Plane ticket: $400 - 500
Hotels: $400
Hotels: even if we say $50 dollars a night (we are staying in very nice hotels and getting very good discounts, $50 dollars is most likely under what it is, but a nice average, and low number) 8 nights X $50 = $400. I can't stress enough how nice the hotels we're staying in apparently are, and the apparent deals I'm told we're getting on them.
Meals: $120
All breakfasts and four dinners: It's hard to estimate, but the dinners that are paid for are nice. Lets say $5 for a breakfast and $20 for a meal (for a banquet hall of 100 people, $20 is very realistic). ($5 X 8 days) + ($20 X 4 meals) = $120
Three attraction admissions: $45
Bus: $80
One thing that must be considered is that we will have a tour bus the entire time we are there. I have started pricing 50 person buses to Logan and back - the one price I have right now (from the people we used last tour) is $800 for a ride to Logan and back. A tour bus for 10 days costs a lot. Let's guess and say it costs $400 dollars a day (it costs $400 dollars from Worcester to Logan); that's (10 days X $400)/ 50 people = $80.
Guided Tours: $44
Another thing that we must consider is that we have a staff organizing the three concerts, and two tour guides the entire trip. Let's assume the tour guides go everywhere we do but they don't need to make any sort of profit and they get benefits, so their trip costs only $1300, that one tour guide is assigned to WPI and the other Clark. Finally, let's say the tour guide gets paid $10 an hour for 8-5 every day of the tour (most likely a gross understatement). ($1300 + (9 hours X $10)(10 days))/ 50 people = $44
Tour company costs: $52
Also, keep in mind that the tour agency has spent much time before the trip planning, arranging, etc. Let's assume they have 2 people making $13 an hour, and that they spent only 100 hours planning the tour for us. (2 people X $13 X 100 hours)/50 people = $52
Also, the tour company is responsible for advertising our concerts; that includes printing posters (you've seen the posters from the other tours?). Advertising costs money. Finally, it looks like we will be renting a concert hall in Limerick - the tour company is paying for that as well. But let's not include any of that and add up the numbers so far.
Sum: 500 + 400 + 120 + 45 + 80 + 44 + 52 = $1241
Now let's consider that the tour company has rent to pay on their building, and many other expenses, the difference in what I've broke down and the cost is $1543-$1241 = $302
The lowest estimate we got, we $1380 or $1390 something, that didn't include two tour managers, one extra day, an extra dinner, admission costs, and airline taxes.
Louis also spoke with one of the professors here who went on just a regular tour of Ireland with a group of people - that cost $1500, and obviously didn't have any of the expenses associated with organizing concerts of more than 100 people.
Altogether, this price is very fair and is really the best price we can find anywhere. If you wanted to go to Ireland alone, not rent a bus or car, and stay in hostels, you can do it for much less, I'm sure. But you have to figure that this is a group of 100 people. I hope you can understand the logistics of getting plane tickets and hotel rooms for such a large number. You cannot have 100 people stay in a small, cheap hotel or hostel.
I hope this answers your questions, I'm sure there are things that I left out of the breakdown; as you can see, I didn't add in the cost of advertising, etc. I hope you can see how the total is made. If you have any more question, just let me know.