Resumen de Travel agent’s tour selection and sightseeing bus schedule for group package tour planning
Peng-Sheng You, Ming-Hsiang Chen, Ching-Hui (Joan) Su
Two problems plague the tourism industry: (1) a scheduled group package tour (GPT) can becanceled if the number of reserved passengers does not reach a minimum number and (2) acustomer’s request for a scheduled GPT will be denied once the number of reserved passengershas reached its maximum. Neither instance is desirable, because of both results in lost sales. Togenerate higher profit over the course of a sightseeing season, travel agent managers mustschedule GPTs on suitable dates and determine the number of sightseeing buses needed. Viewingthis as a portfolio selection problem, this research develops an integer programming model toarrive at an equitable solution. We offer several numerical examples to illustrate the model’sperformance and the problem’s characteristics. The results show that the proposed model sig-nificantly increases revenues.
