Tourism Work Placement by Alexandra Miracle

Tourism

Work Placement

Tourism Work Placement

Content

Description Mission Products and Services The structure of the organisation Aspects of the company’s culture Pandemic Policy Conclusion References

Description

The chosen company for the analysis is “All About Travel”, Stillwater Avenue Bangor, Maine 04401. This company is small and mostly work remotely with agents and customers. Looks trustful and qualified in their suggested service – tourism. There is a family business and all of the questions can be solved collectively. Company is new, but consists from the professionals by tourism industry. There is a small business and this work has a gain to develop company’s service and build new business perspectives.

Mission

To create comfortable service for the tourists and optimise the way to reach their needs. To improve and develop “healthy tourism” using the notifications of medical protection and suggest professional created travel programs.

Products and Services

All-Inclusive Vacation: ▪

Roundtrip of the chosen directions;

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Accommodations at the resort. Customer receives the possible options and can choose more comfortable for him/her in the range of quality/price;

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Transfers to/from airport. Discuss the comfortable format for the individuals and groups;

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We can organise delivery and plan of your meal according to your wishes. Meals, drinks, water;

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Daily and Nightly entertainment. Clubs, bars, pubs, concerts (if the customers want to come for the event and mix with tourism)

Cruising. Ship tours are special way to have a rest and to learn a new kind of tourism. On the board tourists have the next options: ▪

Night time parties for the adults and kids;

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Different kind of entertainment on the board;

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Interesting menu and culinary show, gourmet dining;

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Outdoor Thrill Seekers and guided excursions.

The available directions are to the next countries: • The Bahamas • Asia • Europe • Alaska • Hawaii • Mexico • Caribbean The roster of the countries will be improved and developed in the future. It’s possible to consider the opportunity of organizing professional trips and include more countries and travel not just from UK and invite tourists to UK. It’s a good opportunity in realizing exchange tourism. 3. Guided tours: • Customer can choose the direction; 4

• Customer is absolutely free to choose a guide; • All of the wishes will be included into the trip plan, what will include: ▪ Your accommodation; ▪ The sites for the tourist’s visits; ▪ The places for eating, restaurants, cafes; ▪ The distance and timetable what tourists will spend on the road. 4. Free travelling or independent travel: • Individual interview with travel agent; • Reservation of your chosen destination; • Company books the hotels and your apartments and the customer hasn’t a stress. Company can create new packages in the global format using media marketing tools. Good to know about possible and applicable options into already created packages: • Online gallery of the trips (Instagram, Google Photos and Facebook); • Facebook store (it’s possible to optimise the payment and make the consultations covered); •

People will have the opportunity to talk about their travel experience and write feedback;

• Sharing the posts and feedbacks, company will become popular and can invite to their community foreign tourists and organize the guided tours in UK;

• Avia companies can promote their flights on the company’s social networks and makes the profits to the company’s budget. As the idea in the way of supporting “healthy tourism”, company can create the package “Healthy tourism” where tourists will have spa procedures, fitness and healthy food. This program will be developed by the dietologists, fitness trainers, models, coacher(s) and doctors. It’s a good solution for the time of pandemic regime and can be a good motivator for a lot of people to change their life style. It can be used and as the advertisement for a lot of brands like: clothes, goods, restaurants, professionals, food services. To be healthy and travel is a good combination and will be actual for the customers. Changing visual identity, company will represent a new level of tourisms. Design makes price and quality. Company has to be a brand in their niche and need: • Brand identification (professional logotype, business cards, souvenirs); • Catalogue (printed and digital formats); • Social Media Design (Instagram, Facebook); • Web site (front and back, it can be Control Management System, integrated with CRM); • Promo landing page; • Mobile application (iOS and Android). With this visual identity, company can be represented by the experts on the international level. These expenses can be included into financial plan of CRM, because back office design can be used for the both systems.

The structure of the organisation

Company is a family business and consists officially by three persons: • Dee-Anne McDonald. Travel agent. She is experienced in travelling to Mexico and Disney. She can plan the trips based on personal experience; • Donna Demmons. She is the expert of booking the group trips. About personal travelling, she was crossing the Caribbean and Mexico; • Michael Demmons. Main person in the office. Accounting and managing the packages for the family trips and holidays. He has visited the next places and more: Punta Cana, California, Las Vegas, Florida, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico. Other specialists like guides and agents work remotely. Looking commonly on the structure, each section of the products and services directs to the responsible person. The number of active agents depends by the number of orders. Three main experts receive the orders and direct them to the responsible and more suitable agents. From the first time of registering the company, it was a good decision, to manage each agent according by the next parameters: • Direction; • Level of the service (Economy and Luxury); • Learning outcomes; • Financial responsibility. Michael Demmons knows everything and he is the main centre of the information. He is a founder of this company and can solve all of the questions. People glad to know this person and trust him in the way of all kind of the payments. It’s really work good, that it’s optimize the way to build the reliability. Family business is trustful and responsible and can work B2B. Making business 7

network, clients will come from UK on the planned packages. Saving the time, will be possible to spend the time for the foreign clients. In this direction, company will be Improved and have more opportunities on the worldwide market. Company uses the traditional ways of organising their business. Main experts have the excel file where they have the orders and agents. It has to be optimised. When each expert has 10 orders, it’s possible to control everything, but if it will be more than 20, it will be difficult to manage all of these files. The solution is to install CRM and teach the employees how to use it. It will give the next opportunities: • Front office: ▪ To receive in the one report all of the orders; ▪ To have statistical data to make more clients; ▪ To notify the auditory about any changes; ▪ To be global; ▪ To have a selection into the data of orders where each order will be directed to the responsible agent. • Back office: ▪ To make a categorisation in expert and agent; ▪ Each agent will have the personal account and can choose with what client he will work; ▪ It will be easy to check the effectiveness of the each agent; ▪ It’s possible to create the motivational system and create the bonus system for the agents. For realizing these administrative opportunities, company has to make the next actions:

• Financial plan of expenses to order the CRM or choosing the already realized service; • User Experience and User studies for creating the requirements to the system. It’s possible to write a media plan asking the tourists about their experience. People are friendly oriented to the new technologies and answer on the surveys; • Customer service plan; • Professional web site audit; • Organizational plan for teaching experts and agents how to use CRM; • Testing the solution; • Explain the case by the sides of: ▪ Customer – Expert; ▪ Expert – Agent; ▪ Agent – Customer. • Tourist/client loyalty. What other companies use for optimizing their work? ▪ Bitrix24. Good story of Chateau Chizay on the official web site gives a great picture of possible online work. The company developed the next opportunities: 1. Facebook and Instagram connection with the web site putting the widget and commentaries; 2. Personal account for the each client, where user can edit the information and talk directly with agent; 3. Language picker. To change the language of all interface and content is easy; ▪ EZUS. There is a ready solution: 1. Catalogue Management; 2. Document generation; 3. Program generator; 4. Budget planning; 9

▪ EFFICY. 1. Reporting about all of the actions; 2. Multi position management; 3. Request management; 4. Collecting the knowledge DB; CRM is a needed tool for the touristic area and has three levels: • Operating level. Logically, operating activities; • Analytical level. The way to analyse tourists and customer behaviour; • Collaborative level. Communication with tourists by all of the tools (messengers, e-mails, phone, personal meetings).

Aspects of the company’s culture

Corporate culture is a part of professional ethics in creating work environment, leadership, goals and mission. Communication is a key to the company’s success. Inside company has very closed to each other principle of interaction. For talking with clients, company created a manuscript of how to introduce company and services. Agents have the trial days to learn all of the materials and have the examination controlled by one of the experts. This system works on the quality. Work-life balance. Company cares about organising a good environment for the employees and customers. Work reflects on the personal life and personal life reflects on the work. For being confident in representing in the right way the company’s personality, company creates the round meetings each week checking the agents in their adequate behaviour, identification (good looking appearance) and effectiveness.

Passion is a needed personal characteristic. This job is suitable just for people who loves to travel and learn new cultures. All of the agents and employees in this company have the experience travelling around the world. For example, Dee-Anne McDonald has the professional experience of 35 years travelling and working with tourists, she was with her family in Disney and Universal Studios, Mexico and Hawaii. When agent has the experience and true knowledge, he gives the interest and the interest to visit the places to the tourists. This factor is very important and checked by the time in working with tourists. Travel experience gives emotions, memory, personal growth and makes changes in their personal life. Caring is important for saving the relationships with customers and employees in the company. It’s very important for the business actuality to answer for the customer’s needs. Each person needs concern. If company will care about client it will talk about the quality of the service. Asking your customer how they are doing, you will receive a good feedback, because people will think that company cares about them, and the opportunities to develop business and be more profitable. It’s small thing will improve business on 100%. In this way, good option to ask customers about: • Their expectations of their trip; • To give a choice in choosing the service and quality of their rest conditions; • Personal experience in traveling; • To represent company as a best tourism provider; • Give a quality, not quantity; • To be personal oriented not on the mass. Commitment to Learning. Employees have to be qualified in working with customers not just in the way to build the communication, they have to know without any doubts each country and package, to be educated in culture and 11

tradition. Company can organise learning centre for this opportunity. Employees will want to work motivated not just by career perspectives and by interest. Consistency is very important moment in the corporative work. For working and planning the prices, agents have to discuss all of the financial questions to their managers. Company hasn’t the fixed prices, clients can look just at the minimum without agent. All prices can be discussed just individually. In this way, before confirming the price, agent asks main manager, who will confirm the final price and after that will direct this package to the account manager for organizing financial transaction. This moment makes sense on the time, but it’s better to be carefully to the bills for avoiding the problems by both sides, client and company. Opportunities give the motivation to the team. What can it be? To learn something new, to meet new people, to express your creativity, to receive career perspectives and have a good future. Success. People want to be successful. There is a trend to be successful. If one manager will say that he is successful, his colleagaues will think that and they will be successful persons. All of these aspects create the requirements to the CRM, what can give the fact and all possibilities to use the asking parameters of corporate culture.

Pandemic Policy

All companies have the responsibility in compliance the main rules for the individuals and companies in United Kingdom (Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance and support - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). The working number of people in the office – one or two. For the personal meetings, the employees meet each other (three persons). All work is organised remotely. 12

On the entrance into the office, the customers and visitors can take the gloves, mask and gel. All people inside the office have the distance in minimum 1 meter. Using Microsoft Teams, Office and Skype, employees talk with each other remotely. If anyone feels the signs of illness, he/she tells to the colleagues about it. Employees have the rest days for becoming healthy according to the doctor’s decision. Each employee has the remote tasks and has the responsibility to work about it. One more direction what has to be considered in this work is “healthy tourism”. What are the main actions for being in this direction: • Notification of the tourists about wearing the protection: ▪ Gloves; ▪ Disinfector; ▪ Mask. • To support the tourists remotely and answer on all of their questions. Tourists have to sign the paper about their agreement and confirmation that they read the information about personal protection and that they have the responsibility to wear the mask when they go to somewhere outside. According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) report, international tourist arrivals are less on the 70% than in the previous years. This number is huge and talks about the situation when tourism will be stopped. But people work and earn money. They want to travel but safety. It means the service is going to be luxury when everything works individually oriented. What would be possible to suggest to the tourists? The online plan of travelling and online support is a good solution to increase the number of the tourists. People can work and travel, they want to have comfort. One of the 13

possible branches of the tourism, can be exchange professional trips. People can stay for a long time in the one place and be safety. According to the world statistics, tourism is not active industry and people move to work for the other industry. It’s possible to save this business using information technologies. But the number of representatives in the one company is less than five, it means that agents can work individually creating the professional networking and can be checked on their health conditions by themselves. To have registered employees in the one company is much safety than to take from freelance what is less trustful than full time working company. The recommendations by the UN World Tourism Organization to the tourism are the next: • To create the sustainability. To read the news about pandemic situation. Try to explain to the tourists that it’s safety to travel and they will be protected by the responsible persons; • To develop domestic tourism. UK is a big country and suggesting to learn the country deeper that the clients and residents know, will be a good opportunity; • Tourism consumption has to be supported by the service. Company can offer the confidence by their prestigious service and quality; • Traveller behaviour makes sense to the daily activity in the cities and the intelligent and protectable culture has to be saved; •

Hygiene and safety are two very bright factors of being healthy. All tourists want to know about how to protect themselves from the COVID-19 and they will be agree to listen tourist agents. Companies organize the instructions for the agents and online guideline books for the tourists;

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Digitalisation reaches a lot of companies and gives a lot of opportunities to become profitable and find a solution to get new customers on the market. Online payments and services, galleries, mobile application, accelerators search for the investors where company can come and for free get a solution;

• Skills shortages is a problem because of the business inquires and high qualified professionals have chosen other industry for earning more money; • Tourism policy has to be developed and discussed in the worldwide format on the Conferences and round tables. Government has to support this industry create the free services and conditions to improve the quality of the service. There is a problem and the solution has to be found. How to increase the number of travellers? How to make luxury service in the economy class? Crisis can be considered from the different sides: • Problem. For example, considered company had fifteen representatives and now has six. How was it happened? They don’t have enough customers. Each expert has one agent. It works, agents work on freelance and the question is in creating CRM for getting the chance to be digital; • Opportunity. The prices are less than before, because people should have individual service. It is the opportunity for the companies to save their profits. Recommendations work in the tourism based on marketing, if business organises online, customers will come the company from other companies, because the auditory is more active and people want to be social. There is the advantage for the internet business. But people need knowledge for using marketing tools. It’s expensive to learn, but not too much expensive to buy a solution. 15

Politics is in the business right now because any actions are possible to realize just on their decision. All documents aren’t easy to collect, people don’t want to spend a lot of time for it: prepare, request, collect, transfer, additional expenses and etc. Tourism has to give a ready solution what will be comfortable for the client. The countries have the lockdown somewhere and tourists cannot go to outside and realize their tracks but they spend the time and money on it. For example, for Caribbean islands, the tourists need: • The proof of a negative Covid-19 test received no more than 72 hours; • The passengers what were tested again three to five days after arrival, have to stay at home for seven days after travel, unless they have been fully vaccinated. Travellers have to be vaccinated if they want to visit the places and it makes them uncomfortable. According to the statistics, a lot of people disagree to be vaccinated. And tourists prefer to stay in their home country. In the first time, to be vaccinated was very expensive and people were choosing to save money for travelling.

Conclusion

Company has a good reputation and can work in the global format and market. The opportunities with working remotely are much bigger than to be fixed and suggesting just defined service in the range of the local citizens. Company has to work more about marketing opportunities and more detailed service.

According to the tourist’s experience, tourist wants to have the adventure for his/her memory: • Personal: ▪ Emotional (it’s better to represent to new clients the happy photographs by the previous clients); ▪ Unique goods (buy something original and memorable); ▪ Be closed to the family and partner going for the holidays to somewhere (company has the opportunity to create a great suggestion showing visually this opportunity. For example, to create the video on Youtube). •

Practical: ▪ To learn something new (guide has the responsibility to talk and represent the historical places and stories); ▪ To make the new experience (company has to represent the range of possibilities in getting something new. Agent has to learn the customer asking the right questions. Online consultation is a good format); ▪ Customer wants to realize his dream or gain (agent has to understand what customer wants and what campany can suggest him/her planning the trip).

Critics is a right way in developing business. Statistical data helps to understand the market’s needs and the possible sales channels. If to take the role of potential client of this company, this company will be the first what I will visit because it’s on the first place on google search. But I have to spend a lot of time to read not good organized web site. From the first time I don’t understand what company can give me, just in common, I can identify tourism. If I want to travel to Bangor, this information can work just on the section “About us” where I can ask manager about how they can help me. What can solve this problem? The 17

solution is a button and live chat. For example, to create a beautiful banner “I want to travel”, so usability will work on the client’s action. This situation means that web site and all materials have to be improved. Corporate Identity work on the comfort and in this kind of business, it better to suggest personal meeting, like, “Donna wants to help you”. Clicking on the suggestion, client can be directed to the messenger like Whatsapp and calling to Donna or other agent, client already in the company and just a good job of the agent will take a client. Marketing and management are the tools of making the business profitable. Company is prestigious if suggests a good quality of product and service. People will advertise this product because they like it and respect. This system works for the luxurious brands. This work reflects a lot of opportunities of being on the respectful place in the tourism industry and the methods to achieve the best quality. Recommendation is a good way for getting new customers. Improving service and product, company will have more clients and opportunity to develop not just company’s service, country’s prestigious and city. Why people will want to visit Bangor, because it’s a business centre or historical centre, or there is one of the best Universities. Each business has a responsibility to represent in the global format the place where they are based. “All About Travel” works on the UK market, but can make the offer to the other countries, making popular tourism as a business. It’s possible to be supported by the government and create the safety environment because of the pandemic to the tourists around the world.

References

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