Tour Organisation, Itinerary Planning, Logistics and Cost Handling
From theme to timetable
A workable itinerary is built top-down: theme and target group → must-see anchors → travel legs → meals and rest → buffers → contingency. Anchors are fixed by opening hours and booked slots; everything else flexes around them. Realistic travel time beats optimistic maps: in Prague allow 20–30 minutes between major sights on foot with a group, and double the solo walking time for coach groups that must load, unload and count passengers.
Logistics to name in an exam answer: meeting point and its description, tickets and reservations, luggage handling, meal breaks, toilet stops, accessibility, weather alternative, and a named contact number for the driver and the site.
Costs
Split costs into fixed (coach hire, guide fee, permits) and variable (entrance fees, meals per person). Only variable costs scale with numbers, so small groups carry a heavy fixed-cost burden - this is why per-person price rises as the group shrinks. Add a margin as a percentage of total cost, then round up.
Trap: forgetting that the guide's own entrance and meal are cost items, or quoting a per-person price that ignores break-even.
Worked example: coach 24,000 CZK fixed; entrances 350 CZK × 40 pax = 14,000; total 38,000; margin 15% = 5,700; price 43,700 CZK, i.e. 1,093 CZK per person, rounded to 1,095 CZK.
Rule of thumb: plan a 20% time buffer per half-day, and never schedule more than three major interior visits in one day.