London Olympics Games, Environment for Tour Industry - Essay Example

Operation Management Tourism industry is among sectors that will face the impact of London Olympics Games. The concern of the industry is how to deal with the large number that the industry anticipates to meet. Hospitality industry would benefit from the activities of people who will come for Olympics. In normal circumstances, the hosting country would have to meet the requirements of the visitors. Some of these requirements are basic while others are secondary. The basic needs that Olympic visitors will require include transport, housing facilities, and food among other services. Handling the transport of the visitors is a major concern for tourist sector because it would influence the activities of major hotels that would be hosting visitors (Alcantara, 2012:1). A delay created by the transport department would reverberate to influence programs of tourism industry. The intention of this paper is to investigate London 2012’s, current transportation network, and how it may affect the transfer of clients during the duration of their stay. The paper will recommend how tour operator business can ensure good performance while delivery high quality. London has embarked on infrastructure development, which includes building of rail line, expansion of roads as well refurbishing of personal houses be individuals. The private sector expects to rent their apartments to Olympics tourists. Stores have made adequate arrangement for goods in the wake of the Olympics. Goal of London Olympics Olympics has diverse goals which aim at creating development opportunities, promoting women interest, protecting athletics, creating of avenues, which bring sustainable development and creating sporting opportunity during summer. The current situation London transport system depends on the services of trains, roads, underground trains, and air transport. Since UK got the opportunity to host Olympics think tanks have been assessing the current trends of transport network with a view of meeting needs of visitors that London would host. Current reports shows that London trains, buses and underground trains struggle to make 12 million journeys in a day. The figure is likely to rise following the demands that the transport sector would meet during Olympics. Organizers of the Olympics believe that London will have to meet the needs of 3 million extra journeys. London expects to host 10,500 athletes, 20,000 journalists, and 9,000 officials (Travis, 2011:16). The major concern is the ability of the transport system to facilitate timely arrival of the athletes. The challenges have necessitated creation of a program, which intends to upgrade the transport sector to cope with the anticipated number. Tour sector has numerous services, which include transportation, booking, reservation, ticketing among others. The sector host taxi operators as well as tour cars that offer services from one destination to the other. The road situation in London has an ability of supporting a given number of vehicles thereby influencing the approach that London Olympic committee would take (Great Britain. 2006:132). The idea is to meet the needs of the Olympic tourists as well as meeting the needs of tourists. Balancing the two issues is quite intricate given the situation of infrastructure (roads, railway line, and airports). Environment for Tour Industry Strength London boost of its capacity to receive tourists across the globe. It is one of most visited city in the world. It is a major destination for visitors because of business that it commands and leisure activities that many visitors acquire when they come to London. Hotel industry in London is one of flourishing sectors because of the population that they serve around the year. London has regional air services, which offer transport at reasonable costs. Olympic tourists can use the opportunity to visit in lands or other regions of the country. Opportunities London has a legacy of housing plan that can accommodate the visitors. It also command sustainable employment legacy for its people because it is able to support the requirement of most of its citizens. Hotels in London have boosted of long trading experienced in 2010. Connectivity of London makes it a strategic location for business in Europe (Great Britain, 2005: 149). It is important to note that London demonstrated strongest performance in the recovery race from recession. Infrastructure investment of the city is quite superb making it a viable city for the Olympic Games as well a destination for tourists. Its investment in the hotel industry can enable it to meet the demands that it meets for various categories of tourists. Weaknesses The Limited road lane is a weakness because it would dictate the tour travel business. The tour travels will have to comply with rules, which restrict their operation. However, the government has moved to combat the challenge by building additional booths as well as constructing more roads to accommodate the growing need (Great Britain 2006:136). Threats London Olympics does not bring tourists who are coming to sight see or visit theatres; instead, they would be becoming to attend the Olympics. Decline is business is inevitable because the Olympic tourists would spend time in the roads while rushing for the Olympic Games and back to the hotels. The situation is likely to benefit the public transport industry as opposed to tour industry because of the regulation that intends to lock private vehicles from the city during the Olympic period. Another possible threat that the tour sector anticipate to meet is the decline in international tourists because the influx of Olympic tourist would lead to rise in prices for hotels. Such tourists might opt to go to other destination in Europe. Products and services The tour industry has a number of services that it offers to its clients. The services include ticketing, hotel booking, and transport (Marvell, 2005:146). Clients from various destinations make prior booking by contacting the tour they help hotel industry to make prior arrangement about their clients. Reservation of lodges for clients is very important in the industry because it influences the convenience of services delivery. Clients in the industry are keen to observe reservation verses quality of service offered in relation to clients demand. The ability of the sector to offer timely services influence clients demand for these services. Hindrance created to clients may necessitate the change of destination (Marvell, 2005:156). The fear that tour and travel sector harbor is that the booking services alongside other services are likely to decline because the public transport sector would be commanding the roads within the period of Olympics. Customer’s needs The capital need for the tour clients is comfort during their holiday. Tourism industry is keen to provide services that would attend to this need. Clients fall under various categories depending with the amount of money they have to support their services (Marvell, 2005:169). Some clients do need private tour service that protects their privacy. Other needs of clients include timely services. Efficiency is a crucial aspect in the sector because it dictates the satisfaction of the client. For instance, clients who wish to take a plane at 1600 GMT must arrive in the airport at appropriate time. Failure to adhere to clients demands is a recipe of loses because clients would opt for other services. The temporary changes with dictate choice that include service type, privacy among other services. London committee has indicated that it has to control traffic system, alter the existing system temporarily in response to Olympics demand (Alcantara, 2012:1). Preservation of a few lanes for the tour services intend to handle their challenge. However, it does not offer a full remedy to the issue because tour industry will have to pull out of the road to cater for the requirements posed by the public sector. Proposals to the tour industry Management of tour firms and other sectors within the tourism industry must move quickly to counter the displacement of tourists that the London would face. Research has indicated that hoteliers have hiked the prices in response to the events (Alcanatara, 2012:1). The aggressive terms set makes London unviable destination for operators in the tour industry. A move should regulate the cost that the industry seeks to create for services it will offer. High costs influence the profit margin for the firms providing the tour services. Ideally, the margin for the tour firms would decline because of the restriction created to allow road use by the public sector (Alcantara, 2012:1). Hiking costs would worsen the situation. Devising counter strategies to deal with the problem would be appropriate. For instance, the industry can decide to decongest their services in London by relocating some services to other cities. This approach would grant opportunities for the tour firms to do business. It is probable that some tourists are not part of the Olympic guest. Handling the needs of these tourists is very vital because it would ensure the tour department generates income from services they offer. Firm can opt for subsidized values for services they offer as a method of wooing clients to venture in other tourists adventure. It is likeable that some clients would take the opportunity to travel outside London because of the competitive services. Tour providers should make prior arrangement for products their offer to the clients before the start of events because the anticipated restriction would influence service delivery. For instance, services, which may need logistic arrangements during the Olympic activities, must address the needs before the beginning of events. The move intends to handle challenges of failure to offer the needed services because of technicalities associated with poor planning. Tour firms can hire buses that will have access to public transport sector (Great Britain. 2006:156). The idea is to diffuse the shock of concentrating tourists in public sector, which is not familiar. Passenger capacity is a factor that dictates which vehicles would play in which roads. The tour industry should counter the challenge by replacing their personal service department including taxis with a large capacity carrier. The advantage of this choice is that it would enable the department to offer services to their clients during the Olympic season. Complying with the law is crucial because it dictates business existence. The department has to introduce a service that will not harm the industry. The tour industry should ensure it offer competitive costs for packages that it would offer collectively to the tourists (Marvell, 2005:123). Collective packages such as ticketing on behalf of the tourists would boost the business of these firms because the firms can introduce some additional fee above the requirements for Olympic tickets to cater for the service they offer. The assumption in this case would be some clients would want the firms to offer every service to them. Such demands would be advantageous because these firms will be generating income to offset loses which they anticipate to get due to decline in personalized operations. Human resource in the sector is likely to adjust to the changes because of change in demand trend. For instance, the sector must be ready to accommodate workers of taxis during the period because of the restriction expected in their duty stations. It is important for the tour providers to equip buses with the quality conditions offered in personalized tour services. This response would help the sector to retain tourist during this season as opposed to decline. In conclusion London Olympic has equal fortune and misfortune to businesses. The tourism industry would be receiving overwhelming clients while the tour industry would be facing a declining in clients. Restriction by the traffic department seeks to decongest the traffic during the high season. The choice has an influence on tour operation because transport service to tourists would also respond to the restriction. Countering this effect means the industry must introduce other services such as bus hiring services in order to remain in business. The management should manipulate costs with a view of attracting tourists who would opt for other destinations. The tour sector should direct their efforts in providing services to clients outside London as opposed to the Olympic tourists. Bibliography Alcantara, N. 2012. London Olympics: On par to destroy travel and tourism? Available from http://www.eturbonews.com/28017/london-olympics-par-destroy-travel-and-tourism [Accessed 22 April 2012] Great Britain. 2006. Going for Gold: Transport for London's 2012 Olympic Games; Third Report of Session 2005-06. London: Stationery office. Marvell, A. 2005. GCE AS Travel and Tourism Single Award for Edexcel. London: Heinemann. Travis, S. A. 2011. Planning for Tourism, Leisure and Sustainability: International Case Studies. London: CABI. Appendix The transport sector expects to receive more clients as projected in the graph. Fig1. Graph on transport system in London during Olympics Available from http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-062211-112745/unrestricted/Final_Report.pdf The tourism visitation trend expects to decline as projected in the graph below. Increase in costs as projected by the hotel industry would dissuade tourists as projected in the graph below. Read More