University College Birmingham

Designing Travel and Tourism

Operations

Saga´s Timeless Tunisia Tour

Assignment

Thomas Punzel

Programme: MA Tourism Business Administration

Year: 2007/2008

Module Title: Operations Decision Making (Tourism)

Hand in Date: Friday, 30th November 2007

Assignment Number: 1 of 1

Table of Contents

1. Terms of References 3

2. A company overview 3

3. Potential fail points on the "Timeless Tunisia Tour" 5

4. The understanding of problem solving 8

5. Reconciling the Operation Mix 13

6. Conclusion 15

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1. Terms of References

Nowadays it is essential for a tour operator to have a very good management and

especially a well thought-out service and operation management. More and more

competitors come on the market and smaller companies will be eliminated by the bigger

ones. So it is much important to create innovative products to satisfy the customer in

every sense. However, at the mass of variety holiday and travel products, problems

during the tour operation are predetermined.

On the following pages, one big United Kingdom tour operator is presented.

Furthermore, one of their touring products will be checked according to problems which

could emerge during operating the tour.

2. A company overview

According to demographical statistics in the industrial nations, the number of born

babies is decreasing. By contrast, the number of people over fifty years increases.

The industry has recognized that fact and has come up with more and more newly

designed products which are specific to this generation.

SAGA Leisure Ltd. with its head office in Folkestone / Kent is the biggest company in

the UK and has solely products for people over fifty years.

Through a well thought-out marketing concept, SAGA has become a market leader in

many areas, for example in the business fields of insurances and holidays for 50+ and

today it is one of the biggest companies in the United Kingdom.

The business history of Saga began in 1951, when it was founded by Sydney de Haan.

After the death of Sydney de Haan, his Son Roger inherited the business.

In 2004 he put the company up for an auction. The winner o f the auction was a

management buyout backed by Charterhouse (This is Money, 2007).

Charterhouse pushed the development of SAGA in all business segments, especially in

the segment of holiday /cruises and insurances and made a lot of profit.

In 2007 SAGA made a deal with Close Brothers to examine its future ownership

options (This is Money, 2007).

Also in 2007, SAGA will come together with the AA a UK motorists′ association one,

another strong and trusted brand in the UK. Therefore they set the course for the future

to become more powerful (SAGA Group, 2007).

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SAGA is built up by different company segments. There is SAGA Magazine with more

than 610,000 paying subscribers, SAGA Holiday, Insurance & Finance, Metromail,

several radio stations and the newly established SAGA networking platform, a kind of

"Facebook" for the older ones, according to an article written by Hamilton (Times

Online, 2007).

But finally their major income comes from insurance, especially from motor and home

(This is money, 2007).

Furthermore SAGA is very committed to benefit the under-privileged communities at

destinations where SAGA is operating. They supporting sustainable projects, working

together with the local communities and appear as sponsor for charitable projects

(SAGA, 2007).

SAGA′s success is based on several factors. On the one hand, on a good Management,

like the Group Chief Executive: Andrew Goodsell,

the Group Finance Director: Stuart Howard and the Group Marketing Director: Tim

Bull. And on the other hand the approximately 3.900 employees (Yahoo Finance,

2007).

Furthermore, the mission Statement of a company should be essential. The problem is _

that you cannot find any SAGA Mission Statement, but putting all information about

SAGA together, you can form one.

According to SAGA′s review 2004, the companies′ key values should be, to put the

focus on people who are aged fifty and over and to offer best high class customer

service, the best quality and specially designed and innovative products for the target

group. The customer is their future, that′s why the customer satisfaction is a very

important key element for the growth of the company.

Furthermore, SAGA′s employees are very well trained and will help the customer in all

service aspects to satisfy them (SAGA Travelshop, 2007).

The last essential factor is SAGA′s customer database which gives the company access

to over eight million people aged fifty or over (SAGA review, 2004).

One of the smallest business segments, with 181.800 customers in 2004 according to

SAGA′s Review 2004, is the holiday and cruises segment. The holiday element was

also the original business by which SAGA made their first profit. Today they offer

travels to different destinations in Europe, especially the Mediterranean, long-haul

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