Travel Planning: Itineraries, Routes, and Packages

Posted on Jan 4, 2025 in Language

Itinerary

An itinerary is a planned route for a trip. It includes a detailed description of the way, with information about places of interest, stopovers, relevant information about eventualities that can be found along the way, and where activities and services are normally proposed.

Routes

Routes are travels of tourist or thematic interest connecting two or more places. They are commonly referred to as trips to get to know a territory in a short period of time by connecting places. They are normally promoted by the public administration in order to rehabilitate depressed areas at different levels (heritage value, social value, economic value) and they are aimed at individual (personal) tourism who organize the trip for themselves. Ex: Bético-roman route, rice route, route of the caliphate.

Tourist Package or Combined Tour

A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Transport can be via charter airline to a foreign country. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities, or outings during the holiday. Package holidays are organized by a tour operator and sold to a consumer by a travel agent. Some travel agents are employees of tour operators, others are independent. Individual or collective tours might be offered. The price is fixed beforehand. Ex: Programs of flight plus hotel, circuits (land, sea, air – land, long – distance).

Definition of a Circuit

It is a “closed itinerary,” starting and ending in the same place. A Tourist Circuit is defined as a route on which, at least, three major tourist destinations are located, such that none of these are in the same town, village, or city. At the same time, they are not separated by a long distance. A route organized by a specialized tour operator.

Air Courier Flight

It refers to working as a courier. Companies often use couriers to fly with packages from city to city and deliver them at the destination. Because some documents and packages are too important to be simply sent out by post, people are hired to do the job.

Structuring Phase of a Route

To structure a tourist route, there are several points to take care of:

  • Inventory of tourist resources (contents of the route):
    • Attractions or natural/landscaping resources.
    • Cultural resources: historic, monumental, artistic, museums, etc.
    • Ethnological resources: craftsmanship, gastronomic, gourmet, folklore, feasts, festivals.
    • Programmed events.
  • Studies of the required tourism infrastructure:
    • Accommodation: type, category, situation.
    • Transport.
    • Complementary services: restaurants, tour guides, tourist offices, souvenir shops, etc.
  • Studies about the infrastructure support:
    • Hospitals, chemists, supermarkets, etc.
  • Accessibility of the route, including resources and infrastructures.

Launching Phase of a Route

Targeting and strategizing plan (action plans). Commercialization of the route. Communication Plan. Promotion and Advertising.

Rules to be Considered for Designing a Package Tour

  • Do not overdo scheduled stages set very long and straight.
  • Do not introduce excessive interesting stopovers, as they may overload the stage.
  • Consider that stopping a group requires a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes from down, up, and activity.
  • Do not overtighten the time, leave margins for contingencies.
  • Consider monuments and museums timetables, as well as other proposed activities, places to visit, etc.
  • Set lunch between 12 and 14:00 hrs (depending on whether they are Spanish or foreign).
  • Prevent clogging, traffic jams, and stopovers through big cities.
  • Check schedules and procedures for border crossings.
  • Expect an average of 70-80km/h on normal roads and a coach of 90-100 km/h on motorways.

Board Basis for Accommodation

Board basis simply means the sort of dining arrangements that you have selected for your holiday.

  • Room Only (RO): Means that no meals will be included in the price you have paid for your accommodation/holiday package.
  • Self Catering (SC): Means that no meals are included in the cost of your accommodation/holiday package, but you will be provided with catering facilities in your accommodation to cook light meals.
  • Bed and Breakfast (BB): Means that breakfast is included in the price you have paid for your accommodation/holiday package.
  • Half Board (HB): Means that your breakfast and evening meal are included in the price you have paid for your accommodation/holiday package. In some cases, you can choose to receive lunch instead of breakfast – the hotel will confirm this upon arrival.
  • Full Board (FB): Means that breakfast, lunch, and evening meals are included in the price you have paid for your accommodation/holiday package.
  • All Inclusive (AI): Means all meals and locally produced drinks are included (until midnight, when a cash bar system may operate. This may vary depending on the accommodation).

Cultural Itinerary

Any route of communication, be it land, water, or some other type, which is physically delimited and is also characterized by having its own specific dynamic and historic functionality to serve a specific and well-determined purpose, which must fulfill the following conditions:

  1. It must arise from and reflect interactive movements of people, countries, regions, or continents over significant periods of time.
  2. It must have thereby promoted a cross-fertilization of the affected cultures in space and time, as reflected both in their tangible and intangible heritage.
  3. It must have integrated into a dynamic system the historic relations and cultural properties associated with its existence.

Key Objectives of the Council of Europe Cultural Routes

  1. To raise awareness of a European cultural identity and European Citizenship, based on a set of shared values given tangible form by means of cultural routes retracing the history of the influences, exchanges, and developments which have shaped European cultures.
  2. To promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue through a better understanding of European history.
  3. To safeguard and enhance the culture and natural heritage as a means of improving the quality of life and as a source of social, economic, and cultural development.
  4. To give pride of place to cultural tourism, with a view to sustainable development.