The Tourism Business
The role of the tour operator is
to essentially sell accommodation, transport, activities and transfers in a
combined all-inclusive package. The Tour operators’ product is different to
that sold by other businesses in many ways and understanding this will go a
long way to being successful.
1.
What you are selling is an intangible product
that must be bought blind because it cannot be seen, touched or experienced by
the consumer before use. Instead, tour operators prepare brochures which
represent their products in words and pictures. These brochures cannot
accurately give an impression of how any one particular client will experience
the product, so sellers are often described as selling dreams. Buying a holiday
is like buying a bar of chocolate; only memories are left after the product is
consumed.
2.
You are selling a discretionary product, meaning
that the clients do not have to buy it in the same way that they do food or
fuel. When finances are tight or during a recession, they may choose to spend
their money that would have gone on a holiday on other consumer durables such
as a compact disc player or new washing machine.
3.
It is not a heterogeneous product. You could buy
a refrigerator like your neighbour’s and expect it to look identical and
operate in exactly the same way, but holidays are by their very nature varied.
Anyone coming to Konkan on a food and nature tour will have a different experience
whether they come in summer or monsoon, even if they went with the same
operator, stayed in the same hotels and ate at the same restaurants.
4.
It is a perishable product.
5.
Package holidays suffer from inseparability. The
behaviour of everyone involved in the product, from the hotel porter to the
vehicle driver can have an effect on the outcome of the experience. If we
purchase a washing machine, our enjoyment of the product will not be reduced by
an irritating plumber who installs it.
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