Week 1 - Theoretical & Practice
The concept of tour, types of tours, the place of tour planning within travel businesses, the basic stages of the tour planning process, and the importance of tour management are discussed. Students identify examples of different tour types and compare their basic characteristics in terms of purpose, duration, target audience, and content.
Week 2 - Theoretical & Practice
The components of the tourism product, including transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, guiding, visit points, free time, and additional services, and their place in the tour program are examined. Students identify the tourism product components in a sample tour program and evaluate the contribution of each component to the tourist experience.
Week 3 - Theoretical & Practice
Cultural tours, nature tours, gastronomy tours, faith-based tours, educational tours, daily tours, and overnight tours are discussed in terms of target audience, age group, income level, interests, and expectation analysis. Students create a target audience profile for a selected tour type and briefly analyze the expectations and needs of this audience.
Week 4 - Theoretical & Practice
Determining tour routes, destination attractions, accessibility, seasonality, visit duration, road safety, break points, and creating alternative routes are examined. Students prepare a main route and an alternative route proposal for a selected destination and evaluate the factors affecting route selection.
Week 5 - Theoretical & Practice
Preparing the daily tour flow, scheduling, ordering visits, selecting accommodation points, planning meal breaks, free time planning, and evaluating the applicability of the program are discussed. Students prepare a sample daily tour flow and evaluate the applicability of visit times, break durations, and free time planning.
Week 6 - Theoretical & Practice
Planning the use of road, air, sea, and rail transportation; vehicle selection, seat capacity, hotel selection, room types, board types, and reservation processes are examined. Students compare transportation and accommodation options for a sample tour and determine the most suitable vehicle, hotel, room type, and board type
Week 7 - Theoretical & Practice
Fixed and variable costs, per-person cost calculation, guiding, transportation, accommodation, meals, museum/archaeological site entrance fees, insurance, commission, profit margin, and determining the sales price are discussed. Students calculate the per-person cost and sales price for a simple sample tour and apply the pricing process.
Week 8 - Intermediate Exam
The topics covered between Weeks 1 and 7 are evaluated. A midterm exam is held covering tour planning, tourism products, target audience, route selection, program preparation, transportation and accommodation planning, and costing. Before the exam, students work in small groups to prepare a draft sample tour plan and review the key topics of the first seven weeks.
Week 9 - Theoretical & Practice
Pre-tour preparations, operation files, passenger lists, vouchers, reservation documents, guide briefing, supplier communication, and the operational flow on the tour day are examined. Students prepare a short operation file draft for a sample tour, including a passenger list, voucher, reservation information, and guide notes.
Week 10 - Theoretical & Practice
Coordination processes among professional tourist guides, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, transportation companies, museums/archaeological sites, and local service providers are discussed. Students identify the stakeholders involved in a tour operation and present the communication and coordination flow among these stakeholders in a diagram.
Week 11 - Theoretical & Practice
Group dynamics, time planning, passenger expectations, break management, discipline, communication, special needs, and the management of children, elderly guests, and guests with disabilities are examined. Students create a short management plan for a sample group with different passenger profiles, focusing on time management, communication, and special needs.
Week 12 - Theoretical & Practice
Vehicle breakdowns, road closures, weather conditions, health problems, lost passengers, cancellations, delays, overbooking, customer complaints, and emergency planning are discussed. Students develop alternative solutions based on a crisis scenario and determine the communication and operational steps to be followed during a crisis.
Week 13 - Theoretical & Practice
Post-tour reporting, customer satisfaction, surveys, complaint analysis, actual cost control, service quality, repeat purchasing, and improvement suggestions are examined. Students prepare a sample post-tour evaluation form and identify key indicators related to customer satisfaction, service quality, and improvement suggestions.
Week 14 - Final Exam
All topics covered within the course are generally evaluated. A final exam is held covering tour planning, route creation, program preparation, costing, operations, group management, crisis management, and post-tour evaluation. Before the final exam, students present a short tour planning and operation proposal by using the knowledge they have gained throughout the semester.
Week 15 - Theoretical & Practice
Final Exam
