TOUR BROCHURES

Key Aspects of a Tour Brochure

With literally thousands of tours to choose from, selecting the right tour for a client is no small task. Getting to know your clients and identifying their needs and wants is part of the process, but knowing about the tour product is a key ingredient as well. For the latter part of the process, the tour brochure and the tour operator’s website are an essential part of your sales tool kit.

Tour brochures vary from simple one-color leaflets with basic information to elaborate colorful booklets with detailed photographs, maps, and related materials. Interactive websites are becoming more popular and are very useful in gaining additional knowledge. We recommend you do your own extensive research on the Internet as well as attend product seminars in your area.

Before you present any brochures, qualify your client. Talk to them about tours and most importantly listen to them to get a thorough understanding of their needs and wants.

Offer clients one or two brochures that seem appropriate, based on your assessment of their needs and wants. A limited choice is less confusing and overwhelming to the client.

Go over the important elements of the brochure with the client and make sure you have a sense that the client understands the key points.

Encourage your clients to read and familiarise themselves with all aspects of the brochure.

Tour Brochure Checklist

1. Cost: Make sure you fully explain what is included in the price of the tour and what is excluded from the tour.
2. Itinerary: Understand your clients’ interests and desires when helping them select an itinerary. To do this effectively, you must spend time with clients and listen to what they tell you.
3. Group Size: Be sure to ask your clients about the size of group with which they are most comfortable.
4. Pace: Just as tours come in many different sizes, tours also come in just about every pace imaginable. Determining an appropriate pace for your clients is essential to their overall enjoyment of the tour.
5. Terminology: Make sure your clients understand the language and terminology used in the brochure.
6. Single Supplement: If a client is traveling alone, make sure he or she understands about single supplements. You do not want inexperienced clients to take the double occupancy rate and divide by two to calculate what they think they will pay.
7. Consumer Protection: Check to see if the proposed tour is a member of any organization that offers a consumer protection plan.
8. Environmental Sustainability: The travel industry today is making great efforts to use their economic strength repairing and protecting the world in which we travel. Check to see which tour operators have sustainable practices within their organizations.
9. Conditions: Clients generally will not read the fine print. Unfortunately, the fine print is what contains many important conditions and explanations concerning liability and responsibility.
10. Questions: Make sure you answer all of your client’s questions! Remember the sales process involves listening, and identifying and responding to client needs and wants.

Review the elements of the following tour brochure and determine which elements of the check list above are available and which are missing.