TERMS OF REFERENCE: BENCHMARKING AND TRAINING NEEDS FOR TRAVEL AGENTS AND OTHER NON-HOSPITALITY RELATED TOURISM BUSINESSES

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, with the support of Project LAO/020 (a collaborative LNTA/Lux-Development Project) and the Lao Association of Travel Agents (LATA) wishes to commission a survey-based study of training needs for non-hospitality related tourism businesses in Vientiane Capital, Luang Prabang and Champassak. 

Based on the research in these three locations and desk research, the consultant will estimate the training needs for the country/non-hospitality tourism industry as a whole.

The non-hospitality sector is defined as travel agents/tour operators registered in Lao PDR, tourism transport operators (road and river); activity operators and attractions including community-based attractions; casinos and tourism-orientated day spas[1] .  Hotels’ and restaurants’ training needs are being examined by another Project LAO/020 study.

The survey will have two main elements which are as follows:

(i)               For travel agents

• to benchmark the performance of inbound ground handlers at the end of the EU Asia Invest II programme ‘Marketing Responsible Tourism in Lao PDR’ (see  annex)

• determine the current size of the sector (number of businesses, estimated turnover, numbers employed, percentage who have attended a training course).

• determine the future vocational training needs of existing and future employees of travel agencies/tour operators in the Lao PDR.

(ii)             For other non-hospitality related tourism businesses

• Based on the extrapolated three province survey, determine the current overall size of the other non-hospitality tourism sector in Lao PDR (i.e number of businesses; tourism-dependent turnover; numbers employed by category [male, female, Lao and other ethnicities]; percentage who have attended a training course while employed and the nature of that training).

• identify existing and future demand for employees in various entry-level jobs.

• benchmark current standards against a relevant competing ASEAN destination.

• undertake a training needs analysis to determine up to four common areas of vocational training needed to support the further development of the non-hospitality tourism sector.

Tenders are invited from experienced market research agencies to conduct this assignment.  Agencies must have proven experience of sampling techniques, questionnaire design, telephone and face-to-face survey techniques, quality control of interviewing, and survey analysis including SPSS or a similar statistical computer package.  The company appointed must be able to communicate in Lao (or Thai) and English.  The research report will be presented in English with an Executive Summary in English and Lao.

The survey will be divided into two distinct strands:

Strand I
Lao Travel Agents (both LATA members and non-members to be sampled)
.

          Strand II
Other non-hospitality related tourism industry organizations: distribution of sample to be determined based on estimated industry size.

Sample sizes should be indicated in the tenders based on initial estimates of the size of relevant industry categories in Lao PDR, and bearing in mind the overall limits of the project budget.

The study team will report to a Steering Group including SNV, Project LAO/020, LATA and LNTA representatives.

Outputs are as follows:

Tenders
Proposals, including a detailed proposed methodology and draft questionnaire, CV’s of key staff to be  involved, days proposed and total cost (inclusive of expenses) should be forwarded in a sealed envelope market TENDER DOCUMENTS to

Ms Dara Darasavath, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Nongbone Road, PO Box 9781, Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Before 5pm on 12 June 2009.  Late tenders will not be considered.  Tenders will be assessed by a panel based on the following scoring grid:

Understanding of brief                          20%
Methodology                                         40%
Relevance of CV’s and experience         20%
Price                                                      20%

The maximum budget available for this study is Euro 10,000. Tenders above this figure will not be considered. 

50% of the fee will be paid on approval of the inception report and 50% on approval of the final report.  Copyright to all data (including interview questionnaires and tabulated data) will pass to the commissioning agencies upon payment of the final invoice.

[1] Consultants may wish to propose an alternative definition of the non-hospitality sector, but it must include at least the business areas listed above.