Running a tour and activity company is not all about being outdoors and having fun on the tours. Tour operators know very well that having a successful business requires a lot of planning, scheduling, and resource allocation. From including all the material needed to run your tour, to coordinating your staff, and keeping control of the finances, along with back office work, which also requires a lot of attention and energy.
That's why resource management is a powerful technique for the tourism industry. It's the key tool to keep all the moving pieces of a tour company synchronized. Here are some powerful tips to help you understand how it works and why it's relevant to your business.
What is resource management?
Resource management includes planning, scheduling, allocating people and equipment, and budgeting to ensure that the tours and everyone involved in the activity are properly set up and allocated.
For a tour operator, that means that the tour will be properly scheduled, all the clients will be informed, the tour guide will be available, along with the tickets if needed, the meals if they are included, and even equipment or transportation.
Basically, the resource management will make sure that all the moving parts are ready for the tour. That include:
- Planning and scheduling which resources are available and when.
- Analyzing required skills accordingly (eg: a tour guide that speaks a required language).
- Understanding the resource utilization and capacity to allocate properly.
- Identifying the resource prioritization to offer the best service in the most cost-effective way.
Why is resource management important?
As a tour operator, resource management is a must. Even if you never heard of this name, you probably managed your resources from your first tour. After all, you will assign at least a tour guide for every tour or activity. But let’s take a step back and understand all the aspects involved.
Allows to plan resources
Resources are anything you need for a tour or activity but have a limited quantity when it comes to resource management.
So when it comes to the staff, you have to make sure you'll have enough tour guides for the booked tours, without having too many so that you don't have to run into unnecessary expenses. You might also need specific languages for certain tours, so you also have to organize in a way that Spanish-speaking tour guides will be on the Spanish tour, for example.
The same goes for transportation, tickets to specific attractions such as museums, and other specific resources if you have biking tours or kayaking tours. That might even happen with the meals, so if a guest included snacks or has some allergy.
Resource allocation goes beyond just assigning tour guides to the projects. If you have your staff and equipment well planned, you will be able to consider your team's skills and have a clear view of your company's capacity. This way, you can adjust the number of pieces of equipment, hire tour guides based on their skills, and deal with other partners to ensure an overall better plan for your tours.
Reduce staff turnover
One of the main focuses of resource management is the human resource department. This is also key for the tour and activity business, as the tour guides and other staff members will have direct contact with your guests every day.
So more than just making sure you have the right number of tour guides for the book tours, you can also avoid overloaded employees.
Managing human resources properly will bring great benefits to your company. The more engaged your staff is with your company and tours, the better experience you will offer to your customers.
Learn how to organize and better manage your team with TrekkSoft's User Accounts
Maximize revenue while avoiding overbooking
By ensuring that your resources are properly planned according to your company's goals and priorities, you will save the preparation time between each tour and also make sure that you're not over-utilizing your resources.
As mentioned, that is key for your staff performance, but it will also reflect on the maintenance of equipment and overall efficiency and logistics for the tours. By optimizing the time to prepare for your tours and making the most of your resources, you will maximize your revenue while ensuring you're not overbooking.
Resource management software tools
In order to keep track of all the relevant information your business will need a resource management software to rely on. It will keep track of all the resources available and calendars.
It will also give you the possibility of having an automated process. Once you register all your data, tours, availability, resources, duration time, and other relevant details, the software will make your resource decisions much easier, besides minimizing the risk of mistakes.
Other key benefits of using a resource management software are:
- Easily managing resource capacity and demand.
- A clear understanding of what resources are priority or even needed.
- Make sure that the available resources work on your company goals' priorities.
- Simplifying last-minute actions when needed. For example, if a tour guide gets sick or any equipment is not available.
With TrekkSoft, your back office management is so much easier. Here are a few highlights of what you can do with our Resource Management feature:
- Add your resources with their specific capacity. For example, a bus with 50 seats is 1 resource with a capacity of 50.
- Set up if a resource can be shared between activities or not.
- Link a resource to a responsible person, so TrekkSoft will notify the person in charge when a new booking is made with that resource.
- Easily import and export multiple resources at once.
- The resource calendar allows you to get a general overview of your resources and how much you have available.
- Link a resource to an activity and apply limitations. TrekkSoft will avoid overbooking by making the activity unavailable once all the resources have been booked whenever you get a new booking.
In one unique software, you'll be able to manage your bookings, set up your availability, keep live inventory available, avoid overbooking and create multiple user permissions for your team. Discover all the benefits of using a booking software with resource management with TrekkSoft.
