Travel Agency: The Work Areas

Travel and tourism is one of the worlds largest industries which is fascinating with its aura of international glamour, excitement, and romance. Like any business the travel and tourism industry must match its offering to prospective buyers. Constantly changing air fares and schedules, and a proliferation of vacation packages make travel planning difficult and time consuming. Consequently, travelers often turn to TRAVEL AGENTS for assistance in making the best travel arrangements who assess their needs and help them make the best possible travel arrangements. Travel agents encourage people to travel and help them plan and prepare for the trip. They help clients define their travel interests and needs, including time and budget requirements. They work out tentative plans and suitable alternatives and then make all the arrangements. MAJOR WORK AREAS OF TRAVEL AGENTS The gamut of travel agents services include a vast array of arrangements that a traveler would require on a trip. Since the tour can be domestic or international, the agents have to provide multifold services. Travel agents may book clients on cruises and tours; organize group tours and design trips for individuals. Travel agents consult a variety of published and computer-based sources for information on departure and arrival times, economical fares, car rentals, and hotel ratings and accommodations. Sources include maps, official guides, tariff books, computer terminals, and other reference materials to obtain schedules, fares, and related information. Agents make airline, hotel, and car reservations. They make the reservations and issue itineraries using computerized reservation and ticketing systems similar to those used by airlines. They also compute costs and take deposits. Ticket Agents can customize a vacation or travel plan by arranging special accommodations, adapting a schedule to fit

client needs, and designing group packages and tours. Agents inform clients about customs regulations, passports, visas, immunization requirements, and currency exchange rates. They offer tips on climate, prices, what to bring or buy, and attractions worth seeing. They keep up-to-date by traveling, reading travel publications, and attending industry seminars and trade shows. Travel agents may specialize in one region or in one form of transportation. Similary, it is not mandatory for every agent to provide all the above services. The range of these services vary from agent to agent. Depending upon the size and areas of operation, the services may vary. Putting it in other words, one travel agent may specialize in tour packages for outbound clients and thus, he may be into the provision of all the outbound travel services that would be required by the passenger like air ticket, hotel arrangements, visa, currency exchange etc. At the same time, not these services are expected to be provided by an Inbound and a domestic tour operator. In general, travel agents give advice on destinations and make arrangements for transportation, hotel accommodations, car rentals, tours, and recreation. They also may advise on weather conditions, restaurants, tourist attractions, and recreation. For international travel, agents also provide information on customs regulations, required papers (passports, visas, and certificates of vaccination), and currency exchange rates.

Broadly, we can understand that the specific tasks of a travel agent in general may include:

Talking with customers to determine destination, travel dates, financial considerations, and other preferences Consulting a variety of published and computer-based sources for information on departure and arrival times, fares, and hotel ratings and accommodations Selling travel package tours

Providing travel information such as weather conditions, restaurants, recreation, and tourist attractions Making train, ship, plane, and hotel reservations Visiting hotels, resorts, and restaurants to evaluate their comfort, cleanliness, and the quality of food and service Proving ancillary travel services like passport, visa, currency exchange, Travel insurance policies etc. Using telemarketing, direct mail, and the Internet to promote their services

Nature of the Work

Also, many major cruise lines, resorts, and specialty travel groups use travel agents to promote travel packages to millions of people every year. They may visit hotels, resorts, and restaurants to evaluate comfort, cleanliness, and quality of food and service so that they can base recommendations on their own travel experiences or those of colleagues or clients. Travel agents also promote their services, using telemarketing, direct mail, and the Internet. They make presentations to social and specialinterest groups, arrange advertising displays, and suggest companysponsored trips to business managers. Depending on the size of the travel agency, an agent may specialize by type of travel, such as leisure or business, or destination, such as Europe or Africa. FUNCTIONS OF A TRAVEL AGENCY/AGENT The functions of a travel agency/agent depend on the size of, and the scope of activities that the agency takes up, such as: The retail travel agent provides a direct link between the customer and the suppliers of the tourist services. He sells on behalf of the actual producers of the tourist service and gets the commission. The functions of a travel agent depend on the size of, and the scope of activities that the agency takes up. It can be stated as follows:i. Provision of travel information A travel agent provides

information relating to the destination, climate, modes of travel available, prices, timetable, visa, currency etc. to the people who wish to travel. The travel agent is a personal counsellor or psychologist. He should have an excellent knowledge of various travel alternate plans; give up to-date and accurate information regarding various services and information about travel. He should try to understand the needs and the interests of the customer e.g. in case of the age group of the travellers, social class. ii. Preparation of itineraries A travel agent not only sells a package tour but may also prepares different itineraries for varying demands of travellers suiting their motivations e.g. holiday, business. It requires perfect organization of both technical and practical facts. iii. Preparing package tours A travel agent may sell preprepared package tours prepared by a tour operator for a commission or may prepare his own package as per the requirements of the customer. When he sells a package on behalf of the wholesale tour operator he gets a certain commission. Travel agents commonly prepare packages and promote places that sell easily and the profit margin is high, e.g. Goa, Shimla, Hawaii, Malaysia etc. To prepare a practical itinerary, travel agents need to travel to these places. Some times the promoters provide a FAM tour to the travel agents so that they may see the new destinations. iv. Tours and excursions Travel agencies offer readymade tours and tailor made packages for GIT or an individual. Travel agencies or ground operators have their own tourist coaches and cars and offer regular sightseeing tours at fixed prices. The trips are costed per seat depending on the type of vehicle. Excursion tours include lunches, local entertainment, overnight accommodation where required. Some government and state bodies also offer coaches or transport for excursions e.g. ITDC Indian Tourism Development Corporation. v. Ticketing The scope of the job of a travel agent also involves booking and reserving an air seat on the Computerised reservation system and an IATA approved travel agency is authorized for the issuance of air ticket as well.

Selling tickets and getting reservations for the different modes of travel or in the accommodation sector requires a lot of awareness and a thorough knowledge of the schedules and an addition of new schedules making the job of the agent a constant challenge. CRS has made reservations much easier now. This software provides all the information required by the agent in terms of fares, schedules, new inclusions, status of the traveller etc so that he may be able to give a definite answer to a client without a waste of them. Computerisation has also made possible the payment of these services with more ease through the use of credit cards. vi. Insurance Agencies offer insurance policies for accident risks and of baggage loss or damage. Air transportation automatically includes insurance for the passengers but most hotels do not provide these covers. The travel agent offers these policies to the [passenger to make him feel secure and safe and offer a protection against any losses while travelling. vii. Provision of foreign currencies Travel agents either help the traveller or provide complete services for the provision of travellers cheque, foreign currency. This saves a lot of time and energy for the client by avoiding visits to the bank. viii. Works as a handling Agency They provide services at the destination only but do not make arrangements for transportation to and from the destination. The handling agency manages inbound tourists and makes all their arrangements of sightseeing accommodation, transfers and guides at the destination on behalf of some other travel agent. ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO A TRAVEL AGENT Earnings of travel agents depend mainly on commissions from airlines and other carriers, cruise lines, tour operators, and lodging places. Commissions for domestic travel arrangements, cruises, hotels, sightseeing tours, and car rentals are about 10-20% percent of the total sale, and for international travel, about 7 percent. Travel agents may also charge clients a service fee for the time and expense involved in planning a trip. Intangible gains to travel agents include benefits in travel for personal

reasons since agents usually get reduced rates for transportation and accommodation. In addition, agents sometimes take "familiarization" trips, at no cost to themselves, to learn about various vacation sites. These benefits attract many people to this occupation. Sources of Income Travel Agents Provide Services on behalf of Suppliers e.g. Airlines, Railways, Hotels, Surface Transporters, Shipping Lines etc.The Agent makes commission from the transactions on behalf of customers though customer pays the same price as advertise by the Principals/Suppliers. The travel Agent/Tour operator is not allowed to charge Service charges for which commission is paid by the suppliers/Principals JOB OUTLOOK Travel agents organize and schedule business, educational, or recreational travel or activities. Other employment opportunities with similar responsibilities include tour guides, meeting planners, airline reservation agents, rental car agents, and travel counselors. Employment of travel agents is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through 2010. Many job openings will arise as new agencies open and existing agencies expand. New developments will continue to limit the need for travel agents. The Internet increasingly allows people to access travel information from their personal computers, enabling them to research and plan their own trips, make their own reservations and travel arrangements, and purchase their own tickets. Further, suppliers of travel services now are able to make their services available through other means, such as electronic ticketing machines and remote ticket printers. Also, airline companies have put a limit on the amount of commissions they will pay to travel agencies, reducing revenues. However, many consumers still will prefer to use a professional travel agent to ensure reliability, to save time, and, in some cases, money. Projected employment growth stems from increased spending on tourism and business travel over the next decade. With rising household incomes, smaller families, and an increasing number of older people who are more likely to travel, more people are expected to travel on vacationand to do so more frequentlythan in the past.

Business travel also offers vast opportunity for growth as business activity expands. Further, managerial, professional, and sales occupations are projected to be among the fastest growing, and people in these occupations do the most business travel. A variety of other factors will also lead to greater business for travel agents. For example, charter flights and larger, more efficient planes have brought air transportation within the budgets of more people, and the easing of regulations on air fares and routes has fostered greater competition among airlines, resulting in more affordable service. Also, travel agents are often able to offer various travel packages at a substantial discount. Although most travel agencies now have automated reservation systems, this has not weakened demand for travel agents. Some developments, however, may reduce job opportunities for travel agents in the future. The travel industry is sensitive to economic downturns and international political crises, affecting the decisions to travel. The Internet also has increasingly allowed people to access travel information from their personal computers and make their own travel arrangements. Further, suppliers of travel services now make their services available through other means, such as electronic ticketing machines and remote ticket printers. Airline companies have lately put a cap on the amount of commissions they are willing to pay to travel agencies. The full effect of these practices, though, have yet to be determined, since a number of consumers will still prefer to use a professional travel agent to ensure reliability and to save time and, in some cases, money. ORGANISATION/DEPARTMENTS OF A TRAVEL AGENCY A travel agency may have all or some of the following departments depending on the diversity of its functions and the importance of their requirement. i. Planning Section Looks after the organizational planning of fares and costing. Feasible itinerary, planning and survey for practicalities. ii. Operations Section This section runs the tours. Under this

comes the arrangement to be made for the availability of buses, coaches, contracts with hotels, carriers, as well as the meet and greet department which is deputed for receiving and dropping off tourists and guides etc. iii. Promotion & Public Relations Looks after the marketing for the agency. They research and survey new markets and incorporate these into their itineraries. They are then presented to the target market with the right means of advertising/frequency. iv. Outbound Sales For the outbound travellers, arrangements have to be made with ground operators at the place of destination. All information required should be acquired and presented to the client as well as all the bookings/reservation/arrangements for the client should be made through the ground operator for a confirmed status. v. Accounts Deals with foreign currencies, payments, rates of exchange of different currencies, exchange control regulations, collection of payments and receipts, etc. vi. Research Collects and analyses the data and literature available for various destinations. Looks into the possibilities of including a destination into an itinerary as an excursion/ stopover/ destination. The facilities available at a destination and how they can be best adapted to the itinerary. Broadly, on the basis of the multifarious functions of a travel agency, we can classify the different departments into the two major facets i.e

1. Sales 2. Operations
SALES The front office of a travel agency works as a sales team to handle the queries of walk-in customers as well as those who contact the travel professional over the phone.

It is the front office/desk which serves as a first point of contact for all the prospective travelers coming to a travel agency for certain travel needs. They provide the information regarding various travel services required by the customers, guide and direct them about various destinations, handle their queries and finally convert the query into a booking. Thus, the front desk executives work as the counter sales executives of the travel agencies as they sell the travel packages and other services relate to travel without going out of the office. Thus, the sales department can be divided into two parts:1. Counter Sales As the name suggests, this department is the mirror of the organisation which is entrusted with the task of providing travel Information to the clients. Such information can be provided over the telephone as well as to the walk-in customers. Putting it other way round, this department acts as a Client handling unit of the agency. 2. Field sales Unlike the Counter Sales, this particular department is responsible for generating the chunk of business to the travel agency. The thin line of difference between these two departments of one single organisation is the fact that Counter sales have to contribute to the kitty of the agency while sitting in the office premises itself. On the other hand, the field sales force has to do the same with prior appointments with the clients and meeting them at a place as per the convenience of the latter. OPERATIONS/BACK OFFICE As it is evident from the name itself, the operations department of any organization is responsible for processing the bookings and handle

the documentation related to every individual client of the company. Similarly, in a travel agency, the operations team is accountable for making travel arrangements for the booked passengers of the organization. In other words, the clients first come in contact with the sales team of the travel agency and then the same clients are handed over to the operations team. Till the time the client is not convinced with the tour product being offered to him in response to his query, he is the responsibility of the sales people. The moment he gets convinced, and he becomes a booked passenger by filling up a booking form and paying some booking amount as an advance, as per the company norms, his overall travel needs are taken care of by the operations team. Generally, a medium/big size travel agency has following divisions under the operations department:1. Reservations (Booking of hotels/other services) The job of the reservations department entails the booking of the accommodation and making other travel arrangements required by the traveler at the destination viz the sightseeing, guide services and transfers from airport to the hotel and back. 2. Ticketing counter (International/Domestic) It is not mandatory for every travel agency to indulge itself into the ticketing operations. Travel agencies with a large network of ticketing clientele have a separate ticketing division as a part of the operations department. This separate ticketing counter caters to the needs of ticketing clients. Depending upon the size and operations, a travel agency can have either the domestic ticketing only or both domestic as well as international ticketing. However, this may be noted that the ticketing counter works as both the ticket reservations counter and the tickets issuance counter.

There can be some travel agencies which do not have the authority to have a stock of the ticket and issue them on behalf of airlines whereas they have the rights to search and block an air seat on the prevailing Computersied reservation systems like Galileo, Amadeus etc. Such travel agencies are called Non-IATA travel agencies. IATA is an organization which regulates the air transport (Passenger as well as cargo) and tourist traffic worldwide and works as a link between the airlines and the travel agents. Besides, IATA also lays down certain rules and regulations which authorize a travel agency to become eligible for maintaining a stock of the domestic and international tickets and issue them. Thus, it is only an IATA approved travel agency which can have a separate ticketing counter for both the reservations and issuance of an air ticket. This is to be understood that there are travel agencies which may specialize only into ticketing and thus, for such organizations, it is mandatory to be IATA approved if they like to issue the tickets on their own. The ticketing division of a non-IATA travel agency handles the ticketing queries of the customers, informs and guides them about the routes, the availability of the seats through a search on the CRS, quotes air fares and blocks the air seats as per the availability. Their job ends with the confirmation and reconfirmation of the blocked seats and getting the tickets issued from an IATA agent. 3. Accounts The accounts department deals with the monetary aspect and the financial transactions of the booked clients. Right from the time the advance booking payment is collected from the booked passenger by the sales department, till the time the full balance amount is collected, the accounts department is on its toes holding the booking file in its grip. Meaning thereby that it is the accounts department which generates

the bills and invoices of the total tour payment made by the client and thus maintains the financial records of every individual client booked and traveled with a travel agency. In addition, some companies also maintain daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or yearly sales reports through the coordination between the accounts and sales department in order to evaluate the total net earnings of the organisation based on various aspects. This may be however concluded that not all the travel agencies in the trade have the above mechanism of sales and operations of their tours. There are some small time agencies which are handling their complete sales and operations as one man show as well. Yet, the structure of an organized medium/big size travel agency generally entails the above process where the separate divisions work together for delivering a single product by imparting the total satisfaction of the client. TRAVEL TRADE THE MAJOR INDUSTRY PLAYERS IN INDIA Thomas Cook Cox & Kings SOTC (Kuoni & SITA) TCI (Transport corporation of India) American Express International Travel House makemytrip.com ebookers.com Delhi express Trade wings Travel services International Mercury travels Paradise Holidays SOME AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION IN TRAVEL WORLD Travel agents may specialize in foreign or domestic service, leisure or business travel, specific geographical areas, individual or group travel, airplane charters, or package tours.

Leisure vacation travel counselors help customers with leisure travel plans, and advise them on all their travel needs, including hotel accommodations and airline, cruise, tour, package and car reservations.Corporate travel specialists assist business travelers. Many corporate agents arrange special meeting fares to a city for a discount. Group travel planners work exclusively with groups. The planner works with the tour leader in planning the itinerary and making all arrangements for the group, including group sightseeing and any other arrangements the group wants.Meeting and incentive planners work with businesses in planning company meetings and/or conventions. Hence, it all depends upon what are you as a travel agent specialize in, and thus your work will be based on what your clientele is, what segment of market you target at. In short, it can be concluded that the work areas of a travel agent include almost everything that a traveler requires. The rule of the travel trade says that never say no to a customer for any service even if you are not in a business of providing the same, Since, travel; agents are middlemen, they can provide any such travel service that may be required by a particular tourist which a travel agent originally does not have in his area of operations. In such a case, he will act as a middleman between the actual producer of that service and the customer and get his commission, yet pleasing the customer by never saying a No. In the world of One Stop Travel Shops, the consumer wants everything in one travel agency and thus, this is what the travel agents strive for in order to raise their incomes substantially through the earning of various commissions gained by the sales of various services. PRE-REQUISITES FOR THE EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS OF A TRAVEL AGENCY *Dedicated, personalized support

*Latest data management systems *Creative options for cost-effective travel, whether for individual or group, business or leisure *Quality assurance *Regular staff training *An attentive, dedicated and focused owner *Customer satisfaction With the changing scenario the role of the travel agent has also changed tremendously. The burgeoning travelers are becoming more dependent on the travel agencies for all their travel needs. Due to the increased disposable income, the traveler of today doesnt mind paying extra to a travel agent for his individual services but looks for the best of the packet which allows him to relish the trip comfortably without undergoing any sort of hassles. Thus, a travel agent has to make a cutting edge for himself by providing exclusive travel services in order to stand out and survive in this highly competitive travel world.