Information about Travel Agency
A travel agency is a business that sells travel related products and services, particularly package tours, to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, tour companies, and cruise lines. In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, most travel agents have a special department devoted to travel arrangements for business travelers, while some agencies specialize in commercial and business travelers. Some agencies also serve as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different countries.
Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation starting in the 1920s. Originally, the agencies largely catered to middle-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most British towns, catering to a working class clientèle looking for a cheap overseas beach holiday.
Since September 11, 2001 airlines have stopped giving commission to travel agencies in order to make up for growing cost in security. Therefore, travel agencies are now forced to charge a standard flat fee, per sale. However, companies still give them a set percentage for selling their product. Major tour companies can afford to do this because if they were to sell a thousand trips at a cheaper rate they still come out better than if they sell a hundred trips at a higher rate. This process benefits everyone.
Other commercial operations are undertaken, especially by the larger chains. These can include the sale of in-house insurance, travel guides and timetables, car rental, and the services of an on-site bureau de change dealing in the most popular holiday currencies.
The majority of travel agents have felt the need to protect themselves and their clients against the possibilities of commercial failure, either their own or a supplier. They will advertise the fact that they are bonded (posting a financial bond with an organisation). In the case of a failure, the customers are guaranteed either an equivalent holiday to that which they have lost, or (if they prefer) a refund. Many British agencies (and tour companies too) are bonded with IATA for those who issue their own tickets, ATOL for those who order tickets in, or ABTA for those who sell package holidays on behalf of a tour company.
Of course, a travel agent is supposed to offer impartial travel advice to the customer. This function almost disappeared with the mass-market package holiday, and some agency chains seemed to develop a 'holiday supermarket' concept, in which customers chose their holiday from brochures on racks and then booked it from a counter. However, a variety of social and economic changes have now contrived to bring this aspect to the fore once more, particularly the advent of multiple no-frills airlines.
The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts.
Independent Agencies usually cater for a special or niche market. Some cater to the needs of residents in an upmarket commuter town or suburb, or concentrate upon a particular area or group (catering to the travel needs of Polish expatriates, perhaps), or an activity such as sports(servicing the needs of football supporters).
There are 2 approaches of travel agents. One is the traditional multi-destination travel agent based in the originating location of the traveller and the other is the destination focussed travel agent that is based in the destination and delivers an expertise on that location. At present, the former is usually a larger operator like Thomas Cook while the latter is a smaller, often independent, operator like myguideTravel
Generally speaking, small or specialist tour companies do not sell their product through travel agents, since they could not afford to pay the rates of commission that would be demanded. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Independent agents might sell or take bookings for local tour companies (such as coach companies) or tour companies offering specialist holidays that fit into their target market.
Consequently, even before the advent of the internet, small niche tour companies ignored travel agents and sold direct to their customers.
Many travel agencies have developed an internet presence by posting a website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel technology solutions providers such as Travelocity, Patheo and Open Fares. These companies use travel service distribution companies who operate Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Sabre Holdings, Amadeus, Abaccus, Galileo and Worldspan, to provide up to the minute, detailed data on tens of thousands of flight, hotel, and car rental vacancies.
Some online travel sites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies for free. They often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and or proximity to a city or landmark.
Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies' financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency advice.
All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with numerous outside travel agents. Once the travel site sells a hotel, one of the supplying travel agents is contacted and will try to get a confirmation for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with the result. This means, that booking a hotel on a travel website will not get you an instant answer. Only some of the hotels on a travel website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly. Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Travelocity and Tripadvisor.
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Origins
The British company, Cox & Kings is sometimes said to be the oldest travel agent in the world, but this rests upon services that the original bank (established in 1758) supplied to its wealthy clients. However, the modern travel agent first appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thomas Cook, in addition to developing the package tour, established a chain of agencies in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in association with the Midland Railway. These not only sold their own tours to the public, but represented other tour companies. Other British pioneer agencies were Dean and Dawson, the Polytechnic Touring Association, and the Co-operative Wholesale Society.Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation starting in the 1920s. Originally, the agencies largely catered to middle-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most British towns, catering to a working class clientèle looking for a cheap overseas beach holiday.
Operations
As the name implies, their main function is to act as an agent, that is to say selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. Consequently, unlike other retail businesses, they do not keep a stock in hand. A package holiday or a ticket is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests that purchase. The holiday or ticket is supplied to them at a discount. The profit is therefore the difference between the advertised price which the customer pays and the discounted price at which it is supplied to the agent. This is known as the commission. A British travel agent would consider a 10-12% commission as a good arrangement.Since September 11, 2001 airlines have stopped giving commission to travel agencies in order to make up for growing cost in security. Therefore, travel agencies are now forced to charge a standard flat fee, per sale. However, companies still give them a set percentage for selling their product. Major tour companies can afford to do this because if they were to sell a thousand trips at a cheaper rate they still come out better than if they sell a hundred trips at a higher rate. This process benefits everyone.
Other commercial operations are undertaken, especially by the larger chains. These can include the sale of in-house insurance, travel guides and timetables, car rental, and the services of an on-site bureau de change dealing in the most popular holiday currencies.
The majority of travel agents have felt the need to protect themselves and their clients against the possibilities of commercial failure, either their own or a supplier. They will advertise the fact that they are bonded (posting a financial bond with an organisation). In the case of a failure, the customers are guaranteed either an equivalent holiday to that which they have lost, or (if they prefer) a refund. Many British agencies (and tour companies too) are bonded with IATA for those who issue their own tickets, ATOL for those who order tickets in, or ABTA for those who sell package holidays on behalf of a tour company.
Of course, a travel agent is supposed to offer impartial travel advice to the customer. This function almost disappeared with the mass-market package holiday, and some agency chains seemed to develop a 'holiday supermarket' concept, in which customers chose their holiday from brochures on racks and then booked it from a counter. However, a variety of social and economic changes have now contrived to bring this aspect to the fore once more, particularly the advent of multiple no-frills airlines.
Types of Agency
There are three different types of agencies: these are Multiples, Miniples and Independent Agencies. The former comprise a number of national chains, often owned by international conglomerates (Thomson Holidays is now a subsidiary of TUI, the German multinational)[1]. It is now quite common for the large mass-market tour companies to purchase a controlling interest in a chain of travel agencies, in order to control the distribution of their product. (This is an example of vertical integration.)The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts.
Independent Agencies usually cater for a special or niche market. Some cater to the needs of residents in an upmarket commuter town or suburb, or concentrate upon a particular area or group (catering to the travel needs of Polish expatriates, perhaps), or an activity such as sports(servicing the needs of football supporters).
There are 2 approaches of travel agents. One is the traditional multi-destination travel agent based in the originating location of the traveller and the other is the destination focussed travel agent that is based in the destination and delivers an expertise on that location. At present, the former is usually a larger operator like Thomas Cook while the latter is a smaller, often independent, operator like myguideTravel
Consolidators
Travel consolidators or wholesalers are high volume sales companies that are sometimes specialized in a niche. They may or may not offer various types of services at one single point of access. These can be for example hotel reservations, flights, or car-rental. Sometimes the services are combined into vacation packages that include transfer to the location and lodging. These companies do not usually sell directly to the public but act as fulfillment for retail companies. As the travel industry has changed we see more and more consolidators selling directly to the public. The sole purpose of wholesalers is to sell ethnic niches in the travel industry. There is no consolidator that offers everything. All travel companies can sell you whatever you may be looking for but they only have contracted rates to specific destinations. Today there are no domestic consolidators with some exceptions for business class contracts.Criticisms
Travel agencies have been accused of employing a number of restrictive practices, the chief of which is known as 'racking'. This is the practice of only displaying the brochures of those travel companies whose holidays they wish to sell, the ones that pay them the most commission. Of course, the average customer tends to think that these are the only holidays on offer, and are unaware of possible alternatives.Generally speaking, small or specialist tour companies do not sell their product through travel agents, since they could not afford to pay the rates of commission that would be demanded. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Independent agents might sell or take bookings for local tour companies (such as coach companies) or tour companies offering specialist holidays that fit into their target market.
Consequently, even before the advent of the internet, small niche tour companies ignored travel agents and sold direct to their customers.
The Internet threat
With the advent of general public access to the internet, many airlines and other travel companies began to sell directly to passengers. As a consequence, airlines no longer needed to pay the commissions to travel agents on each ticket sold. Since 1997, travel agencies gradually became victims of disintermediation, the reduction in costs caused by removing layers from the package holiday distribution network.[2][3]Many travel agencies have developed an internet presence by posting a website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel technology solutions providers such as Travelocity, Patheo and Open Fares. These companies use travel service distribution companies who operate Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Sabre Holdings, Amadeus, Abaccus, Galileo and Worldspan, to provide up to the minute, detailed data on tens of thousands of flight, hotel, and car rental vacancies.
Some online travel sites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies for free. They often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and or proximity to a city or landmark.
Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies' financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency advice.
All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with numerous outside travel agents. Once the travel site sells a hotel, one of the supplying travel agents is contacted and will try to get a confirmation for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with the result. This means, that booking a hotel on a travel website will not get you an instant answer. Only some of the hotels on a travel website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly. Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Travelocity and Tripadvisor.
Careers
With the many people switching to self-service internet websites, the number of available jobs as travel agents is decreasing. Most jobs that become available are from older travel agents retiring. Counteracting the decrease in jobs due to internet services is the increase in the number of people travelling. Since 1995, many travel agents have exited the industry, and relatively few young people have entered the field due to less competitive salaries.[4] However, others have abandoned the "brick and mortar" agency for a home-based business to reduce overheads, and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel products such as cruise lines and train excursions, or by promoting their ability to aggressively research and assemble complex travel packages on a moment's notice (essentially acting as a very advanced concierge).Cargo
A small number of companies work with cargo airlines and ships which are connected to cargo business.References
1. ^ BBC Article, Consolidation in Travel Industry
2. ^ Angela Andal-Ancion, Phillip A. Cartwright and George S. Yip (2003). The digital transformation of traditional businesses (HTML). MIT Sloan Management Review: Vol 44, no. 4 p. 34-41. Retrieved on July 14, 2003.
3. ^ Marian Edmunds. "A wake-up call for the industry: As competition intensifies, online and mobile technologies offer huge opportunities across all sectors of the travel business", Financial Times, March 13, 2002, p. 10.
4. ^ Rebecca Tobi. "Wanted: young agents! Are young people shying away from careers in travel? Agents and travel school operators say yes. Look around your agency—see any young faces?", Travel Weekly Vol 61, no. 43, 28 October, 2002, p. 148-149.
2. ^ Angela Andal-Ancion, Phillip A. Cartwright and George S. Yip (2003). The digital transformation of traditional businesses (HTML). MIT Sloan Management Review: Vol 44, no. 4 p. 34-41. Retrieved on July 14, 2003.
3. ^ Marian Edmunds. "A wake-up call for the industry: As competition intensifies, online and mobile technologies offer huge opportunities across all sectors of the travel business", Financial Times, March 13, 2002, p. 10.
4. ^ Rebecca Tobi. "Wanted: young agents! Are young people shying away from careers in travel? Agents and travel school operators say yes. Look around your agency—see any young faces?", Travel Weekly Vol 61, no. 43, 28 October, 2002, p. 148-149.
Bibliography
Renshaw, M B (1997), The Travel Agent, 2nd edition, Business Education Publishers Ltd, SunderlandSee also
A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday.
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airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit.
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hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare.
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Tour Companies
Tour companies are generally companies owned and operated by transportation entities which can easily transport travelers.Increased Business for Transportation Companies
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A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines have a dual character; they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business, a duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the
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Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists
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Cox & Kings is the longest established travel company in the world, its history stretching back to 1758 when Richard Cox was appointed as regimental agent to the Foot Guards.
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Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, founded the travel agency that is now Thomas Cook AG. He was brought up as a strict Baptist and joined his local Temperance Society.
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Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1844 to 1922 when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
Initially, the MR's main line, now known as the Midland Main Line, connected the East Midlands to London and to
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Initially, the MR's main line, now known as the Midland Main Line, connected the East Midlands to London and to
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Lunn Poly was the largest chain of travel agents in the United Kingdom. The company originated from two successful travel agencies which had been established in 1890s; The Polytechnic Touring Association and Sir Henry Lunn Travel.
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A Co-operative Wholesale Society, or CWS, is a form of Co-operative Federation (that is, a Co-operative in which all the members are Co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually Consumers' Co-operatives.
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Agent in Commercial Law is a person who is authorised to act on behalf of another (called the Principal) to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Section 182 of the [Indian] Contract Act, 1882 defines Agent as “a person employed to do any act for another or to
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discounting is the process of finding the present value of an amount of cash at some future date, and along with compounding cash forms the basis of time value of money calculations.
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For the television series, see Profit (TV series)
Profit generally is the making of gain in business activity for the benefit of the owners of the business...... Click the link for more information.
Commission may refer to:
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- Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered
- Ship commissioning, placing a warship in active military duty
- Commissioned officer, who derive authority directly from a sovereign power
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timetable or schedule is an organized list or schedule, usually set out in tabular form, providing information about a series of arranged events: in particular, the time at which it is planned these events will take place.
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car rental, rent-a-car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time (ranging from a few hours to a few weeks) for a fee. It is an elaborate form of a rental shop, organized in numerous local branches, primarily located near airports
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A bureau de change is an organisation or facility which allows customers to exchange one currency for another. Although French in origin, the term is widely used throughout Europe, so that visitors can easily identify such facilities when abroad.
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A surety bond is a contract among at least three parties:
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- The principal - the primary party who will be performing a contractual obligation
- The obligee - the party who is the recipient of the obligation, and
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International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the ICAO also happens to be headquartered, even though they are different entities.
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The Association of British Travel Agents, commonly abbreviated to ABTA, is a trade organization of British travel agents, founded in 1950.
As of May 2005, it has 6310 Travel Agent members, and 1052 Tour Operator members; 85% of package holidays in the United Kingdom
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As of May 2005, it has 6310 Travel Agent members, and 1052 Tour Operator members; 85% of package holidays in the United Kingdom
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Thomson Holidays is a UK based travel operator and part of TUI Travel PLC. The company was founded as part of the Thomson Travel Group in 1965 following the acquisition of three package holiday travel agencies and the airline Britannia Airways by Roy Thomson.
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As a noun, Tui can mean:
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- Tu'i (or Tui), a title of nobility in Polynesia and some of Melanesia
- Tui (bird), a bird endemic to New Zealand
- Tui, Galicia, a town in Galicia, Pontevedra, Spain
- Tui (beer), a brand of New Zealand beer produced by Tui Breweries
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In microeconomics and managing management, the term vertical integration describes a style of ownership and control. The degree to which a firm owns its upstream suppliers and its downstream buyers determines how vertically integrated it is.
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A niche market also known as a target market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector.
By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.
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By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.
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Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, founded the travel agency that is now Thomas Cook AG. He was brought up as a strict Baptist and joined his local Temperance Society.
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A term used in antitrust law that includes such conduct as price fixing, market sharing, monopolizing, or attempting to monopolize markets.
The Term "Restrictive Trade Practic" as defined under Section 2(o) means a trade practice which has or may have the effect
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References
The Term "Restrictive Trade Practic" as defined under Section 2(o) means a trade practice which has or may have the effect
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Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government
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