Copenhagen Travel Agents and Tour Operators Report

The Cost of a Tour in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital city of Denmark, which is in the continent of Europe and is a prime tourism destination. As Copenhagen is a metropolitan city, the major tourism attractions within the city are man-made and include gardens, museums, and statues. According to Hudman and Jackson (2003) the unique town of Christiana, Tivoli gardens, the little mermaid statue, and the palace of Amalienborg are some of the main attractions in the city. Significantly, most of these attractions are within the locality of Copenhagen, and so, tourists can walk or drive to the destinations.

Calculating the Cost of a 7-Day Holiday in Copenhagen

When calculating the cost of a holiday in a tourism attraction, travel agents and tour operators need to consider factors like the cost of transport, accommodation, food and beverage, and other requirements of the tour. Imperatively, the facilities in the city employ a competitive pricing strategy, which offers a minimum price difference in their products (Boone and Kurtz 2012). The average cost of accommodation in various hotels such as Nyhavn Guest Room, DGI-Biens Hotel, and Comfort Hotel ranges from $50 to $150. Moreover, the prices of food and beverage range from $4 to about $15, while beers average at $0.90 to about $2.00.

Auxiliary services such as swimming range from $8 to $12, whereas transport from the airport to the hotels and attractions in the city of Copenhagen using a taxi ranges between $35 to 45. Conversely, a ride within the city is about $10 to $13 using a taxi and $5 using a bus and charges apply for every 3 kilometres of the ride. Entrance fees in various tourism attractions in the city vary from $5 to $11 for kids with the age bracket of 12 to 17 years, while adults pay between $12 and $36.

Since

• The food prices are about $4-$15
• The prices of beer range from $0.90 to $2.00
• The prices of auxiliary services range from $8 to $12
• Transport from the airport to the hotels or tourism attractions is $35 to $45
• Transport around every 3km of the city varies from $10 to $ 15 using a taxi and $5 using a bus
• Accommodation is about $100 to $250

Therefore,

The cost of an all-inclusive 7-day tour package for a domestic tourist will be

• 4+0.90+8+5+50= $67.90 (For 1 day)
• 67.90×7= $475.30 (For 7 days) (at its lowest)

Or

• 15+2+12+15+150=$194 (For 1 day)
• 194×7=$1358 (For 7 days) (at its highest)

The cost of an all-inclusive 7-day tour package for an international tourist will be

• 4+0.90+8+5+35+100=$152.90 (For 1 day)
• 152.90×7=$1070.3 (For 7 days) (at its lowest)

Or

• 15+2+12+15+45+250=$339 (For 1 day)
• 339×7= $2373 (For 7 days) (at its highest)

Thomson TUI Brochure and the Planning Decisions Considered

Some of the planning decisions that Thompson TUI considered during the design of its brochures include the type of target tourists, their purchasing power, marketing strategies, and the available tourism products. Horner and Swarbrooke (2004) explain that the latest brochures by Thomson TUI emphasise on a range of tourism products in various parts of the world. From the brochures, it is clear that the type of target consumers comprises one of the planning decisions considered. The inclusion of recreational, adventurous, and relaxation sites implies that the brochures incorporate the demands and preferences of all tourist segments. The incorporated tourist segments include leisure and recreation, as well as the adventurous tourists. Furthermore, the diverse hospitality facilities, which offer a range of product prices such as food and beverage and accommodation, compound the fact that the purchasing power of consumers is among the key planning decisions in the brochure design.

The appealing and attractive nature of the brochures facilitates effective marketing of its services to the target consumers. Additionally, the design of the brochure by Thomson TUI employs an artistic format, which is small, attractive, easy, and quick to read and understand. The ease of reading and understanding is due to the size and the language used in the brochures in an attempt to ensure that the message conveyed is correct and strategic.

Correct and strategic conveyance of the message of tourism destinations in organisations enables achievement of objectives like increased tourist awareness and willingness to visit the destinations (Pike 2002). Thomson TUI also highlights the major attractions across the world and presents the diverse hospitality establishments, which provide quality services to tourists. By sampling and highlighting the various available tourism attractions, Thomson TUI elucidates the significance of informing the target consumers of the available tourism products, and thus, increases their level of awareness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising Using Agencies and the Internet

Agencies and the Internet are some of the major advertising channels that tourism establishments can use in reaching the target tourists. The use of agencies and the Internet in advertising tourism products facilitates a number of advantages, which include increased consumer awareness, effective competition, and increased purchases. By using agencies and the Internet to advertise products of a tourism establishment, the level of information available for the potential consumers increases. Therefore, consumers become aware of the products, and thus, are tempted to visit the subject destination and purchase them.

Significantly, the channels used in the advertisement, which are agencies and the Internet, must convey the right information to the target consumers. Devashish (2011) asserts that conveyance of the right information helps the tourists match their pre-consumption and consumption experiences. Since agencies and the Internet facilitate high levels of consumer awareness, the establishments become capable of competing effectively with other firms in the industry, irrespective of their sizes. Increased awareness in the minds of the target consumers leads to high levels of purchases as the tourist willingness to buy the advertised tourism products soar.

Although the use of agencies and the Internet in advertisement of tourism products has a range of advantages, it also has a number of disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages that the agencies and the Internet pose in advertisement of tourism products include low levels of trust among consumers, high tendency of misrepresentation of the products, and the absence of standardisation (McCabe 2009).

The use of agencies and the Internet has increased the opportunities for fraud and impersonations among individuals, who defraud oblivious potential tourists, while posing as agents of tourism establishments. Therefore, the level of trust that potential tourists accord to the Internet and agencies is low as opposed to other forms of advertisement. The products advertised by agencies and the Internet may misrepresent the products and fail to reflect their real states in the destination. As a result, the pre-consumption and consumption experiences of the consumers fail to match during the moment of reality. The absence of standardisation occurs because majority of products offered in the tourism industry are in the form of services, which demonstrate diverse experiences.

Suitability of a Brochure in a CD Format as Opposed to Paper Format

CD brochures have various advantages over the popular paper brochures. Some of the advantages that a CD brochure has over paper brochure include clarity, convenience, increased amount of information, and effectiveness in passage of the required information. According to Beeton (2005), the element of clarity takes place because a CD employs audio and visual attributes when relaying information. As a result, the potential tourists can watch, read, and listen to the information relayed by the CD using their televisions or computers. The ability to listen and read the contents contained in the CD implies that the message that the target tourists receive about a tourism destination is clear and elaborate as opposed to the paper brochure. Moreover, CD brochure is convenient as individuals can turn on the CD and listen, while doing their chores, unlike the paper brochure, which requires attention to read.

The fact that individuals can watch the CD implies that mobile pictures incorporated and the words used increase the amount of information about a tourism destination. Information about a destination increases because potential tourists look at the pictures in the CD, read the words, and get a clear impression of the subject destination. Unlike CD brochures, paper brochures do not have the capacity of displaying mobile pictures, but instead have the words and static pictures. Therefore, CD brochures facilitate passage of clear, elaborate, and improved information about the tourism products in a destination (Pritchard & Morgan 2013).

Effectiveness of CD brochures is evident since they can reach out to several individuals easily as opposed to paper brochures, which require distribution to every potential tourist. Several potential tourists can listen to one CD brochure and receive the intended information in the correct state. In addition, the elderly, who cannot read clearly, and visually impaired individuals can listen and receive the message about a tourism destination from a CD brochure.

Cost Based and Competitive Pricing Strategies

Cost based pricing strategies use the cost of production to allocate monetary value to products. With cost based pricing strategy, the overall price of a product is a reflection of the total cost of production together with the profit that the establishment expects from the sale of the product (Garret 2008). Some of the advantages of cost based pricing strategy include the ability of the establishment to shield itself from the losses associated with production and labour. In addition, cost based pricing strategy helps the establishment define its product price in a transparent manner. However, cost based pricing can lead to disadvantages such as reduced purchases and losses. Since cost based pricing does not consider the competition, demand, supply, and prices of substitute products, but rather the cost of production and the mark-up, it can price its products higher than that of competitors. Higher product prices than that of the competitor products lead to reduced sales and an eventual loss

Competitive pricing strategy focuses on the prices of competing firms when allocating product prices. During pricing of products using competitive pricing strategy, an establishment looks at the prices of the competitors and decides whether to price its products higher or lower than the rivals by a minimal range. Boone and Kurtz (2012) explain that the advantages of competitive strategy are that it enables establishments compete successfully with the other firms and sale their products to the target consumers. Moreover, through competitive pricing strategy, the establishments can price their products at slightly lower prices than those of competitors, and thus, increase their market share.

Conversely, some of the disadvantages associated with competitive pricing strategy include minimal sales and price slashing due to competition. Minimal sales ensue as several consumers may opt to stick to products of competing firms, which offer products at prices within the competitive range. In addition, price slashing can lead to low prices and huge losses on the sale of products.

Price Discounting and Maximisation of Contracted Bed Occupancy by Tour Operators

Price discounts are strategies used by tour operators to increase the amount of tourists in a destination and achieve high levels of purchases. Tour operators usually manoeuvre around the brochure prices and reduce the prices of tourism products such as accommodation, transport, and food and beverage so that the demand for the products increases. Palatkova (2012) asserts that price discounting increases the willingness to purchase tourism products among potential tourists. Furthermore, discounting can enable consumers, who initially would not afford the brochure product prices, to purchase the products when the discounted prices fall within their purchasing powers.

Tour operators maximise the occupancy of contracted beds through a variety of ways, which comprise of discounting, marketing, and mergers. Discounting increases consumer willingness to purchase, and hence, the amount of consumers willing to purchase the tourism products from the tour operator increases. In addition, marketing of tourism products augments the amount of information that potential tourists have concerning a tourism attraction, and thus, their reluctance to visit the destination reduces (Candela & Figini 2012). To ensure maximum bed occupancy and consumption of services in a tourism destination, a tour operator can merge or work with other tour operators so that they can practise distribution of supply or demand. Through employment of factors such as discounting, marketing, and mergers, tour operators increase purchases and maximise occupancy of contracted beds in tourism establishments.

References

Beeton, S 2005, Film-Induced Tourism, Channel View Publications, London. Web.

Boone, L & Kurtz, D 2012, Contemporary Marketing: 2013 Update, Cengage, New York. Web.

Devashish, D 2011, Tourism Marketing, Pearson Education India, New Delhi. Web.

Candela, G & Figini, P 2012, The Economics of Tourism Destinations, Springer Science & Business Media, London. Web.

Garret, G 2008, Cost Estimating and Contract Pricing: Tools, Techniques and Best Practices, Commerce Clearing House Incorporated, New York. Web.

Horner, S & Swarbrooke, J 2004, International Cases in Tourism Management, Routledge, London. Web.

Hudman, L & Jackson, R 2003, Geography of Travel and Tourism, Cencage Learning, New York. Web.

McCabe, S 2009, Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality: Concepts, Strategies, and Cases, Elsevier, New York. Web.

Palatkova, M 2012, ‘Travel and Tourism Marketing-Review’, Czech Journal of Tourism, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 30-52. Web.

Pike, S 2002, ‘Destination image analysis: a review of 142 papers from 1973 to 2000’, Tourism Management, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 541-549. Web.

Pritchard, A & Morgan, N 2013, Advertising in Tourism and Leisure, Routledge, London. Web.