The relevance of feedback in the growth of tour companies in Kampala; The Historical development of tour and travel companies

Tour  companies became an organized business enterprise as early as 400 BC and this was the same period money had been invented as a medium of exchange by traders known as Samarians however, at times the Samarians were travelling to various parts of Europe looking for business and searching for markets and the discovery of the easy medium of exchange, therefore partly led to the emergency of tour and travel companies due to the complexity in travel arrangements (Holloway, 1994),

Tourism industry in East Africa started growing in 1930. That was the period when the construction of the railway line from Mombasa to Kampala was underway. The first tour and travel company to engage in business was the Association of East Africa publicity (EAPA). The company was later replaced by East African Tourist Association in 1949. EATA was a semi-official Agency, whose purpose was to promote tour and travel services in East Africa. It was later affiliated to American Society of travel agents and got promoted in America and Europe (Ouma, 1988).

The sales promotion is part of marketing communication other than advertising. It is primarily designed to stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer and sale force effective in the short term, through temporary incentives and display, this therefore stresses the non-regular incentive sales promotion and the fact that it extends beyond consumers to distribution networks and the sales force. (Kotler, 1984),

The  study  of tourism  in  developing  countries  has  not taken  much notice of the  more  general  issues  addressed  in  recent  years  by  those  concerned  with development and tour operators in less  developed  countries  predominantly think not  exclusively,  focused  either  on  the  narrow  micro-economic calculus  of  cost  and  benefit  and  on  balance  of  payments  effects or  on  the  broader socio-cultural  or  psychological  relationships  between  ex-colonial colored  peoples  and white vacationers(Zhenhua,2003)

In Kenya, which is a good example of a developing country, tour operators embraced tourism as a tool for socio-economic development and Kenya has increasingly become a popular tourist destination for visitors from Europe, North America and emerging tourist-generating regions, particularly South-east Asia and the country’s tour operators presented over 6% of the total international tourist arrivals to Africa, and the relative importance of tourism in Kenya’s economy has risen steadily over the last 40 years(Kieti, et al,2007)

Table 1: Departing visitors by country of residence and purpose of visit, 2000–2001 (‘000)

Country of Residence	Holiday		Business		Transit		Total
	2000	2001	2000	2001	2000	2001	2000	2001
Uganda	14.3	13.7	21.2	20.4	4.4	5.7	39.9	39.8
Tanzania	25.2	24.2	5.7	5.5	11.7	15.2	42.6	44.9
Other Africa	30.8	29.6	17.5	16.8	14.3	18.5	62.6	64.9
Total Africa	70.3	67.6	44.4	42.7	30.4	39.4	145.1	149.6

Source: John S. Akama and Damiannah Kieti,2007

It was noted by Middleton (1983) that apart from the basic variable costs of commission paid on sales there are heavy, essentially fixed costs incurred in distribution including the printing and distribution of computer links with retail outlets in regular sale promotion and mechanizing efforts to maintain display space and educational, to promote tourism. He further reveals that the rule of marketing of travel retailers has been very much influential by rapid introduction of new information technology for reservations and bookings, which reflects the action of competition whose intense rivalry dominates the response of all operators in the market.

 Tour operators

The important function of a tour operating company is to bridge the elements of the services offered from the supply side of the business with the consumption side of the business, this role is being achieved due to the fact that the tourism industry is an industry offering the services which are interdependent (branches) and the tour operator performs the task of linking such elements together and sells the products in one piece and in a single price (Cooper, 2012).

The tour operators purchase the tourism elements such as airline tickets and hotel rooms in a large scale and combine them together, market them as a single product through brochures and other advertising media, however, the core product of the tour operators is the “All inclusive tour package”, this might be a combination of transport, accommodation and activities in the destination, the products assembled by the tour operators are then distributed to the travel agents across the world to be purchased at a competitive price (Cooper, 2012)

Tour operators  channel  the  bulk  of  the  funds flowing in the tourism sector and as a result, tour  operators  are  in  a  position  to encourage  and  incentivize  particular outcomes in tourism and In this, they are in a similar  position  to  the  financial  sector and usually, it’s through the tour  operators  that  consumers  express their preferences between various tourism products. If a market-based route is taken to  making  tourism  fairer,  it  will  be necessary  to  ensure  that  tour  operators offer consumers the opportunity to choose fairer  tourism  products,  including engagement  in tangible  actions  to  make tourism  fairer  in  destinations consumers  increasingly purchase  products  that  are  fairly  traded (Jonsson et al,2008)

The types of Tour operators

The tour operators have been classified in many categories but the most common categorization is the one which is based on the scope of the company’s operations such as domestic, out bond and inbound tour operators (Buhalis, 2001)

Types of tour operators Tour Operator	Description
Domestic	small local market segmentation with limitations in terms of services offered and the duration of travel e. g coach holidays,
Outbound	focus on the international travels with an all well formatted tour package inclusive of flights, accommodation etc.
Inbound	They are small tour operators with a large destination expertise and they use it to get contracts from other large scale operators and control the activities etc

The Tourism intermediaries

The rise of travel companies in tourism has shown significant resilience globally, despite slow economic growth in advanced economies and geopolitical tensions in some regions, the  travel  agencies  play  an  important  role  in  tourism  development and they have  a  great  power  to  influence  and direct  consumer  demand comparing to other industries and they are not just intermediaries, they act like as an interface between supply and different segments of demand in which they have many different forms and very complex relationships (World Economic Forum,2015)

The tourism industry is comprised of product buyers and sellers and the tourism industry is also consisted of the main actors who are known as the “Intermediaries” due to the fact that they act as “buyers” by purchasing the products from the service provider’s e. g airlines and hotels therefore, the intermediaries also act as “sellers” by selling the products to the final consumers. (Cooper, 2012)

Intermediaries like tour operators have a function of putting together two or more elements of the services from the original service providers and sell them to the final consumer, the roles played by the intermediaries are such as follows; Market creation by acting as a linkage point between the buyers and the sellers (Fyall et al, 2008).