Практические задания для студентов специальности 43.02.10 «Туризм»

Практическое задание №1 – монологическое высказывание.

Для студентов дневного отделения специальности 43.02.10 «Туризм»

TOPIC 1

TYPES OF ACCOMMODATION

The hotels and catering industry is often treated separately from the tourist industry, and certainly the training for both is very distinct. Its primary function is to provide tourists with accommodation and, to a lesser degree, food. So it is often referred to as the hospitality industry.

In Europe and America, inns and taverns were spaced along the roads at the distance a horse could travel in a day. The traveller usually had to share his bed with another person, and as many as four other persons in some remote areas. The old-fashioned inns, however, did provide food and shelter for both men and horses and therefore became a symbol for hospitality. Indeed, the word inn has been used recently by many modern hotels and motels.

A hotel is a temporary home for people who are travelling. In a hotel the traveller can rest and have meals, either on the premises or nearby.

The word motel was created by combining "motor" and "hotel". When automobiles were first used for travelling, flimsy and inexpensive tourist cabins were built along the roads. Then, as people demanded greater comfort, the cabins were replaced by tourist courts and then by the modern motel, offering services comparable to the traditional hotels.

All hotels do not serve the same clientele, that is, the same kind of guests.
It is possible to place hotels in four broad categories.

The first is the commercial hotel, which provides services essentially for transients, many of them travelling on business.

The second category is resort hotels. They are located in vacation areas and often provide recreational facilities of their own as well.

A third type of hotel aims its services largely at the convention trade. Conventions are meetings of various business or professional groups held on a regular basis.

The fourth category is resident hotels. People who do not wish to keep house themselves can rent accommodations on a seasonal basis or even permanently in many hotels.

At the top are the luxury hotels, which generally offer their guests the greatest comfort and convenience possible.

A system for rating hotels according to quality is widely used in France and other countries. This system puts the top hotels in a special "deluxe" category, with others receiving from five stars to one star.

TOPIC 2

THE BRITISH ON HOLIDAY

Many British people have decided that it is not worth spending money on holiday in Britain because the weather is so unreliable. They prefer to spend their money on a package holiday in southern Europe. A package holiday is a cheap form of group travel. You pay a travel agent a sum of money and he arranges a flight, hotel, food and entertainment. All you need is pocket-money when you get to the foreign country. It is sometimes cheaper to go abroad with a package holiday than to stay in England. In spite of this, seaside holidays in Britain are still the most popular and traditional form of holiday for the majority of British people.

Because Britain is quite a small island, no one lives farther than 75 miles from the sea. As soon as the summer weather begins, thousands of people in cars make their way to the coast. Many parents are willing to sit on crowded beaches, in traffic jams, and sometimes even in bad weather to give their children a seaside holiday.

Many of the larger holiday resorts have piers. Brighton has a famous pier. It is a long platform which stretches out into the sea. You have to pay to go on the pier. On the pier you'll find restaurants, small shops, a theatre or a concert hall, amusements stalls and a fortune-teller. A pier is a very good place when it is too cold to sit on the beach.

A holiday camp is a complete contrast to this kind of independent, outdoor holiday. It's not a holiday in caravans or tents. It's a holiday at a special camp where people live in small chalets. Guests never have to leave the gates of the camp.

TOPIC 3

TRAVEL BY RAIL

Should you ask me what kind of transport I like best I'd speak in support of the train. With a train you have speed, comfort and pleasure combined. What place is more interesting than a big station? There is the movement, the excitement, the gaiety of the people going away and sorrow of those who are seeing others off. There are the shouts of the porters as they pull luggage along the platforms to the waiting trains, the crowd at the booking-office getting tickets, the children tightly holding on to their mothers, and passengers hurrying to board the train. Its make your way through the crowd, closely following the porter, who has taken care of your luggage, and get out on to the train There are many tracks and trains there. At last you manage to stow away your luggage and get out on to the platform for fresh air and bid farewell to the wishers who have come to see you off. But you have scarcely time to kiss and hug your friends when the station-master on duty, in a red cap, signals the train. You hear no whistle of the engine – the train pulls out of the station noiselessly without a jerk.

You are on your way. You start up a conversation with your fellow passengers. People take to each other quickly when travelling and you get to know who is who and what. Now that the excitement of the day is over you begin to feel hungry.

The dining-car steward happens to come along and you take booking for lunch or dinner, whichever it might be. As you go for the second sitting you have time to wash. By that time the guard has made your bed.

You feel tired now, after a hearty meal, so you decide to turn in. You get into your upper berth and begin to absorb the beauty of the changing scenes that fly past you – the cheerful fields of wheat and corn, meadows under a mantle of flowers, grass and green moss, the rivers the run through woodland countries, the forests with their delicious sense of peace, and the mountains ribbed with sharp steep ridges.

TOPIC 4

TRAVEL BY AIR

There are four airports in London: Heathrow in the west, Gatwick in the south, Stansted in the north and the city airport in the City of London. Heathrow is the busiest international airport in the world with more than 1000 planes taking off and landing every day. They carry over a hundred thousand people to and from 85 countries. Heathrow airport opened or the 1^st of January 1946.

If you are travelling into London, simply catch a Fast Train from Heathrow Junction outside your arrival terminal. You should look out for the posters and bus information boards. The Fast Train service uses brand new, purpose-built trains which feature air-conditioning, ergonomically designed seating, generous luggage space, an on board information system and airline-style customer service. Tickets are available at the ticket offices at Paddington railway station, and at other outlets in London, including Rail, speed link and selected Bureau de Change. Tickets also can be purchased with sterling or credit/debit cards on board on the1^st June 1998, Heathrow Express was launched with a dedicated non-stop, high speed service linking London with the world's leading airport every minute. In addition to the full range of facilities and services already offered on Fast Train, the new service provided an exclusive First Class option with wider seats and tables. Since 1998 there is no faster way to travel between central London and Heathrow.

Within Britain there is a good network of domestic air routes. Flights connect major cities and islands. British Airways operate shuttle flights between London and Edinburgh, Britain, Manchester and Belfast. Passengers on these flights need only check in ten minutes before departure.

A wide range of discount fares is available – travel agents have for example, most airlines offer standby fares, usually restricted to flights on weekdays and on flights at weekends.

The "Europe Air pass" is for travel on British Airways, Deutsch BA, UK direct flights within Europe (including the Channel Islands). It purchased from BA travel offices and their agents, but only in conjunction with scheduled intercontinental flights into Britain and at least ten days prior to arrival. The ticket is not available in Europe, Cyprus, Russia, Turkey, Tunisia, and Morocco. Individual sectors in Europe traveled more than once in each direction, and reservations must be made when the ticket is issued. Just have your travel agent issue a ticket for your complete UK routing and book the first sector before arrival in Europe.

TOPIC 5

AIRPORT FORMALITIES

According to the international standards passengers are to arrive at the airport two hours before departure time on international flights and domestic flights. The reason is that passengers should have enough time to complete all necessary airport formalities.

At the airport passengers should check the time of the flight to make sure that it is not delayed, cancelled, or altered. This information is available on the flight information display or at the inquiry office.

Passengers are to fill in customs declarations in one of the international languages or in the language of the country they depart from. They go to the Customs for an examination of their luggage. In some cases the Customs officer may ask you to open your bags and suitcases for inspection. This is done in order to prevent smuggling. After you are through with all Customs formalities the Customs officer puts a stamp on your Customs declaration, or on each piece of luggage, or chalks it off. The particular procedure depends on the country of departure.

Then passengers proceed to the check-in area. There they are to register their tickets, to weigh in and to check-in their luggage.

Most airlines have at least two classes of travel: first or business class and economy or tourist class. Business class is more expensive, while economy class is cheaper. Each passenger above two years of age has a free luggage allowance. As a rule, this limit is 20 kg for economy class passengers and 30 kg for business class passengers.

Excess baggage over 9 kg must be paid for, but some articles can be carried free of charge, such as baby's food, articles of baby's care, baby's prams, chairs of disabled passengers, and some personal effects.

Each passenger is given a boarding pass with his or her seat. Passengers are asked if they want to sit by the window, and in smoking or non-smoking areas. A boarding pass is to be shown at the gate and to the hostess when boarding the plane.

Finally, passengers proceed to the passport control area. Passport control offices will check your passport and visa and put a stamp on them. Customs, checking-in and passport formalities are more or less the same in all countries.

TOPIC 6

TRAVEL BY SEA AND RIVER -CRUISES-FERRIES

"Yesterday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Eric Hiscock left Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, on the first stage of a voy­age round the world in their 30-foot yacht Wanderer III. The voyage is expected to take three years."

The voice of the В. В. С ' announcer, reading the six o'clock news, came clearly from the loud-speaker in the cabin out to where Susan and I sat in Wanderer's cockpit, watching the faint grey line of the English coast vanishing headland by headland into the distance astern.

This was the great moment for which we had schem­ed and worked and struggled for so long, the moment of our departure.

For a long time Susan and I, who are both well used to the handling of small sailing craft, had want­ed to make a long voyage. This was chiefly for the satisfaction of achieving something by our own unaid­ed efforts and by the practice of such skill as we might have acquired; but also we wished to see a little of the world, which we could not afford to do in any other way, and to gather copy and photographs for the books and articles which are our livelihood. In 1950 we were fortunate enough to be able to make a voyage out to the Azores and back in our previous yacht, the 24-foot cutter Wanderer II. That trip was so success­ful that we decided to go ahead with the plans for a longer voyage, right round the world if we could pos­sibly manage it. We sold our beloved Wanderer II as we considered she was too small to live in for a period of three years, and she had no space needed for the stow­age of all the provisions and photographic equipment we wished to take with us. We also sold other posses­sions, and so amassed sufficient funds to have a 30-foot yacht designed and built especially for this long voyage.

There was then much to do to prepare her for the long voyage ahead.
We took her on a trial cruise to south-west Eire, looking for a gale in which to test her seaworthiness and learn how to handle her in bad weath­er, but all we found were winds so light that they barely stretched our new red-brown sails. After that working to a list which had been long in preparation, we fitted her out with charts, books, and navigational equipment; with tools, wire and hemp rope, and spare parts for all the mechanical gear, such as lamps, galley, stove, w. c, motor and winches, also so that we could develop our films on board and enlarge them to whole plate size in order to supply illustrations for the artic­les I hoped to write as we went along to pay for the venture, we took aboard a large stock of photographic materials and dark-room equipment. But the bulkiest and most important items of all were water and food.

In three separate galvanized steel tanks we carried seventy gallons of fresh water, which should be enough for drinking purposes for ninety days. We were each allowed to take out of England only £ 25 of foreign cur­rency for the first year, and unless we called at Gib­raltar, which we did not wish to do as it was some way off our planned route, we would not reach a ster­ling area until we arrived in the West Indies in No­vember.

Therefore, as we were to start the voyage in July, we filled every available locker and shelf with tinned provisions, and by the time Wanderer was ready to leave, she was a good six inches deeper in the water than even Jack Giles, her designer, had intended.

TOPIC 7

THE TOUR OPERATOR

The tour operator works in a tourist company. He develops tours also known as tour packages. Tour packages include transportation, accommodation, catering, transfers and other services.

To develop a tour package the tour operator works with transportation companies or carriers, hotels, restaurants, museums and other suppliers. The tour operator usually markets the tours. He advertises them in mass media or in brochures. The tour operator is a wholesaler. He sells tour packages to travel agents wholesale and pays commission to them. Sometimes he sells tour packages direct to the public. Tour operators organize tours, so they are the main producers in the tourist industry.

THE TRAVEL AGENT

The travel agent works in a travel company. The travel agent like the shop-assistant sells goods to customers. The goods he offers are tour operator's packages.

The travel agent is a retailer. He sells tour packages retail to the consumers. He gets a commission from the tour operator. The commission is from 5 to 10 per cent of the tour cost.

The travel agent also sells separate services. They are flights, hotel rooms, sightseeing tours, car rentals, travel insurance and so on. The travel agent works directly with the public. Travel agents sell tours, so they are the main sellers in tourist industry.

TOPIC 8

THE TOURISM MANAGER

The tourism manager works in a tourist company. He runs some tourist business. He supervises all kind of operations in a tourist company. He also supervises the tourist company staff. Sometimes the tourism manager is just the head of some department in a large tourists company: sales department or public relations department. Then he reports to the general manager.
The tourism manager plans tourist business: operations, new products, profits. He controls the results.

In a travel company – a tour operator or a travel agency – the tourism manager decides on development and promotion of new tour packages, advertising and sales. He also decides on prices and discounts. The tourism manager hires employees. He selects them and provides their training.

THE TOUR GUIDE

The tour guide handles tour groups. He shows tourists round a city, a sight, or a museum. The tour guide conducts sightseeing tours or tours of museums and exhibitions. The tour guide is also called the tour conductor. The tour guide accompanies tourists during a local tour or during the whole travel. He or she caters to the needs of tourists. During a travel the tour guide deals with all the problems. The tour guide speaks the language of the tourists perfectly well.
He or she usually translates well from one language into another.

The tour guide knows a lot on history, geography, art and culture. He or she knows all sights in the destination. The tour guide answers a lot of questions.

The tour guide is an easy-going person. Tourists always tip their guides if they like them.

TOPIC 9

THE ANIMATOR

The animator organizes and provides entertainment for guests in a hotel or a holiday resort. He also arranges entertainment programmes for passengers on a cruise ship. The animator organizes and conducts parties, shows, sports or arts contests, games for children and grown-ups. He involves guests in action: games and shows. The chief animator is also called the social director.
He communicates with guests a lot. The animator speaks a few foreign languages. He communicates with guests in their native languages.
The animator not only speaks well. He is very artistic. He usually dances well, sings well and acts like an actor. The animator is an easy-going person. He is a pretty good mixer. The animator is the main entertainer in the tourist industry.

TOURIST INFORMATION OFFICE CLERKS

Tourist information offices have got office clerks who give advice to customers on car hire, sightseeing and other coach tours, accommodations, flights and so on. The clerks also give city orientations to guests. Tourist information office clerks answer a lot of phone calls and give information on passports and visas, the Customs and luggage, weather and climate, city public transport and food service. The office clerks speak foreign languages fluently because they deal with many international travellers.

There are usually shelves full of city maps and guide books, booklets and folders, brochures and schedules in tourist information offices. Travellers get most of them free of charge.

TOPIC 10

FREE-LANCERS

There are people in tourism who work for themselves. They an called free-lancers. They don't work full-time for any tourist company. They work part-time or in high season only. They don't work in low and off-season.

Among free-lancers there are guides, guides-interpreters, animators, travel writers. Tourist companies employ them for seasonal work. Cruising companies, resort hotels and holiday centers employ animators for summer high season. Travel agencies which deal with in-coming tourism employ guides, guides-interpreters, escorts. Travel writers offer their articles to magazines and newspapers when they wish to.

Free-lancers are registered. It means that, on the one hand, they have got licenses. Licenses prove their qualifications and give them permission to work. On the other hand, if they are registered, they pay taxes. Free-lancers are as a rule members of professional associations.

In high season free-lancers earn a lot of money. In low and off-season they don't earn any money at all or do some other job. Teachers work as free-lance guides, students work as escorts, actors Work as animators. Travel writers are often permanent free­lancers.

TOPIC 11

THE HOTEL MANAGER

The hotel manager is the head of a hotel. He may have the name of the general manager or the managing director. The hotel manager may hold a management position in an individual hotel. Or he may work in a hotel chain. In a small hotel the manager may be the owner of the hotel. But in a large hotel he is just a professional hotelier.

For the hotel guests the hotel manager is the host who must offer hospitality to his guests. For the hotel staff the hotel manager is the person who must establish the policy of the hotel and its operations. The hotel manager has to plan and control the hotel business. He has to check up how different hotel departments carry out their functions. Often he has to deal with hotel guests in person. He has to handle their problems and complaints.

TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In addition to being a source of income and employ­ment, tourism is frequently a source of amenities for the resi­dent population of the tourist destination. Because of visitor traffic, residents may enjoy a higher standard of public trans­port, shopping, and entertainment facilities than they would be able to support otherwise. The provision of incomes, jobs, and amenities for the resident population may therefore be regarded as the three main beneficial effects of tourism which apply to a greater or lesser extent to any tourist desti­nation.

They are of particular significance to developing countries and to underdeveloped regions of a country. In comparison with other forms of economic development, an improvement in living standards may be generated through tourist traffic and its expenditure relatively quickly. No so­phisticated technology is required to establish the basic fa­cilities. As much of the industry is labour intensive, tourism can absorb unemployed labour resources, which is particu­larly valuable in areas with surplus unskilled labour. Many operational skills are relatively simple and can usually be imported. To say this is not to minimize the amount and qual­ity of planning required to establish a tourist industry in a new area, but rather to indicate some of the advantages and attractions it may have as compared with other types of development. In some locations tourism may provide an infrastruc­ture, which in its turn forms the base and the stimulus for the diversification of the economy and for the development of other industries. Tourism itself may be expected to create some demand for goods and services necessary for the cre­ation and expansion of some local industries — to maintain the facilities, to meet the requirements for supplies, and to meet the requirements of the visitors directly.

TOPIC 12

TOURIST INFORMATION OFFICES

Tourist information offices are also called tourist information centres. Sometimes they are called visitor information centres. There are tourist information offices at major airports, railway stations, hotels, holiday or leisure centres and many tourist attractions. Tourist information offices have got office clerks who give advice to customers on car hire, sightseeing and other coach tours, accommodations, flights and so on. The clerks also give city orientations to guests.

Tourist information office clerks answer a lot of phone calls and give information on passports and visas, the customs and luggage, weather and climate, city public transport and food service.

The office clerks speak foreign languages fluently because they deal with many international travellers.

There are usually racks full of city maps and guide books, booklets and folders, posters and timetables in tourist information offices. Travellers get most of them free of charge.

TOPIC 13

TOURIST OUTLETS

Many travel companies branch out and have got a lot of outlets a city, a region, a country or throughout the world. There are outlets of travel agencies, car hire companies, coaching companies.

There are travel agency outlets in hotels, airport terminals, railway stations, big department stores, at large factories and plants and office sites. If a travel company has got an outlet at a factory or in an office building, it serves employees of those companies. Such an outlet provides the same services as other outlets and the head office of the travel company. It means that offers and prices are the same in all outlets.

There is usually just one travel clerk at a sales outlet. He or she does all the work. He or she answers phone calls, meets customer] in person, works on the computer, does paperwork. This clerk makes bookings, sells and issues tickets, collects money and give; receipts. Of course the clerk keeps in touch with the head office and knows all up-to-date information on tours and tickets.

TOPIC 14

Economic flows generated by international tourism have become essential factors of economic growth and international economic relations for a great many countries. With currently more than half a billion international tourist arrivals, the tourism sector has experienced rapid growth.

Yet, it is apparent that is not the case in all the world's regions. Indeed, the primary feature of world tourism trends is the distribution of international travel flows to the different regions of the world.

Travel flows are concentrated towards a few regions and are mainly between countries within the same region. Although demand for travel to developing countries is growing, the Third World only attracts one-third of the world's international visitors.

Furthermore, the already considerable differences in travel flows between world regions are growing.

Europe is the largest receptor region and attracts 59.3 per cent of the world's tourists. Three-quarters of the international visits in the region are by European inhabitants.

Europe therefore owes its dominant position to the concentration of travel flows to certain destinations in the region.

Demand for world tourism is undergoing considerable quantitative and qualitative changes which are directly influencing the world tourism market.

TOPIC 15

HOW IT ALL STARTED

People started travelling long ago. The first travellers were nomads and pilgrims, merchants and traders. They travelled along rivers, lakes and seas. The first travellers used simple means of travelling: boats and ferries on the water and camels in the desert.

The most famous travellers were explorers. Among them were Marco Polo from Venice in the 13th century, Afanasy Nikitin from Russia, Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama from Portugal in the 15th century, Magellan from Spain Amerigo Vespucci from Italy in the 16th century, James Cook from England in the 18th century and other adventurers from Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, England and Holland. They made journeys to Asia, Africa and America.

Travel grew and developed as long as means of transport kept on growing.

With the 19th century the age of modern trains came. In the late 19th century the first motor-cars appeared. The age of airplanes changed travel crucially.

In the early 20th century jet planes emerged. They made air travel available to all people. Air travel is the fastest and the most convenient mode of travelling. No place in the world is more than 24 hours away by jet. Passengers eat, sleep, watch movies, listen to music on airplanes.

TOPIC 16

THOMAS COOK COMPANY

Thomas Cook Company is the oldest travel company in the world. As a matter of fact, Thomas Cook from England opened the age of organized tourism.

It started in 1841 when Thomas Cook arranged the first trip for 570 Englishmen by railway.

In 1843 Thomas Cook organized the first group tour by train. This time he provided tourists with meals and tickets for the races. So it was the first package tour.

Later on Thomas Cook made arrangements for organized visits to the First International Industrial Exhibition. The Exhibition opened in London in 1851. The tourists came from different parts of England.

All those were domestic tours. However, Thomas Cook decided not to stick to domestic tourism within his country only. Four years later, in 1855 he arranged the first overseas trip. It was a tour to the Exhibition in Paris. After that regular tourist trips started to other countries of Europe.

Thomas Cook continued expanding his travel business. In 1866 he arranged the first trip of two groups of Englishmen to the USA.

Thomas Cook set up the first travel agency.

Thomas Cook Company is still very active on the travel market. It is both a tour operator and a travel agency. But now two German companies own it.

TOPIC 17

LEISURE TOURISM

Leisure tourism is also called pleasure tourism or holiday tourism. It is a type of tourism when a person is going on holiday and is not travelling on business. So the purpose of tourism in this case is recreation.

Leisure travellers look for sun, sea and sand. They want to go sunbathing and swimming. So this kind of travellers go to sea resorts or holiday camps and stay at resort hotels.

Leisure travellers enjoy organized entertainment and sport. In a resort hotel there are always swimming-pools, fitting-centres, tennis courts, discos. A resort hotel offers its customers contests, concerts, shows, animation programmes for children. Usually it offers tours and visits to different tourist attractions: local sights or theme parks.

Holiday-makers normally travel with their families and children.

There are other ways to travel for pleasure: cruising and coaching, motoring and hiking.

TOPIC 18

SPORTS TOURISM

Sports tourism is a type of active holiday. The purpose of a sporting tour is to exercise and to keep physically fit. At the same time travellers enjoy natural surroundings, fresh air and clean water.

Travellers combine action and relaxation during a sporting holiday.

Very often sporting tours require preparation and special training. First the tour instructors will plan the itinerary. Then they will train tourists how to use sporting equipment. They will explain all the details of the route. They will define means of transportation, provision of meals and overnight accommodation.

During some tours travellers carry their luggage and sporting equipment themselves. During some other tours special carriers transfer the luggage for them. It depends on the difficulty of the tour, on the tourist destination and the local practice.

Sports tourism is popular all year round.

TOPIC 19

BUSINESS TOURISM

Business tourism is a travel for business purposes.

Business travellers are businessmen and government officials. They travel on different missions. They often travel to attend a convention. Convention tourism is a part of business tourism. It involves taking part in a conference or a seminar.

Business travellers often travel to attend an international exhibition or a trade fair. They can conduct negotiations, conclude agreements or make some other business arrangements.

There are tourist companies that provide business services. Those are fax, telex and telephone communications, secretarial services, answering service, business meeting arrangements. There are business facilities for business travellers at hotels, airports, on airplanes.

Some companies organize business trips for the special training of their staff. People get training and relaxing within the same period of time.

Business travel will develop faster than other types of tourism in future. There will be more business tourists and more tourist companies which deal with business tourism. They will provide more services in future. They will collect information on markets and trade-partners, provide economic data on monitors, arrange negotiations, offer pre-convention and post-convention tours.

The expensive hotel is also called the 3-star hotel according to the European classification.

According to the standards two thirds of bedrooms contain a private bathroom or a shower with a lavatory.

All rooms are fitted with a telephone, a radio and a TV-set. Many expensive hotels offer private parking.

In resort or beach hotels in hot countries bedrooms are fitted with air-conditioning which is a great advantage. Often bedrooms in resort or beach hotels are not fitted with TV-sets.

Fuller meal facilities are provided for the guests. All expensive hotels have got a restaurant and a bar. Meals are provided on a half board basis. Hot tea in the morning and hot evening meals are always offered in the expensive hotels.

The expensive hotels usually have a rather good location. Good transportation is also available.

The deluxe hotel is also called the 4-star hotel.

A private bathroom or a shower with a lavatory are provided in all bedrooms.

All bedrooms are fitted with a telephone, a colour TV-set, a radio.

The deluxe hotels offer a 24-hour access and a lounge service to the guests until midnight.

All deluxe hotels contain a variety of bars and restaurants. Meals are provided on a full board basis: hot breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The resort or beach hotels in hot countries offer private swimming-pools. The rooms are fitted with air-conditioning and mini-bars. Saunas and solariums are also provided.

The deluxe hotels have excellent locations in beautiful neighbourhoods and convenient transportation means.

The prices are rather high but the guests get their money's worth.

TOPIC 21

THE SUPERDELUXE HOTEL

The superdeluxe hotel is usually called the luxury hotel. Such hotels are also known under the name of the 5-star hotels.

These are exceptionally luxurious hotels. Extremely comfortable and luxurious guestrooms are offered to the guests. Perfectly appointed public rooms are provided for the needs of the guests: lounges, banquet halls, conference rooms.

The superdeluxe hotels offer the greatest convenience, the best comfort and the widest service to their guests.

All guestrooms include private bathrooms. All guestrooms are fitted with up-to-date equipment and amenities: room telephones, colour TV-sets, home videos, background music, mini-bars, full-length mirrors, excellent furniture.

A variety of recreational facilities is provided for the guests: swimming-pools, health clubs and fitting centres, saunas, solariums, beauty parlours. Where gambling is allowed, the superdeluxe hotels contain casinos and night-clubs.

The superdeluxe hotels provide all-night lounge service and all-night room service. Private parking lots are provided for the guests.

A variety of restaurants and bars cater for the needs of all kinds of visitors. They are open for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and supper.

The superdeluxe hotels have got a very high proportion of employees to guests and guestrooms. It means that a large number of people are employed to serve the guests. The proportion may be three employees to one guestroom. The employees are perfectly trained to meet the high standards of service.

The superdeluxe hotels are built and designed to provide service for wealthy and important guests. Such hotels are located in fashionable neighbourhoods with the best views and convenient connections.

TOPIC 22

Normally people plan their holidays in advance. For holiday-making people, as a rule, prefer to stick to the same travel agency they have already used before and got their money's worth. On the one hand, they trust the travel agency they've got to know earlier, on the other, they expect to purchase a tour package at a reduced price as regular customers.

Suppose you are not an experienced holiday-maker. You are at a loss which travel agency to choose out of a large amount of agencies offering similar services. You want an enjoyable holiday at some reasonable price, or at least you don't want to be trapped.

Here are some hints for you. Out of the travel agencies offering similar destinations and tours pick out 4 or 5. Their names should be familiar to you: their ads regularly appear in travel catalogues and in mass media. Compare the prices: they should be neither too high, nor too low. All the ad information should be clear to you: nothing should seem odd.

Call the travel agencies you have picked out, and if you lack some information or advice, don't hesitate to ask questions.

Responding to the callers' queries is a part of travel agents' duty.

If you are still not disappointed, make an appointment with the travel clerk at the agency office.

Efficient travel clerk will always help you to make a decision where to go or where to stay. Travel agents are sure to have the most comprehensive information at hand about the destination they offer. There are usually lots of brochures, tourist’s guides and maps available for customers.

TOPIC 23

DINERS CLUB INTERNATIONAL

Diners Club International is not just a world-wide charge card organization.
It is also an International Club offering exclusive services to members.

THE CARD. Honoured by 400,000 establishments in 156 countries, it gives you more credit in more places than any other card – with no limit.

Travelling. Honoured by every major airline and car rental agency in the world.

Petrol. Accepted at garages displaying the Diners sign and listed in the Diners Club Motorist's Directory.

Hotels, Shopping, etc. Honoured in quality hotels, restaurants, theatres and fine stores throughout the world.

Cheque Cashing Facilities. Diners Club's association with the National Westminster Bank Group allows you to obtain up to 30 pounds cash at any of their branches on production of your card and cheque book, drawn on any affiliated bank within the Eurocheque scheme.

Insurance. Buying any travel ticket, members are immediately covered for Loss of Life at 20,000 pounds. Members are also offered low-cost Income Protection and Accident Insurance up to 150,000 pounds.

Personal and Business Travel. Diners World Travel offers a full travel service to members. There are also Diners Club offices in most major cities to help travellers.

Критерии оценки:

- сообщение содержит наиболее важную информацию по теме;

- объём сообщения соответствует обозначенным требованиям (не менее 10 предложений):

- использование необходимый лексического материала;

- произносительные навыки соответствуют нормам изучаемого иностранного языка.

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