CBSE Class 12 Tourism (806)
Chapters: 9
1. Part A: Employability Skills
Communication skills · Self-management skills · ICT skills · Entrepreneurial skills · Green skills
- Communication Skills: How to Share Meaning Clearly and Kindly – Communication is sharing meaning between people. A sender encodes an idea into a message, sends it through a channel, and a receiver decodes it and gives feedback. Barriers such as noise, hard words, strong emotions and cultural differences can block or bend the message. We send meaning with words (verbal), with face, eyes, gestures, posture and tone (non-verbal), and with pictures (visual). Active listening — attention, patience, questions and paraphrasing — proves the message arrived. Good communicators adapt to context: formal or informal, spoken or written, and use polite requests, kind refusals, sincere apologies and assertive (not aggressive or passive) language.
- Self-Management: Taking Charge of Your Feelings, Goals and Time – Self-management is the skill of guiding your own feelings, thoughts and actions so you can reach your goals. It starts with self-awareness: noticing what you feel and how strong it is. Then you pause before reacting (Stop, Think, Act) and use calming tools such as slow breathing. Your beliefs and thoughts shape your feelings and actions, so changing an unhelpful thought ('I'm useless') into a helpful one ('I can't do it yet') changes what you do. Good self-managers set SMART goals, plan their time by importance, build healthy habits and bounce back from setbacks (resilience). These skills help in school, friendships and future careers.
- ICT Skills: Office Tools, Internet, E-mail and Staying Safe – ICT means Information and Communication Technology. It is the set of tools we use to make, store and share information: computers, phones, software and the internet. The core ICT skills are: using a word processor to write, a spreadsheet to calculate, a presentation tool to show ideas, the internet to search, e-mail to communicate, and good habits to stay safe online.
- Green Skills: Sustainable Development, Green Economy and Green Jobs – Green skills are the knowledge, habits and job skills that help us live and work without harming the planet. They rest on sustainable development (meeting today's needs while leaving enough for the future). A green economy grows while cutting pollution and waste, often by going circular: make, use, repair, recycle. It creates green jobs such as solar technician or recycling worker. Everyone can use green skills through the 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle.
2. Travel and Tour Operations Business
Travel business
- Tourism Geography: Resources, Types, Impacts and Planning – Tourism is travelling away from home for at least one night for leisure, business, health or visiting friends. Tourism geography asks where people go, why, and what tourism does to places. Places attract visitors with natural resources (mountains, beaches, wildlife) and cultural resources (heritage, festivals, food). People are pushed from home and pulled to destinations. Tourism can be domestic or international, and there are many types: eco, adventure, cultural, medical and marine. Resorts often follow a life cycle from exploration to stagnation and then decline or renewal. Tourism brings jobs and money but can harm nature and local culture if visitors exceed the carrying capacity, so good planning aims at sustainable tourism.
3. Operations of a Travel Agency
Agency operations
- Travel Agency Operations: Functions, Types and Services – A travel agency is a business that links travellers with travel suppliers such as airlines, railways, bus and cruise companies, hotels, car rentals and guides. It gives advice, makes reservations and issues tickets, books stays, helps with passports, visas and insurance, arranges foreign exchange and sells tour packages. Agencies can be retail agents, tour operators (wholesalers who build packages), online travel agencies or specialists. They earn mainly through commission from suppliers and service fees from travellers. Every booking follows a path: enquiry, counselling, quotation, booking, payment, documents and after-sales service.
4. Transport Network
Transport network
- Transport Network in Tourism: Air, Rail, Road and Water Travel – Transport is what makes tourism possible: it carries visitors from home to the destination and around it. Tourists use four main modes. Air is fastest over long distances; airlines run full-service and low-cost models and link cities through hubs. Rail is comfortable and cheaper for medium distances and offers special tourist trains, mountain railways and metros. Road is the most flexible and reaches places with no station or airport, by car, rental car, mini-van or coach. Water travel includes ferries, cruises and houseboats. Planners choose a mode by distance, time, cost, comfort, group size and the experience the traveller wants, and often combine several modes in one trip.
5. Itinerary Planning
Itinerary
- Itinerary Planning: Meaning, Types and How to Plan a Tour – An itinerary is a written day-by-day plan of a trip. It shows where travellers will go, when, how they will travel, where they will stay and eat, and what is included. Different itineraries are made for different users: the tourist (client), the tour manager or escort, the driver, and suppliers such as hotels and guides. To plan one, understand the client, research the places, fix a logical route, set realistic timings with travel time and rest, book the services and then write the final itinerary. A good itinerary is clear, realistic, balanced, flexible and avoids back-and-forth travel.
6. Tour Packaging and Programming
Tour packages
- Tour Packages: Meaning, Components, Types and How to Design One – A tour package is a bundle of two or more travel services, such as transport, accommodation, meals, sightseeing, guides and transfers, sold together at one price. Packages save travellers time and often money, because tour operators buy services in bulk. Types include independent packages (FIT), escorted group tours (GIT), hosted tours and all-inclusive packages, plus themed packages for adventure, pilgrimage, wildlife, wellness, honeymoon and business (MICE). Designing a package follows steps: market research, choosing destination and theme, writing the itinerary, negotiating with suppliers, costing and pricing, marketing, and finally running the tour and collecting feedback. The price is usually total cost plus a mark-up.
7. Package Tour Costing
Tour costing
- Tour Costing: Pricing a Package Tour – Tour costing means adding up every cost of a package tour and turning it into a price per person. Variable costs (hotel, meals, entry tickets) are paid for each traveller. Fixed costs (coach hire, guide, tour leader) are paid once for the group and shared, so a bigger group makes each person's share smaller. Total cost per person + markup (profit and overheads) + taxes = selling price. The break-even group size is the smallest group at which the operator covers all costs.
8. Government and Professional Bodies
Tourism bodies
- Tourism Organisations and Trends: Who Runs Tourism and Where It Is Going – Tourism is guided at four levels. Globally, UN agencies such as UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) and UNESCO set guidelines, share data and protect heritage. Nationally, a tourism ministry makes policy, promotes the country, funds infrastructure and sets standards. State or regional boards and development corporations run hotels, transport and local campaigns. Local bodies keep places clean and safe, and NGOs protect nature, heritage and communities. In a public-private partnership (PPP) government and companies share cost and work. Global trends include fast growth in arrivals, digital booking, sustainable and experiential travel, wellness tourism and mixing work with travel.
9. Global Distribution System
GDS
- Global Distribution System (GDS) – A Computer Reservation System (CRS) is one supplier's own computer system for its seats, rooms or cars. A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a big network that joins many CRSs to thousands of sellers, such as travel agents, online travel sites and company travel desks. The seller sees live availability and fares, books, and gets a PNR (booking record). The three big GDS companies are Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. Suppliers pay the GDS a fee for each booking.