Itinerary

Factors to be considered while preparing an Itinerary

 Travel Destination- supply side
 Expected number of Tourists
 Tourism market- demand side
 Review Travel Warnings and Alerts
 Tourist Budget
 Facilities
 Check Visa and Passport Requirements
 Travel Documents
 Types of Travelers
 Time allocation
 Choice of accommodation and Transportation
 Programme structure
 Trip notification and schedule changes
 World Time Zones
 Tourist guiding
 Logistics
 Flexibility
 Entrance and exit fees
 Health and Travel Insurance
 Test drive your itinerary

Travel Destination- 

Supply Side Today, tour planners are fortunate have a lot of travel information online and they need to utilize these available resources to develop and design effective tour package. Moreover, tour planners can get more travel information about travel destination, transportations, accommodations and other services by reading blogs, forums, travel books and other sources online. Similarly, tourist can find / assess a lot of travel information from different websites or online sources which will help them to plan their trips. The tourist can consult their friends or those you know who have gone to those places and ask for their travel advice and opinion. The tour planner must start with mapping out important touristic locations as per requirements and highlight these locations that visitors are going to experience. Make a desirable list of the main touristic topics the tour planner wishes to include in tour commentary such as flora, fauna, history, culture, customs, traditions, scenic beauty as well as other important tourists resources which are pertinent to be offered to the tourists.

Expected number of Tourists
The number of tourists visiting or taking a trip to be considered a pivotal factor while preparing an itinerary. This may seem apparent, but tour planner wanted to include it as the amount of space that your clients have considerably affects their trip’s overall success. If tourist number is too small, guests will be FIT, and may be stick around to experience everything that you have to offer. On the other hand, having too much number of tourists can make your plan feel abandoned and under attended, which could have a similar effect. Thus, tour planner must have a solid estimate of expected number of tourist which will help you choose a product / service that are just right for everyone. On the other hand, when tour planner is not sure about how many tourists to expect, go with one of the previous group that you’re considering or handled. Thus, the same group will be able to accommodate with the required facilities and budget.

Tourism Market- Demand Side
This is a crucial decision which every tour planner has to take in advance. Once you have developed tourism supply you should start with a target market analysis (demand-led tourism development). Sometimes the characteristics of target markets of tourism might differ from those of general tourism markets such as high-end international, expatriate’s high-end urban families, Low-income students and young urban population, students and researchers international tourists seeking an additional short or long-haul package and free independent travelers. Thus, a perfect tour itinerary will be a blend of tourism supply and demand.

Review Travel Warnings and Alerts
How tour planners are competent in risk management? While planning a tour itinerary tour planner must be aware about travel warnings and alerts. The risks of sounding destinations are threatening/ challenging your planning, check official travel alerts and warnings prior to design / prepare trip is incredibly important when travelling both nationally and internationally. There can be foremost warnings related to serious issues like political unrest, terrorism, natural climates, or more common and minor alerts for things like transportation strikes or peaceful demonstrations and others. Sometimes many warnings and alerts are not related with your tour itinerary or you won’t like typically detail the itinerary, however, these can often save your time and frustration while developing and operating itinerary. Thus, tour planner must make sure to check the travel alerts and warnings before preparing itinerary, as well as a week or two before your itinerary to cover all of your bases. 

Tourist Budget
The tour itinerary will run much smoothly if you understand the budget of your clients. A professional tour planner must determine in advance the budget of tourist to make blend of services for the best experience of each tourist. The tour planner must figure out what total trip budget is and subtract the initial necessary costs like air transportation and travel documentations such as visa fees and others. He also need to determine the day to day budget cost by dividing that amount by the number of day’s client travelling for an estimate of how much he/she has to spend per day. Next, very important component of tour cost related with a particular destination activities including boarding and lodging the tour planner must determine the amount a tourist has to spend on lodging, food, activities, and shopping.
You can also determine the daily budget by including unexpected expenses during trip. Thus, this will determine the type of accommodations you will book, the mode of transportation and other services required during the trip.

Facilities
Everyone has different ideas about what a ‘holiday’ entails and tour planner has to work out on different types of facilities which are vital for a particular tour. Generally, the paid or free facilities in a tour package are determined as per the requirements of the tourist. A tour planner must ensure beforehand the needs, desires and requirements of tourist. For example if tourist need fitness then ensures that accommodation has facilities somewhere for tourist’s workout. Secondly, if tourists had like to do all of their own cooking during stay then making sure accommodation has fully equipped kitchen. Thirdly, you have of course considered the needs of the tourists to whom you are offering tour package. Thus, these are all things that we often overlook when selecting preparing tour itinerary, but it can really make all the difference between a good holiday and a great one. Finally, tour planner must prepare a list of activities offered by other competing travel companies such as entrance fees, parking fees, etc, and determine if they will be included in your tour price or offered as extras. 

Check Visa and Passport Requirements
The tour planner must take an adequate time to check Visa and Passport requirements of different countries. The tour planner must some homework when it comes to visas and passports definitely it will save your time and trouble in the long run. If your client is applying for a passport for the first time, make sure to give yourself at least four to six weeks to receive it. Many countries have stricter regulations than you might expect and may require more than a valid passport and plane ticket only. Moreover, tour planner must check the country’s state government departments’ information page to determine what kind of passport and visa requirements a particular destination requires. Although VISAs are less common for most popular tourist destinations i.e. VISA on arrival is available. However, it’s still important for the tour planners to consider all these aspects in order to avoid surprises upon arrival. In case of India VISA –On –Arrival is available for 161 countries.

Travel documents
Since preparation of an itinerary is involved numerous work on different aspects before finalising it. The tour planners must ensure that each and every tourist must have at least two colour copy of passport’s ID page stored somewhere safe and separate from passport. They should also make copies of any visas that pertain to their current travels. Similarly, other travel documents including hotel reservations, train ticket confirmations should be copied as well. Moreover, in this digital age, it is very convenient as well as eco-friendly to have digital copies of these documents. Further, tour planner must ensure that these items are saved in tourist’s device locally so that he/she can access them without an Internet connection.

Types of Travelers
An itinerary has to be designed based on the kind of trip one undertakes. Itinerary planning is a creative exercise and is tailored entirely to meet the needs of groups of individuals. Each set of travelers have their own specific requirements. In case of a group travelling together i.e. GIT, obtain a complete list of group members and the preference for room allocation e.g. single, twin sharing or double room accommodation. Moreover, it should be clearly specified that which services included in the final cost and which are not included. The tour itinerary is for travel-leisure, business, relaxation or VFR (visiting friends and relatives). Tour planners must ensure that the types of traveler they are catering / targeting
even destinations offerings etc.

Time allocation
An Itinerary should be efficiently planned so that adequate time should be allowed for sightseeing / excursions at each attraction/ destination. Tour planner must ensure that the time taken while travelling does not exceed the time spent at a destination/location. It is also ensured that other than the time allocated to the tourists at each attraction/ destination, some time should be given to each client for his/her own recreation like shopping and other services/ activities. A tour planner has various options such as reducing the number of destinations to be visited if the time available is less or an optional mode of transport can be chosen which saves upon time. Thus, tour planner must take into considerations while developing a tour itinerary such as go-period of travel, total tour duration, minimum time for visiting each city, go-destination/cities etc.

Choice of Accommodation and Transportation
The tour planner must ensure right type and kind of accommodation and transportation in tour itinerary. Generally, the tourist choice for accommodation and transportation will become the unique feature of the tour. The choice of hotels, meal plan and transport would depend on the tourists paying capacity, interests and the number of clients in the group.
Many times Meal plan may or may not be included in the room tariff. Since check-in and check-out timings in all hotels in India is generally 12:00 noon, therefore hotel accommodation should be booked keeping in mind the arrival and departure timings of the tourists especially in those cases where the timing of the transport means is fixed and cannot be altered like flights.

Programme Structure
The structuring of an itinerary is based on the professional like skill of a tour planner. Programme structure means that the itinerary schedule/ program may be designed in such a way that it will show the balance of all activities. In fact, programme structure should not be over structured or under structured. Therefore, in a tour itinerary the routings should be given a special consideration while planning an itinerary and optional excursions should be offered during the period of the tour programme as well as pre and post tour. Definitely, the balancing in itinerary programme will have a positive impact on earnings and will enhance the value of the tour for the tourists. Thus, while planning a tour programme, a tour planner must include any festivals or cultural events these attractions would add value in the tour package.

Trip Notification and Schedule Changes

Trip notification and schedule  changes have a vital aspect on the tour planning. It has been noticed many times that airlines frequently change schedules and flight numbers. Tour planner must ensure that the record is accurate and updated; the point of sales (POS) must interact with these updates to reflect changes in the flights and other schedules. It has seen that business travelers expect all components of their itinerary to be available in a single place, and agency’s POS tools must be able to capture all reservation information at all time and should communicate to the travelers. Thus, tour planner should ensure that all reservations whether booked by company or through an agent call centre, must comply with the corporate client’s travel policy.

World Time Zones
World time zones play a significant role in the international tour itinerary. This has a profound impact on the success or failure of a tour itinerary. The whole world is divided in 24 time zones. With the prime meridian in Greenwich, the prime meridian is an imaginary line that connects North Pole to South Pole passing through Greenwich. The time at Greenwich and all other countries in this zone called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Universal time to co-ordinate (UTC). Thus, considering time zones before preparation of an itinerary is necessary requirement.

Tourist Guiding
Tourist guides are the image builders of a destination. In every tour itinerary the services of tour guides must be properly mentioned and listed to ensure right type of destination information to the tourists. A special itinerary is developed to the tourist guides who specifies the information he/ she has to provide to the tourists at the locations. Take a case of International tourists the special requirement is of foreign language speaking local guides.
The tour planners must ensure advance notice to take their services on time along with the itinerary, communication on the climate, rate of exchange of currency, suitable clothing, cultural and ritual expectations of the destination, necessities and required items to carry, health and environmental warnings should be given to the tourists specifically in case of foreign tourists.

Logistics
Logistics generally depend on the nature of your itinerary; you will have more or less logistics to arrange. In case of adventure tours, study tours logistically-intensive itinerary is developed or planned. Tour planner must ensure right type & kind of logistics to assist the actual operation of tour along with life saving equipments. Sometimes tour planners may wish to consider using a third party provider, such as a travel agent or ground operator, to assist with these logistics. Therefore, do not underestimate the time required to arrange such logistics – booking accommodation, transport and other activities can be immensely time consuming. On the other hands, student withdrawals can be problematic as logistics need to be reworked.

Flexibility
Flexibility is the key feature in a successful tour itinerary. Generally, tailor made tour itinerary is full of flexibility. However, now a day’s readymade tour itinerary is also offers many options for the tourists. Thus, if tourists suddenly get bored with a packaged tour immediately stop it for you might not recover from being tortured on having to continue a tour. You must understand or remember that tourists are supposed to be in a “vacation mode” and should be enjoying the trip. Therefore, tour planner should be more flexible, not only with the travelling bit but also with the budget as anything could happen within the course of trip.

Entrance and Exit fees
Tour planners must consider the entrance and exit fees at the time of preparation of a tour itinerary. Tour planner must get information from different sources / websites that whether a country requires obtaining a tourist visa, it may levy an entrance and/or exit fee and how much entrance fee and exit fees they will charge from the foreign tourists. It has been found that in some country “reciprocity fee” must be paid before entering the country; the tourists won’t be allowed to enter without a copy of the receipt. Therefore, tour planner needs to consider the most reliable resource for determining whether a country charges these fees or not.

Health and Travel Insurance
The health and travel insurance is very important aspect of motivating tourist to travel within a country or aboard. Before you plan tour itinerary, check tourist’s health insurance policy to see if it includes international coverage and if not consider buying a short-term policy that will cover clients while travels abroad. The health and travel insurance policy is necessary in case something happened while on tour. Similarly, travel / tour planner motivates tourists to purchase travel insurance to protect trip and money. The travel insurance policies and coverage vary from insurance company to company. The basic idea is that clients money will be refunded if trip has to be cancelled, postponed, or cut short for any number of reasons. The travel insurance policy will protect both tour operator and tourist. 

Test drive your itinerary
In order to ensure effectiveness and quality of your itinerary, tour planner must conduct a test drive of the itinerary. It is very important to several ‘dry runs’ of your itinerary to ensure you get the timing right. It is also a very good idea to invite people who have some knowledge of the industry and are prepared to give you constructive comments, to develop a successful tour. Thus, the test drive will give more pros and cons of developing an effective tour itinerary.