A "Component Package Tour" is a scheduled departure series, Seat in Coach tour which is made up of two or more component tours which can be sold as tours in their own right.
In simple terms, the setup of the components is based around PCM’s, each with a Package Database Product attached, and with Fixed Departure Dates and availability (Allocations) for each component.
Example Component Tour
The PCM’s for the component tours are then populated with the relevant PCM Package products, plus any ‘joiner’ products that may be required.
Schematic Diagram of the required PCM's.
The schematic above shows the 5 PCM’s that are required to set up the Tour Series being used in this example. In essence, Component Tours are a collection of services built into Package Tours that are then joined together as components of the main (in this case, 12 day) tour.
The Tourplan NX system is very specific about what the definition of a ‘Package’ is. In relation to Scheduled Group Tours, the PCM User Manual (Types of Packages) uses the following definition:
- A coach tour type of package which has seats sold to a number of FIT passengers. i.e., the Tourplan NX user company is selling ‘seats’ on a group tour. These types of packages must have specific departure dates. The passengers travel as a group. The Escort/Driver carries vouchers covering the complete group.
When one of the Tours/Components is booked in FIT's, the availability of all affected components is updated. There is a process Tour Operations - Book On/Rolled Up Group Bookings which creates (or updates) a Tourplan NX Group Book booking for each of the component tours for their relevant departure dates.
In the example series used in this document there are Package Products for each tour, and Allocations attached to each of those Package Products. Two of the tours - 12 Day Best of New Zealand and 8 Day Super South - are made up almost totally of Component Packages. It is at Component level that pax numbers need to be maintained to calculate available spaces on the various departures. Reports are available to assist in ascertaining these numbers.
The resulting Group Tours are the Tourplan NX bookings that are physically operated and from which the Vouchers are issued.