Kinds of Tour
The site sells tours four different ways. They look alike when you open them — all have an itinerary, accommodation and sights — but they do different jobs, and picking the wrong one puts a page in the wrong place.
The one that catches everybody
Section titled “The one that catches everybody”A group tour and a tailored tour are not two unrelated things. One becomes the other.
A group tour is a shop window. It shows a suggested itinerary and invites a society to change it. Every section has a “Tailor your…” part offering alternatives: a different hotel, different excursions, the train instead of the coach. Anyone can read it. It has no departure date, because nobody has booked it yet.
A tailored tour is what that itinerary becomes once a society has bought it and agreed the details. The options are gone, because the choices have been made. It has one departure date, an organiser, and a login code so only that group can see it.
The other two
Section titled “The other two”An individual tour is led by a named individual — a lecturer, musician or specialist — rather than sold to a society. There is no society behind it, so usually no organiser and no login code. Some of these brochures have no View Your Tour footer at all. They can have more than one departure date, though the page only gives you one field for now.
An Oberammergau tour is built around the Passion Play, which is staged in a Bavarian village once every ten years. The play is the fixed point and each brochure pairs it with a different surrounding itinerary. The last cycle was 2020 and the next is 2030, so there are none on the site at the moment.
An Oberammergau tour is not a separate kind of page. It is one of the three above, marked with Oberammergau as its destination. So when the 2030 tours arrive you will be creating ordinary group tours, tailored tours and individual tours, exactly as you do now. See Oberammergau Tours.
Telling them apart at a glance
Section titled “Telling them apart at a glance”| Group tour | Tailored tour | Individual tour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can see it | Anyone | Only that group, with a login code | Anyone |
| Sold to | Nobody yet — it is a template | A society | Individuals |
| Departure date | None | Exactly one | One or more |
| Organiser details | No | Yes | No |
| “Tailor your…” sections | Yes | No | No |
If you are unsure which you are looking at, the quickest checks are the departure date and the “Tailor your…” sections. A page with alternatives and no departure date is a group tour. A page with one fixed departure and an organiser is a tailored tour.
Why the tailored tour has no options
Section titled “Why the tailored tour has no options”When you open a tailored tour and find no “Tailor your…” sections, nothing is missing. Those sections exist to offer choices, and on a tailored tour the choices have already been made and agreed with the group. Do not add them.