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The Structure of the Travel and Tourism Industry 2 - Lesson Plan

Phoenix from the Flames? Kosmar and Travel City Direct

This resource is designed specifically for Unit 1 of the Edexcel BTEC National qualification, 'The Travel and Tourism Industry', although it will be of relevance to centres following other awarding bodies' programmes.

Introduction:

XL's business model relied heavily on achieving scale. This means growing sales, often at the cost of profits. In the end, XL's strategy failed in September 2008.

In the intervening months, the credit crunch has bitten into company and consumer confidence, spinning the UK economy and that of many other countries into recession. At the same time, the value of the UK's currency, the pound sterling, has plummeted against that of the euro and the US dollar, driving holiday costs up.

Into these market conditions comes the return of one of XL's former major brands, Travel City Direct. The other big XL brand was Kosmar. The contrasting progress in these two cases helps us examine how the tour operators, suppliers and customers interact.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• Investigate tour operators' pricing policies at a simple level
• Understand how suppliers of tourism products such as hotel and other accommodation owners are affected by tour operators' actions
• Analyse the role of the customer in demanding holidays at low prices
• Understand why other market participants can benefit by adding brands to their portfolios

Resources:

• Activity – The Structure of the Travel and Tourism Industry 2
• PC/Internet access

Lesson Structure:

1. Outline the key learning outcomes of this session
2. Give out the Activity sheet
3. Ensure learners can access the other resources linked to in the activity
4. Oversee the students' work on the tasks in the activity
5. Aim to develop some of the discussions entered into during the task work. You could look at providing additional input on acquisitions in the industry. Your students could go on a price discovery exercise, where they trace the range of prices for standard holiday products; or you could organise a class debate based on the final task, with small groups exploring the idea of market power in the industry.
6. Review the learning objectives of the session.