CLASS XII (SESSION 2022- 2023)

SUBJECT: TOURISM (806)

CHAPTER 2: OPERATIONS OF TRAVEL AGENCY
OBJECTIVES:
This document of this chapter will explain the following topics:
• Role, functions and responsibilities of Agent and Travel Agencies
• Ticketing- fare calculation
• Documentation- packaging tour
INTRODUCTION:
• The role of Tour Operators has been changed from the early days when Thomas Cook
first organized the package trip by Rail in 1840s.
• A tour operator will organize, package together different elements of the tourism
experience and offer them for sale to the public through advertisement and using ICT.
❖ This package will involve a stay of more than 24 hours in overnight accommodation.
ROLE OF AGENT & TRAVEL AGENCY:
• An agent is a person acting for, or employed by, the principal Company. If a company
appoints another person to act for it in the course of business, that person becomes the
agent, his tenure and salary can be conditional.
✓ In this context, one thing is very important about the travel agency that provides tourism
related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise
lines, hotels, railways, and package tours.
✓ In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists most travel agencies have a separate
department devoted to making travel arrangements for business travelers and some travel
agencies specialize in commercial and business travel only.
✓ There are also travel agencies that serve as general sales agents for foreign travel
companies, allowing them to have offices in the country.
ORIGIN OF TRAVEL AGENCY:
• The British company Cox & Kings is sometimes said to be the oldest travel agency in the
world, but this rests upon the services that the original bank, established in 1758, supplied
to its wealthy clients.
• The modern travel agency first appeared in the first half of 19th century.

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 • Thomas Cook, in addition to developing the package tour, established a chain in
association with the midland railway.
• Other British pioneer travel agencies were Dean & Dawson, the Polytechnic Touring
Association and the Co-operative Wholesale Society.
• The oldest travel agency in North America is Brownell Travel; established on July 4,
1887.
• Travel agencies became more common place with the development of commercial
aviation, starting in the 1920s.
• Travel agencies largely catered to middle and upper class customers who want to enjoy
their holidays in attractive packages.
OPERATIONS OF TRAVEL AGENCY:
• A travel agency’s main function is to act as an agent, selling travel products and services
on behalf of the supplier.
• They don’t keep the stock in hand.
• A package holiday or a ticket is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests
that purchase. That ticket supply to them at discount
• This discounted price at which it is supplied to the agent. This is known as the
commission.
• In many countries, companies that sell tickets are required to be licensed as a travel
agent. In some countries, airlines have stopped giving commission to travel agencies.
Insurance: 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’s. They will
advertise the fact that they are surety bonded, meaning in the case of a failure, the customers are
guaranteed to get their refund.
ORGANISATIONS OF TRAVEL AGENCIES:
• The organization based on two basic principles:
1. Good quality customer service; &
2. Management.
• In terms of management, controlling costs, ensuring highly motivated staffs are employed
and building upon a customer base through word of mouth are all critical.

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 • Not only do travel agency staff need technical skills in reading timetables, calculating
fares and an ability to write tickets, they also need good interpersonal skills in closing a
sale and in being able to use technology (e.g. CRS).
• Agents also need to be able to explain the growing complexity of air fares and the
conditions attached to them in simple, plain English.
A HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE REQUIRED IN TRAVEL AGENCY:
Hence Travel Agent must be possessed the following qualities:

Customers must
be greeted warmly
with a smile.

Staff must ensure high Staff must ensure their

standards of dress, alertness and
appearance and personal attentiveness towards
grooming and body customers.
language.

Staff must be polite and Telephones must be

hold on lingua franca. answered promptly
and courteously.

Types of Travel Agencies in Different places:

There are three different types of agencies in the UK: multiples, miniples and
independent agencies. The former comprises a number of national chains, often owned
by international conglomerates, like Thomson Holidays, now a subsidiary of TUI AG, the
German multinational. At Present it’s quite common for the large mass market tour
companies to purchase a number of small travel agencies, in order to control the
distribution of their product. (This is an example of vertical integration.)

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 • In the United States, there are four different types of agencies: mega, regional,
consortium and independent agencies. American Express and the American
Automobile Association (AAA) are examples of mega travel agencies.
• Independent agencies usually cater to a special or niche market, such as the needs of
residents in suburb or a particular group interested in a similar activity, such as sporting
events, like football, golf or tennis.
• There are two approaches of travel agencies. One is the traditional, multi-destination, out-
bound travel agency, based in the originating location of the traveler and the other is the
destination focused, in-bound travel agency, 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
often a smaller, independent operator.
TRAVEL AGENCIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
• With general public access to the Internet, many airlines and other travel companies
began to sell directly to passengers.
• Airlines no longer needed to pay the commissions to travel agents on each ticket sold.
• Since 1997, travel agencies have gradually been disintermediated, by the reduction in
costs caused by removing layers the package holiday distribution network.
• However, travel agents remain dominant in some areas such as cruise vacations where
they represent 77% of bookings and 73% of packaged travel.
• In 2009, the market size for travel agencies experienced a sharp decline, dropping from
$17 billion to $14.5 billion.
• In response, travel agencies have developed an internet presence of their own by creating
travel websites, with detailed information and online booking capabilities.
• Major online travel agencies include: Expedia, Voyages, Travelocity, Orbitz,
CheapTickets, Priceline, CheapOair, Webjet, and Hotwire.
• Travel agencies also use the services of the major computer reservations systems
companies, also known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), including: SABRE,
Amadeus CRS, Galileo CRS and Worldspan, which is a subsidiary of Travelport,
allowing them to book and sell airline tickets, hotels, car rentals and other travel related
services.
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• Some online travel websites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple
companies for free.
• All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with GDS, suppliers and hotels
directly to search for room inventory. Once the travel site sells a hotel, the site will try to
get a confirmation of this Hotel.
• This means that booking a hotel on a travel website will not necessarily result in an
instant answer.
• Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Orbitz
and World Hotel-Link.

MR NEELANSHU KAUSHIK

PGT, GURUKUL THE SCHOOL

neelanshu@gurukultheschool.com

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