Suppose a social club now offers to buy the remaining seats at $35 each. How |
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much additional profit will that produce for the coach operator? |
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c) |
How many of the 30 passengers originally budgeted for can the operator now |
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afford to lose and still make a profit? |
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5. |
Why do airlines sometimes |
impose conditions on tour operators who buy |
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blocks of seats from them?
6. What potential advantages to tour operators are there in owning their own planes?
Sum up the information you’ve learned from the text.
Reading
Pre-reading
If you were planning a holiday trip, what are some of the arrangements you might need to make?
Would you ask a travel company to take care of these arrangements, or would you prefer to make some or all of them yourself?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each way?
Skim and scan
Choose a heading for each paragraph of the text by putting a paragraph number in the appropriate box.
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Heading |
Paragraph number |
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a) |
Destination amenities |
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b) |
Roles of travel agent and tour operator |
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c) |
Pressure groups |
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d) |
Definition of tourist services |
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e) |
Definition and importance of “destination” |
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f) |
Destination accessibility |
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g) |
Destination attractions |
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a)h) Tourism organization |
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The components of tourism
A major component of tourism is location. The location of tourism is known as the tourist destination and its importance depends upon three major factors:
Attractions
Accessibility
Amenities
The attractions of a destination can be either natural, such as the climate, or humanmade, such as historical buildings. Attractions can also be events such as festivals, exhibitions and congresses.
Accessibility is related to the distance from centres of population, or to tourist generating regions, and to the transport facilities. Time taken to get to tourist destination is also important in relation to accessibility.
Amenities at the location include entertainment, accommodation and catering facilities, as well as local transport services. At the destination there is usually some tourist organization which provides the framework within which tourist operates.
The journey undertaken by tourists and their stay in the destination give rise to tourist services. These include transport for passengers to the location, as well as accommodation, catering and entertainment at the destination.
In the past 35 years the growth of overseas tourism has increased the importance of two 
service providers. The travel agent and the tour operator. The travel agent acts as an intermediary between the tourist and the accommodation and transport providers. The main
role of the travel agent is to sell holidays, particularly package holidays or inclusive tours, and travel tickets. The tour operator put together a package of accommodation, catering,
transport and often entertainment, and sells this package, frequently via a travel agent. 
Most countries now have active public sector tourism organizations. These
organizations include national and regional tourists boards offices. At the local level
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русский
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