Product Design of a Travel Agency

Role of a travel agency is to perform as an intermediary between the producers and consumers of tourism services. Suppliers in tourism industry such as airlines, tourist transport operators, tour operators, hotels etc work with travel agency for distribution of their services. Tourists also avail the services of travel agency for buying the services of the major suppliers. This does not mean that the travel agencies follow the strategies of the principal suppliers for marketing purposes. They have to chalk out their own strategy for promoting themselves.

Travel agencies make effort to add value to the products/services of the major suppliers. They go for their own market research to set the target market. They have to decide on discounts or service charges and finalise their product mix as well as sales and promotional strategies.

Understanding the Market
A travel agency has to take decision which market segment to target. The prospective market needs to be properly segmented. This segmentation could be done on the basis of the motive of travel or their budget. Timing of the travel decisions or services required by the customers could also be the base of segmentation. A customer could require services like tour packages, travel consultancy, ticket booking, handle travel documents (visa, passports etc), airport transfers, hotel bookings etc.

Product Design
Travel agency business is more or less confined to sole proprietorship or partnership firms. Majority of businesses are of small level. A travel agency has to decide on the target market, determine on customer requirements and generate ideas to develop the product. One also has to do the business analysis considering costs, estimate future sales, and profit potential.

A travel agency could have product oriented or market oriented approach in the business. It could emphasise on products and services of tourism supply, disregarding customer needs. However, in a multi-player market, this approach will not work. A market oriented approach would always be better for an agency. It must look at the customer needs and accordingly design its products. Market survey has to be conducted to understand the customer needs and get information about the practices of other agencies. Only when a manager knows about market needs, he can take a decision on the product design of the company. For example, services provided to walk-in customers could be different than those offered to repeat customers.

Dinesh Patairya has been writing on tourism for several online and offline publications for years. He is currently working for a project on Phuket [http://www.yourasianvacations.com/thailand/phuket/index.html] with YourAsianVacations.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dinesh_Patairya

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Use a Travel Agency to Book Your Spring Break Vacation

Instead of deal directly with the airlines, has it ever occurred to you to use a good travel agency to book your spring break vacation? Airlines will quote you fares and book your flights, but that’s as far as they go. A travel agency can offer discounted fares, advice on spring break destinations, and may have a great deal or two for you and your friends. Spring break is barely two months away, so now is the ideal time to start looking for a travel agency.

If airlines are offering huge discounts to lure money-weary individuals into traveling, imagine the larger discounts that a travel agency can offer. Since travel agents purchase blocks of seats, they can pass on the savings to their customers.

There are numerous travel agencies, but there is only a fraction of those agencies that cater to the special needs of the student travel industry. Although you can use any travel agency to book your spring break vacation, why not choose a travel agency that specializes in student tours and spring break vacation?

Looking for the Right Travel Agency: Tips

Before you book your next spring break vacation, the travel agency must satisfy certain requirements. You may want to look into the following criteria:

· Full Description of Services – Does the travel agency introduce itself adequately to potential customers? Do they have contact numbers, student packages, discount programs, and do they explain the procedures for their spring break packages as well as clearly state their refund policy?

· Variety – Does the travel agency have a wide range of destination choices and do they have hotel categories that meet all budgets? Some travel agencies like to specialize in a certain number of destinations – USA, Canada, or Mexico; some cover the world! When travel agencies can book spring break vacations almost anywhere in the world, that means that they’ve been in the student travel industry long enough and are confident that they can offer far away and exotic destinations without any problems because they belong to a large network of travel professionals;

· Discounts and Deals – Does the travel agency extend discounts for group travel or do they have frequent hot deals to offer? The capability to offer great deals can mean any number of things: they have good relationships with major airlines, hotels and tourist organizations, they receive discounted rates from suppliers and they in turn offer these to student travelers, or they are booking so many flights and vacation packages that they earn free points or free miles. You could be offered a deal to the Bahamas, your destination of choice, because the travel agency happened to receive a deal from a Bahamas tour operator at the time you booked!

· Photographs – Wouldn’t it be nice to see what you are getting into? If you are going to a spring break destination for the first time, you would want to know what kind of hotel you’re staying at, wouldn’t you? It isn’t enough for the travel agency to say, “You’re booked at a 4-star hotel”. You’ll want to know the name and location of that hotel so you can look it up on the Internet or ask people about it, plus you’ll want to see the rooms, dining facilities, and recreational facilities. Some travelers have been dismayed to find out that the hotel had only one treadmill, as opposed to what the travel agency described as a “full operating gym”. Or that the travel agency said 12 tennis courts, when in fact the hotel did not have any, referring travelers instead to a sports center a mile away!

· Interactive web site –Instead of spending precious minutes on the phone asking the travel agent about destinations, packages and vacation amenities, it would be simpler to do the search yourself on their web site by giving you the option to select a city and a package. When you’ve found what you’re looking for, that is when you call and ask for details that weren’t covered on their web site.

· Flexibility – some travel agents require you to pay for their packaged vacations to be able to receive discounts, but some travel agents are flexible in that they allow you to choose only air, or only hotel, or both.

A good travel agency is well organized. This important trait is evident in the way they present travel information. For example, there are websites that are designed to specifically cater to students. They list the cities they serve with a brief article about popular attractions and then you click on a link and the screen displays what their package covers plus costs for the city you selected.

So if you’re using a travel agency to book your spring break vacation, look for an agency that’s efficient, organized and capable of offing some fantastic deals.

Jeremy Foster is a blogger and freelance writer who focuses on the travel industry and vacation tips, often discussing a particular aspect of the travel industry such as working with travel agents.

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Starting A Cruise Travel Agency

For people who love to travel, starting a travel agency specializing in cruises can be very exciting. Earning a living by talking about your cruise experiences and helping direct less experienced cruisers to the right vacation can be very rewarding. Many people are also attracted to the travel discounts you can receive by becoming a member of the International Airline Travel Agency Network (IATAN). Membership is available after earning $5,000 in commissions during the previous 12 month period.

It takes a little while to build your business. Great customer service and knowledge of the business are key ingredients to a successful career. Cruise lines tend to specialize to certain types of people. Some appeal to older crowds, others have many activities for children, while look for more active cruisers by providing more daytime activities on the ship or nighttime entertainment choices. One of the best ways to gain a lot of customers quickly is to sell a group trip. Join local groups, religious organizations, college alumni programs, etc.

Cruise lines typically pay commissions of 12% - 15% of the base fare. This excludes charges for port taxes and government fees. Additional money can be made by selling travel insurances where commissions are much higher, selling tours while your clients are on land and booking airfare and transportation to the airport or port. If your clients take travel insurance, they will be covered in case of delays, lost luggage or sickness, which will reduce your chances of having an unhappy customer.

As with any upstart business, you need to control expenses. A cruise travel agency can be operated right out of your home with the majority of work done through the telephone or internet. Cruise tickets can be sent by messengers to your clients. One of your more important and higher expenses will be the Errors and Omission Insurance Policy. This will protect you from mistakes during the booking process or from errors in printed materials or advertising.

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How to Pick a Travel Agent

You will find that there is a lot of time and effort that has to go into planning a vacation. You will want to get airline tickets, hotel reservations, and make up a itinerary. You will find that it can be too much for someone. You will want to get the help of a travel agency.

The agency will help arrange, but you still should do your own researches so that you have an idea of what you would like. If you think about hiring a travel agent to help you plan your vacation, you will want to look around on that too. You will want to get the best person for the job so that you can make the most for your money.

As for the benefits that you will see from picking to deal with a travel agency, you will want to keep in mind that it will make things go a lot smoother in the end. In the end you will find that they will help you to get some of the special deals that will make your budget work for you.

You will be able to get the special deals for things like the airfares, reservations, and maybe even dinner tickets. You will be able to find bargains where you, yourself, couldn't. You will find that the travel agency will help show you how convenient that traveling could be and should be. You will want to get a travel agency to plan all of your vacations once you see just how much they work for you.

If you would like to find a good travel agent to help work with you, you will first want to rely on the word of the ear. Ask some of your family and friends to help you to find an agent or agency that is known to work for you and your budget, not work against your opinion and budget. You may also want to go online and find someone locally. You will also want to take inconsideration what some of the other customers are saying. Remember, if they really liked the travel agency then you will spread the word around town, however, if you didn't like them, you'll tell anyone and everyone who asks about the agency.

You will also want to keep in mind that there are some travel agencies that work as part of the American Society of Travel Agents. You will want to think about the members of this society because they will have all the experience that is needed to make a great vacation.

You will want to make sure that you check out some of the references before you choose the travel agent. When you check out the references they will tell you rather or not you have had a good time with their arrangements and that will give you an idea of rather or not to use the agent.

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