Customized Tour vs. Group Tour: Which One Suits You Best?

Are you confused while buying travel package? are you ever wondered about the deference between group tour and customized tour/personal tour/ Tailor made tour? Before buying your travel package, this blog will help you understand whether a group tour or a customized tour is right for your situation.

Group tour means a tour with a group of people according to the pre-arranged plan by travel agencies. Normally group tour include 40-50 people. Most time you need to share the accommodation with other team members. Group tour include all the necessary components like flight, accommodation, visa, food etc.  Customized tour means tour is planned for particular individual or his team according to customer requirement. The ultimate power to choose the flight, accommodation type and activities rests with the customer. Honeymoon trip and family trip are the best example for customized tour. Compared to group tour, customized tour providing for private experience to the travelers.  Kindly go through the points given below. It will help you to clear your confusions regarding the type of tour you want.

 

Points You Should Know Before Deciding Group Tour or Custom Tour

l Itinerary: Group tour itinerary will decide by travel agency. Customer will be unable to do any modification in that according to his/her interest. Activity time and selection of sightseeing also completely rests on travel agency. But customized tour itinerary preparation completely rests on the customer, travel agencies help the customer to create new itinerary according to customer interest. Travel agency will consider your accommodation preference, sightseeing preference, cab preference and food preference while preparation. If you are person who traveling for any special interest, customized tour package will be the best option for you.

l Cost: cost of the tour package is an important factor That influence the customer decision. There is a huge difference in cost of the group tour package and customized tour package. Group tour package is very cheaper than customized tour package. Group tour is like blocking all things (Flight, Accommodation, Bus, etc..) in large quantity. Here the travel agency gets the deal in best rate so the price of group tour package will be cheaper. But in the case of customized tour package blocking is not possible. And here the quantity is very less. So, travel agency will get the product in normal price. That’s why the cost of customized tour package is higher than group tour package. If you are very concerned about the cost of tour package and looking for cheaper option group tour will be the best option for you.

l Travel date: travel date is very important factor for taking travel decision. Family situation, office leaves, personal matters, these factors have high influence over tour date. In the case of group tour, travel date is fix by travel agency. Customer can't to change the date according to his/ her choice. But customized tour completely depends upon customer preference.

l Tour Manager: travel is a dynamic process. We can't predict 100 percentage. Sometime tourist will face difficulties. Group tour have a tour manager to control and coordinate the entire things of the tour. But in the case of customized tour customer don’t get tour manager. Instead, customer get on tour support service from travel agencies. On tour support service is depends on the travel agency. Every travel agency has different methods of customer support. Some travel agencies will provide the contact number of the tour operator at the particular travel destination.

l Risk: Compared to group tour, customized tour has more risk factors. Tour manager is an important factor here. Theft, cheating, etc are very common in tourist destinations. If you are a customer who is looking for tour manager assisted tour, Group tour will be the better option for you.

l Private Experience: For better private experience customized tour is the best option. If you are travelling for honeymoon, then customized tour is the best option. Group tour can't provide you that much private experience. And group tour is not that much flexible, activity time and schedules are very strict in group tours.

l social interactions: Group tours have fewer social interactions, but customers have better social interactions in a customized tour. Group tour only covers main destinations, but customized tour is completely depending on customer preference, this will give the opportunity for deep interaction with local people.

Save Your money: Must-Know Tips Before Buying Travel Package

Booking a travel package these days is a very confusing process. Social media and online platforms are flooded with holiday advertisements. Buying a travel package because of a good digital media poster will lead to failure. So go through the company website and customer review thoroughly before choosing the company. Tour package is the combination of many components. Before buying tour package customer need check many things regarding travel expectations. comparing to group tour package, free independent tour package (customized tour package) needs more care. Customer need check many things before buying the tour package.

•  Check the product items.

Travel package is a product which included many components like accommodation, transportation, flight ticket, entry ticket etc... So as a customer need to check the each and every component in that product. Other vise customer expectation and travel agencies product have big differences. This situation led to create unsatisfactory in the mind of customer.

The hospitality industry provides a variety of accommodation options for tourists. Before buying the tour package, check about the accommodation type, room category and bed type included in the package. Specify the star category of the hotel (three-star, four-star or five-star). There is a big difference in cost when changing the star category. Second, determine which room category is right for your family. Hotels offer double share, triple share and extra bed options. Specify about bed type king bed, twin bed etc.

Mainly travel agencies providing two types of transportation facility in tour package, Private vehicle and shared taxi. For group tour complete transportation will be in shared manner with the particular team. But in free independent tour package (customized package) airport transfers will be private and the city tours are shared taxi basis. If customer only required private vehicle transportation, request requirement with travel consultant who helps in your package. Make clear about transportation vehicle model, brand, number of seats and year of production. Year of production is important because of its effect on the productivity and neatness of the vehicle. For instance, travel agency only mentions Toyota Innova. Customers expect latest model Innova Crysta. If they are providing 2004 model Innova then customer expectation doesn't match with travel agencies product.

While booking the flight ticket customer must express the need with travel agency. In case customer expectation is low fare ticket, prefer connection flights with economic class and low-cost airlines. With the condition Customer only prefer the comfort, business class with direct flight is the best option.

Entry tickets of activities and sightseeing will be better by booking through travel agencies. The demand of the entry tickets can't to predict. Many destinations and activities only providing limited number of tickets so pre-book is the best option. Otherwise after reaching destination customer lose the opportunity. Customer must clarify the type and inclusions of the tickets with travel agency. For instance, Gardens by the bay Singapore providing many varieties of entry tickets. If the customer expectation is gardens by the bay with flower dome and travel agency booked entry ticket without flower dome. Here the expectation of the customer never going to match with travel agency’s package.

•  Care with online payment.

Buying tour package through online is very common in these days. Before paying the amount visit travel agency physically. Check the customer reviews online. For online payment take method more secured like PayPal and credit card. That provide buyer protection programs.

•   Customer service

On tour customer support service is very necessary for tourists, especially for international and long-haul tours. Travel is a complex factor based on its dynamic nature. For instance, the customer traveling to Thailand. Thailand providing on arrival visa for Indian passport holders. Therefor travel agency team should be in online anytime for assisting the customer if needed. Before buying travel package, customer should aware about on tour support policies of the company.

•   Discount price

Tour package prices from publicly reputed travel companies can be surprising. But customer can get a discount on the package price through decent bargaining. Most of the companies will provide good discount over customized tour package, but discount over group tour package most time not possible. Compared to customized free independent tour, group tour package price is low.