Risks To Tour Operators And Tourism Tourism Essay
With the following information I have been asked to examine
You are an established Tour Operator offering worldwide, long haul programmes that feature Africa, The Caribbean, Dubai, The Far East and North America. Each programme uses a variety of methods of transportation,
With air being the principle method. You also use local rail and ferry connections and coaches are used extensively for both touring and transfers. It is an accepted fact that major accidents and incidents can occur during the operation of a programme.
Task 1
Describe the major accidents and incidents that could occur throughout the duration of the programme described above.
Task 2
Produce a detailed and systematic Emergency Plan that can be put into action to deal with any major accident and/or emergency.
Notes
You should produce one generic plan that is capable of being implemented for all situations. Do not produce separate plans for each of the accidents and incidents identified in Task 1 above.
Your plan must be comprehensive and include contact and staffing requirements, in addition to the actual plan of action.
Table of Contents ? Page no.
OBJECTIVES: i
INTRODUCTION 1
WHAT IS TOURISM AND TOUR OPERATION 1
Task 1 3
1.1 Activities in tour packages. 3
1.2. Tourism and Transportation 4
1.3.Accidents in tourism 5
1.3.1. Accident Due to Natural phenomena
5
1.3.2. Accident in the Transportation
6
1.3.3.Accidents due to Activities
6
1.3.4.Biological 6
1.3.5.Accident made by man
7
1.3.6.Common Accident
7
1.4.Result of accident 7
Task 2 8
2.1.Planning for Accident 8
2.2.Identifying the main accident and develop an action plan for those accidents 8
2.3.Give necessary training for staff and information for travelersStaff. 11
2.3.2.Information to Clients 12
2.4. Implementing and monitoring the plan 13
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS TOURISM AND TOUR OPERATION
According to the World Tourism Organization Tourism can define as “The Activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes”
Tourism is “the temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities created to cater to their needs” (Mathieson & Wall, 1982, p.1)
Tourism has not been defined universally because it is hard to define if tourism is
an industry and what factors make a person traveling a tourist. “All tourism involves
travel, yet not all travel is tourism” (Mill & Morrison, 2002, p. 1). What this is saying that
you need to go somewhere to be a tourist yet you can go somewhere and not be a tourist,
simply by visiting family. Travel refers to the act of moving outside of one’s usual
environment for business or pleasure
Tourism industry can divide into 3 main categories. These categories are depending on the type of the travel.
Domestic tourism
When People travel within their own country come under this section
Incoming or inbound tourism
When people entering the country in question from the home country, this is a type of international tourism
Outbound tourism
When people travel away from their home country
As we discussed earlier there are some main requirements that a traveler seeks when travelling takes place. Some of them are
-Accommodation
-Travelling Assistant
-Information Assistant
In order to assist with the travel arrangements, specialized travel services providers comes in to action. They are called tour operators, a tour operator typically combines tour and travel components to create a holiday package for a individual or for group of people.
Sometimes there is confusion over the difference in functions of tour operators and travel agents. Tour operators are the organizers and providers of package holidays. Who makes contracts with hoteliers, airlines and ground transport companies then finally print brochures and advertise the holidays that they have assembled.
Travl
Agency
Cultural Sites
Natural Sites
Destinations
Cultural/Social
Events
Ground
Operators
Ground
Transport
Resturant
Transport to/From
Destination
Accomodation
Tour
OperatorTravel agents give advice, sell and administer the bookings for number of tour operators. As by definition, tour operators design packages, maintains the relationship between the other parties.
Consumer
The Package holidays offered may cover a wide range of destinations, both national and international, and can cover a variety of holidays, such as cruises, adventure, touring, winter and summer destinations.
Task 1
Describe the major accidents and incidents that could occur throughout the duration of the programme described above.
Tourist destination is the most important component in a tour package. This helps tour operator to attract tourist for their packages. Following are some of main tourist destinations tour operators use to attract tourist for their tour packages
1.1 Activities in tour packages.
Based on the type and the requirement of the consumer tour operator creates a packages. If the tour package is based on adventure tourism it will mainly consist of activity based tour itinerary. These activities are based on the tourist location they visit. As an example tour package in Africa includes a safari tour, in Dubai shopping and also safaris in deserts etc.
Following are some of main activities that include in a tour package. These activities can be change by demand of travel group. And also it is tour operators responsibility to arrange these activities with safety measures.
Safari tour
Surfing
Rafting
Horse riding
Hiking
Nature walks
Hot air balloon
Helicopter tours
Bridge jumping
Diving
Whale watching
Cruising
Historical Places Visit
Group Events in hotel
Shopping
Cultural event
Boat Riding
Another adventure events
1.2. Tourism and Transportation
Transportation is the method using for travel one place to another. Travelling is main part of any kind of tourism. No tourism take place without considering about transportation. There are four main transportation methods used when it comes to travel and tourism, they are air, road, sea and railway. Most of tour operators used following methods of transportation heavily for their travel arrangements.
Air :- Aviation
This is the most common method use for transportation within the tourism industry. This can be divide in two ways. International and domestic travel. Tour operators get this service through the travel agents.
Ground:- Coaches and Rail
These are the two methods tour operators used to travel tourist in the ground. Most tour operators manage their own coaches services with well manage staff. If not they get the service from travel agents. Depend on the size of the group coaches can be varied.
Railway is mainly managed by rail companies. They provide scheduled service within the home country. Tour operators may reserve seats for tourist group and use this service.
Sea :- Ships, Ferry
This is the transport method heavily used when people travel in the water. Ships and Ferries provide link between group of islands, or islands and a larger land mass. Tour operators get the service through the cruise or ferry operators for their packages.
1.3.Accidents in tourism
An accident is a specific, unexpected, unusual and unintended external action which occurs in a particular time and place, with no apparent and deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.(Wikipidea )
As described above even in tourism there is a big possibility to take place an accident during the tour program. Following are some major accident that could happen in the tourism industry. These accident can be divided in to several section depend on the accident type and location it happens.
1.3.1. Accident Due to Natural phenomena
It’s a common fact that natural phenomena cause huge accident and damages to tourism industry. As an example Tsunami in 2004 December results number of deaths in the coastal area including tourist who were there at the time when it happened. Following are some of natural phenomena identified around the world
Earthquakes
Flood
Landslides
Erosion
Fire
Storms
1.3.2. Accident in the Transportation
When tour operators creating packages as described above they use various method of transportation to travel tourist. Following are some accidents that can take place while transporting passengers,
Air accidents
Sea accidents
Rail accidents
Road accidents
1.3.3.Accidents due to Activities
As we described in this article travelers are participating various kind of activities in the event. Due to these activities traveler can face to these type of accidents.
Animal Attacks
Pool Accident
Beach accident
Falling down
Overturn Boat
1.3.4.Biological
Also there can be certain incidents that a traveler may face with following types of accidents,
Communicable diseases
Food hygiene
Illness
1.3.5.Accident made by man
In a destination there can be sudden attracts or picketing that a traveler might face in to, some of them are
Political Reasons
Incident investigations
Terrorist attacks
Tour operator goes bankruptcy
1.3.6.Common Accident
Apart from all other following accident can happen to anyone including tourist at any time in anywhere,
Meat with a robbery
Lost in the way
1.4.Result of accident
Accident always brings up the bad result. Following are some of results can occur due to an accidents in the middle of travel package.
Dead of one or more in a travel group
Injured of one or more in a travel group
Trip Cancellation
Group stuck in a location
Illness of one or more group members
Delay from a schedule time
Economy problem of group members
Lost baggage.
Task 2
Produce a detailed and systematic Emergency Plan that can be put into action to deal with any major accident and/or emergency.
As describe in above accidents are unpredictable and can occur anywhere at any time of the day. Since there are many great risks involved in tourism accidents it is commonly understood there should be proper measures take before those types of incidents take place. By which will ease the situation and avoid the panic among others.
2.1.Planning for Accident
It is tour operators responsibility to give safety for their travelers till the end of their journey. Using good plan to response for accident can prevent or minimize risk for travelers. In this section we are talking about how to create a common plan to face above mention accidents.
An emergency plan it can be divided in to three main section.
Identifying the main accident and develop a action plan for those accidents
Give necessary training for the staff and information to travelers.
Implement the plan and monitor the progress
2.2.Identifying the main accident and develop an action plan for those accidents
In this step tour organizations must try to identify and narrow down what are the possible accident that can take place in a destination and how to develop an action plan for those. Priorities for the action plan can be changed depend on the tourist destination. As an example tour operator must give enough measures for accident related to animal attacks, communicable disease or food hygiene on trip in Africa but less in Dubai. As we design a common plan for all of those identified potential incidents we need to bring forward the most suitable emergency plan that covers most of the accidents that can happen in destination.
Following are the main points that need to be considered to complete in this step. The outcome for each point can be changed according to the destination.
Point 1:- appoint a person who can be in charge when accident occurs.
Every tour operator must have one or several people in charge to manage an event of emergency. Each group or individual must have a responsible person to lead them, in this case basically a guide can be used to do both guiding, that is part of the service a tour operator provide and in an accident to act as a trained helper by giving proper prior training to him/her
Point 2 :-appoint a member or members from staff to response when accident occurs
One or more members must be included in the response team. Each of them must be given different tasks, response team must consist of following members to support in the event of emergency
Communication
This members responsibility is inform the head of the team first and then if required to travelers if emergency occurs
Supportive
This member responsibility is to check equipment, records and other thing are safe and in order.
Fist aid support
This one is responsible for first aid support to travelers in the event of emergency.
Tour operators must identify or train current staff before members select team or appointing them to act in an accident
Point 3 :-Information is very important for every emergency plan. There for following information must include in the emergency plan. These details can be changed depending on the tour destination.
Emergency assembly sites
When an event of accident tour operator must provide separate safe site to assemble for the travelers. As an example if the hotel met with fire put travelers to another hotel.
Evacuation route
Always must have a backup route to travel for destination. Then travelers can avoid a place where possible to meet with accidents. As a example avoid flood areas.
Staff contact details
Every action plan must have contact details of every member in the response team as well as the important numbers of tour operator company staff.
Emergency contact numbers
In this section must have the numbers we can get help from in the event of emergency. As an example Police, Fire Department, Hospitals
Warning message receivers
In this section we are keeping a person or an organization where we can get further information regarding events of an accident or situation. As an example contact details of whether department, local police station.
Point 4 :- To reduce the impact of an accident tour operators must provide sufficient equipment to travelers. In this point emergency plan list down the equipment needed for a emergency
First aid kit
Fire distinguish
Life jackets
When first step is completed tour operator must come up with basic plan to meet up with the accidents. It will list down all the actions and details that they must be prepared for in an event of an accident. Following table show a sample of the outcome of first point. Using this information tour operators can minimize or prevent the effect of accident to travelers. This emergency plan must be given and communicated well with every tour guide who coordinates the travel group.
Emergency Plan for Tour operator aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦.for destination aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
1
Head of responsible
2
Teams
Name Contact Number
Communication
Support
First Aid
3
Information
Emergency assembly sites
City Site
aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦. aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
Evacuation route
Destination Evacuation Route
aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦. aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
Staff contact details
Name Contact Number
aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦. aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
Emergency contact numbers
Department Number
aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦. aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
Warning message receivers
Department Number
aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦. aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..
4
Equipment
Type No
First aid kit
Fire distinguish
Life Jackets
2.3.Give necessary training for staff and information for travelersStaff.
Even though tour operator makes a good emergency plan they need to involve the two parties that face the real situation. Those are staff and travelers. In this step main consideration is how to train the staff to face for accident situation and provide necessary information and assistance to the travelers.
2.3.1.Staff Training
When it comes to staff training company must decide what kind of training is needed. Also company need to decide who, where and when these training to be conducted. Following are some of the trainings that members of the emergency plan must undergo to act wise and confidently in an emergency.
Basic training
Every staff in the organization must have an idea about emergency procedure within the organization. In this training all the staff will be trained about current emergency procedure in the organization. Following are some sections that are need to cover in this training
Information handling
Evacuation practice
Basic first aid training
Specialist training
When selecting staff for the team, like first aid, communication, etc they need separate specialist training in those fields.
2.3.2.Information to Clients
Before the tour starts tour operator must give information to travelers how to act when an emergency. Following are some important information that can provide to the travelers.
Where is evacuation Places
To whom they must inform when an emergency, like fire, illness, suspicions act. Also the contact details of staff in charge
Where are the equipment to use when an event of emergency
Apart from that it always good to display these information where ever possible to see to both staff and travelers. Company can use following methods to display information
Handouts
Display Boards
Operation Manual
2.4. Implementing and monitoring the plan
After above preparation tour operator must put this plan in to practice. Even through act perfectly right in company create emergency plan, does not entirely mean everything will work without any problems according to plan when in real situation. However it will help people in charge to practice and memories the things they need to do in an situation all though it always create problems when put these plan into practice. So tour operator must monitor the plan regularly and do the necessary changes to the plan. As an example if new evacuation point is created those details must update in to the plan or a member of an emergency plan leaves the operator new one should be appointed accurately.
Anyhow creating an emergency plan that will be perfect for all incidents is like a never ending loop. It always goes in a circle. If there is something new or someone new comes in we need to change the plan accordingly that mean we cannot create emergency plan once and for all and use it, we need to keep on adding changes and monitor it constantly to make it accurate and effective. By implementing this kind of method can have a most reliable emergency plan for the operator.
Training/ Information to staff and client
Implement and Monitoring Plan
Making Emegency
Plan for Accident
CONCLUSION
Accidents in tourism is never a new or surprising thing to anybody, although accidents are common in this sector as many other sectors, tour operators must take enough precautions to minimize the impact of the accident as it will destroy the business they are involved and as well as the future of the industry, there for it is very vital to identify accidents that can occur during a tour programme and take appropriate steps to minimize these accidents and impact on those to the consumers, one generic way is to plan and implement emergency plan that covers most of the accidents and incidents that can take place while at a tour. For this, it is very important tour operator provides relevant training to the staff who are in and provide accurate information, facilities and support to minimize the impact on an accident to both consumers and to the industry itself.
