Managing a Travel Business

Course Syllabus

IATA-University of Geneva Managing a Travel Business 2011/12

Course Overview
Travel agencies are increasingly required to develop a customer-centric culture and to deliver high service standards during the agency-customer interface. This course helps you develop successful leadership skills and shows you how to manage both teams and individual staff members. Understand how travel agencies have shifted attention from the supplier to the customer, and analyze the key roles and activities in running a travel agency business. Topics covered include: Link between tourism and transportation Evolution of traveler expectations Sustainable mobility and its implications for tourism Contributors to the success of travel agency operations Effects of technological developments and innovation on tourism Importance of travel sellers as distributors of travel supplier products and services Effective management and leadership skills in the travel business Evolution of the travel professionals sk ills and qualities Shift in balance away from traditional distribution fields The service marketing approach, assessment of service-encounters, and loyalty-based marketing Marketing planning as an iterative process

Learning Objectives
Improve your understanding of the organizational structure of a travel agency, the challenges faced by travel businesses, and the development of structured marketing strategies. Learn how to apply best practices used by travel businesses to improve sales, and develop essential skills such as recruitment and training, selling and negotiating, event planning, and customer service.

Course Schedule *
Day 1
09:00 - 09:45 09:45 - 10:30 10:45 - 11:30 11:30 - 12:15 Welcome and course introduction, assignments and assessment Understanding the phenomenon of tourism The nature of tourism-transport relationship, sustainable mobility, corporate social responsibility and its implications for travel business Understanding the tourist and how they are changing

IATA-University of Geneva Managing a Travel Business 2011/12

12:15 13:15 13:15 14:45 15:00 16:30 16:30 17:00

Lunch Understanding travel counselors and how they are changing, travel products developed and sold by travel agencies, technological improvements supporting travel counselors, shift of balance in the distribution field Future trends in travel business, individual in-class assignment 1 Day wrap-up

Day 2
08:45 - 09:00 09:00 - 09:45 09:45 - 10:30 10:45 11:30 11:30 12:15 12:15 13:15 13:15 14:45 15:00 16:30 16:30 17:00 Optional tutorial Understanding the concept of effective management Human resource management Understanding and managing groups and teams Motivating and rewarding employees Lunch Leadership skills and leading the team in travel business Selling and negotiation skills in travel business, individual in-class assignment 2 Day wrap-up

Day 3
08:45 - 09:00 09:00 - 09:45 09:45 - 10:30 10:45 11:30 11:30 12:15 12:15 13:15 13:15 14:45 15:00 16:30 16:30 17:00 Optional tutorial Understanding the service marketing approach and service-encounters The nature of service-encounters in travel business The relationship between customer value, satisfaction and loyalty Marketing planning in the travel business Lunch Marketing mix supporting travel sales Group project and team presentations Evaluation, wrap-up and closing

*Subject to change

IATA-University of Geneva Managing a Travel Business 2011/12

Course Preparation
You will receive the IATA Managing the Travel Business c ourse textbook (7.11 Edition, MontrealGeneva, 2011). You are required to read the modules entitled Special-Interest Travel and Tour Production and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions before starting this course. These modules will serve as a good resource for completing group projects and in-class assignments.

Further Reading Charles R. Goeldner, J.R. Brent Ritchie, Tourism: Principles, Practices and Philosophies , John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (10th Ed) 2006. David Weaver, Laura Lawron, Tourism Management, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. (3th Ed.), 2006. Anne Graham, Andreas Papatheodorou, Peter Forsyth, Aviation and Tourism Implications for Leisure Travel, Ashgate, (1st Ed.) 2008.

Course Evaluation
20% Class participation. Requirement: knowledge of course material, participation in group discussion, critical assessment of course content and independent completion of two in-class assignments. 30% Class presentation. Requirement: oral presentation on the group project. 50% Final paper (group project). Requirements: a written assignment on the group project and an individual reflection of the groups performance.

Instructor Biography
Professor Darko Prebeac is a full-time professor of Tourism Marketing Management and Transportation Management, faculty of Economics and Business, at the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and a visiting professor of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and University of Hawai'i (USA).

He was recently appointed as Deputy (Vice) Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Croatia Airlines for a period of four years. View Darkos LinkedIn Profile