Staff management in tourist companies

Modern tourism industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world economy. The income derived from tourism is a big part in the budgets of states and up to 10 percent of gross domestic product. Performance indicators of tourism revenue growth significantly outpace the growth dynamics of profitability of other sectors of the economy.

According to the World Tourism Organization, over the past 10 years, the income from tourism grew by 7.9 percent annually, with an annual average increase in the number of tourist arrivals by 4.5 percent. In developing countries, the growth of tourism yield up to 1,000 percent.

The emergence of tour operators business resulted from the formation of long distance mass tourism and complexity of the tourism product. This led to the process of specialization of tourist companies: one of those concentrated their efforts on the production of service packages, developed new regions or new types of tourism, forming the direction of tour-operating; others paid more attention to marketing and developing as travel agencies [1].

A tour operator - is a tourist company (organization) engaged in a tour developing on a contract basis with service providers to meet the needs of tourists. A tour operator - is a producer of the tour package. He develops tourist routes and tour packages; ensures their functioning, organizes advertising, calculates prices for tours on these routes, sells tours to tourists directly or through tourist agencies.

A tour operator provides tourists a variety of choices of tourist services and simultaneously simplifies ordering service in other cities and areas.

Marketing environment of the company is composed of micro and macro environment. Microenvironment is directly related to the firm itself and its ability to serve customers, i.e. the suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors and the contact audiences. Macroenvironment is of broader social character, and has the influence on microenvironment (demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and cultural factors) [2].

Market penetration almost always assumes the beginning of competition, which meaning lies in the conquest of individual customers using the services of competitors, rather than in the actions against the companies - competitors. But to win the competition, you need to have a definite advantage in the market, to be able to create the factors of superiority over competitors in the field of services and facilities marketed.

Therefore, the study of competition and competitors within the market research seems to be quite important and urgent. Thus one of the most important areas of study of competition is a quantitative estimate of the company's competitiveness in comparison with the level of competitiveness of competitors.

Subject of research – is management of tourist enterprises.

The object of research activities is the tourist company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi"’s activities.

The purpose of the research is to develop proposals to improve the management of tourist firms (on the example of LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi").

In accordance with the purpose of the research, the following tasks are put up:

- theoretical aspects of the problem are studied;

- the analysis of the tour operator activity on the market is made;

- a complex of measures to improve the activity of LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" is being developed;

- the cost-effectiveness of the proposed activities is assessed.

General scientific methods of research, the method of synthesis, simulation method, and the method of expert estimations are used.

The research possesses some practical significance; it is the ability to put into practice the proposed set of measures to improve enterprise management system [3].

The article is devoted to analyzing the activities of the Tourist Company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" in the market and identifying the problems in its work. The ways to improve the management of the company are suggested and the calculation of the efficiency of the proposed measures is provided. We used economic and statistical data of the firm LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi", as well as the data from regional media.

The effectiveness of tourist activity in today's highly competitive market of tourist services crucially depends on management system and professionalism of the staff of a tourist company, due to the complexity of the structure and mechanism of interaction of a manager and a client.

The tourist company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" offers a wide range of hiking trails, great accommodation and meals at moderate and high prices. Effectively using the methods of cooperation with the tour agency, leading museums, it provides services to tourists at a high level.

The organizational structure of the company is constantly improving adequately to its development. All employees have proper vocational education, training and work experience. The firm exhibits considerable interest to tourist public life, participates in all major tourist activities of the region. The management of the company is executed by the sole executive body - the General Director. The main activity of the enterprise is tourism services for the citizens of Kazakhstan. This travel agency’s main activity is selling tours to various directions, which can last up to 3 weeks, depending on the destination of the trip.

The income received by the firm in the course of business, is determined by the size of the commission specified in the contract between the tour operator and travel agency, and makes 10 - 12% of the cost of the trip.

The main objective of any business is profit. The analysis of the financial statements shows that profits for the last year increased by 16%. This figure shows that the management is done efficiently. This is also confirmed by profitability growth by 1%.

Analysis of the dynamics of the volume of sales shows that due to the influence of seasonality factor in the implementation of the annual cycle on tourist destinations, there are periods of significant losses, which are completely covered during the peak season.

After analyzing the product strategy of the firm, the conclusions can be drawn that the geographical coverage offered by LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" range for today is not wide enough. From a depth standpoint, the company provides a sufficient choice to the customer to modify tours in the selected direction.

The analysis of the competitiveness of the company shows that the company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" takes a conditionally stable position among firms that can make it tough competition. For some items, the company is the leader, but for some it is inferior to competitors. At the same time the strong points of the company include the ever expanding geography tours, accurate execution of obligations and compliance with the terms of contracts, active promotional activities and the availability of automation process. The proof of the correct strategy choice is the number of clients who re-apply to the firm [4].

Analysis of the effectiveness of marketing activities has revealed that it is not too active, because the most important and modern information channel - the Internet is weakly involved. Also there is no corporate identity and image component of marketing activities. These lines should be promoted to enhance the effectiveness of the LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi".

Governing personnel occupies the main place in managerial system of an enterprise. Particularly this is important for such branches as tourism. The Development of tourism renders the stimulating influence on such sectors of the economy, as transport, trade, construction, agriculture, production of goods, public consumption, and forms one of the most perspective directions of the structured economy.

Great importance is paid to the regulation of personnel work with customers: the standards of communication in the office and on the phone are developed, the codes of conduct and standards of appearance of employees are approved, but it is not enough for effective communication. To better evaluate the effectiveness of the staff, the method of customer interviews, which was conducted over the telephone, was used. The survey showed the following results:

Many buyers believe, that information about the upcoming tour was not enough (64%), and 49 % of the buyers were unable to get answers to all their questions. From this we can conclude a lack of information support of the tour and low professional level of employees [3].

Strategic planning and management of the travel company requires highly skilled managers. Development strategy for any industry, and for service and tourism in particular, when the economic competition, technological situation and state policy are changing constantly, it is of vital importance to adapt to emerging circumstances. Company management has to skillfully perform tactical control, not allowing active processes to go beyond the specific scope of economic development strategy. Therefore it becomes important to have the system of training highly qualified managers of a tourist sector, who are capable to build a competitive economic development strategy in modern conditions. A qualified manager can successfully apply new approaches to the staff management of the organization, without blindly copying foreign experience, but take into account national conditions and develop their own effective methods of personnel management.

When managing the staff of the travel company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" we must take into account the degree of satisfaction of its employees with their work. To solve the problem of employees' satisfaction with their work it is necessary to improve the administrative, economic and socio-psychological methods of personnel management. The firm's management must constantly mark the value of an individual worker, his achievements for the collective. Establishing a team spirit, nepotism and corporatism in LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" will lead to improving the performance and capacity of sincere friendship, respect and loyalty to the company.

Thus, the management of the travel company LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" should pay attention to the improvement of personnel management.

Much when buying a round depends on how managers will be able to describe a tour, and how well they can tell about it to attract and persuade to buy any tour. Therefore, to evaluate the performance of managers, buyers were asked about it. Only 14% of cases, when evaluating the manager's job spoke about low quality, for 77% the manager was sufficiently prepared to work with the client, while in 29% (almost every third buyer) the tour company could lose its customers.

Thus, the analysis of managers’ work with buyers showed that despite the developed rules and requirements, their work cannot be considered effective. There is a lack of professional knowledge that can be clearly seen [5].

On the basis of the results of analysis the following measures are to be done, to improve the efficiency of the LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi".

The concept of the company's presence on the Internet should be developed. The company needs a personal website under current conditions. It allows potential customers to get acquainted with the proposals of the company, not coming to the office, ask questions online and determine for themselves the parameters of a future trip. Saturation of the site can not only attract potential buyers to tours, but also make them real buyers. For recognition of the company it was offered to develop and implement corporate identity elements and to create a positive image of the enterprise.

Due to the lack of personnel service in the firm structure, the work on staff development is not carried out, and meanwhile, the survey showed that it is necessary. Therefore it is suggested to develop and begin implementation of staff development programs, initially with managers working directly with customers. The preliminary step in the program will be personnel certification.

The evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed activities is being held.

The entire complex of measures consists of 3 components. Implementation of each of the proposals requires certain costs, but each of them has to give an effect in the form of increased sales. To determine in advance what economic effect will this or that action have, is not possible, but according to experts of tourism, the effect is bound to be [2].

According to the forecasts, the tour company will receive additional net profit for 2014, which is more than in 2013. Of these funds, it is necessary to subtract funds to be spent on the implementation of activities.

Even with the cost of implementation of the proposed measures, the amount of net profit at the disposal of the LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" will be less, compared with 2013.

It should be borne in mind that the effect of the implementation of the proposed activities will be long, and the continuing expansion of the proposed activities in subsequent years will give even greater economic impact, since the effectiveness of the implemented measures will increase, and so will grow profit-making of the enterprise. The increase in profit is the main objective of business. Thus, all proposed activities for implementation in LLC "Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi" are effective measures.

REFERENCES

1. Kibanov A.Y. Fundamentals of human resource management: textbook. - Moscow: INFRA-M, 2006.

2. Kartashov L.V. Human resource management: textbook. - Moscow: INFRA-M, 2007.

3. Egorshin A.P. Human Resources management. - N. Novgorod.- NIMB, 2007.

4. Volgin V.V. Personnel Management in Small Business (prevention of problems): practical guide. - M.: Marketing, 2007.

5. Zorin I.V. Personnel Management. Planning a career in tourism. - M., 2007.