Thomas Cook: the company was founded by Thomas Cook the man in the 19th century – 1841 to be
precise. The business started when he organized a group train trip from Leicester to a temperance rally in
Loughborough. That very successful first expedition effectively kickstarted modern tourism.
Modesto Farolan, the “Father of Philippine Tourism” was born on June 12, 1900, in the small, sleepy town
of Sarrat in the province of Ilocos Norte.
A stint as consul general in Honolulu, Hawaii, during the early years of the Philippine Foreign Service
afforded him an awareness of the potential and possibilities of tourism for a country’s economic
development. This led to his organizing the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association, a private sector
initiative, together with Salvador Peña, a devoted colleague in many endeavors.
President Ramon Magsaysay appointed him the nation’s first commissioner of tourism, this despite being
on the opposing side during a bitterly fought presidential election campaign in 1953.
TRAVEL AGENCY
1. ACTS AS INTERMEDIARY OR MIDDLEMAN between suppliers of tourism products and the tourists
and travelers
2. main function is to market and promote all types of tourism products and services, including tour
packages, accommodations, transportation, and other components of the travel industry
3. private entities that operates as sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation
4. one of the most important business entities ion the tourism and hospitality industry -- developing
and creating tourism products and services. It normally creates itineraries for inclusive tours and
offers them to tourists.
5. It also offers services in arranging tourism sectors such as ticketing and booking and reservation
for air, rail, and sea travel. Assist in arranging travel documents such as passports, visas, and other
documents required to travel. They can also secure travel insurance
Travel agency is one of the most important organizations in the tourism private sector which plays a
significant and crucial role in the entire process of developing and promoting tourism in the country or at
a destination. It is a travel agency which packages and processes all the attractions, accesses, amenities
and ancillary services of a country and present them to tourists. That’s why travel agency is known as
‘image builder ‘of a country.
Travel Agent
A travel agent is a person who has full knowledge of tourist product – destinations, modes of travel,
climate, accommodation, and other areas of the service sector. He acts on the behalf of product
providers/principles and in return gets a commission. Technically, a travel agent is an owner or manager
of an agency, but other employees are responsible for advising tourists and selling packages
tours/individual components of travel products.
A travel agent may be an individual /firm or corporation which is commonly known as a travel agency.
A travel agent is the direct point of contact for a traveler who is researching and intending to purchase
packages and experiences through an agency. Travel agents can specialize in certain types of travel
including specific destinations; outdoor adventures; and backpacking, rail, cruise, cycling, or culinary
tours, to name a few. These specializations can help travelers when they require advice about their trips.
Some travel agents operate at a fixed address and others offer services both online and at a bricks-and-
mortar location. Travelers are then able to have face-to-face conversations with their agents and also
reach them by phone or by email. Travel agents usually have a specialized diploma or certificate in travel
agent/travel services (go2HR, 2014).
Travel agencies are basically categorized into two types-: Retail Travel Agency and Wholesale Travel
Agency.
Retail Travel Agency
A retail travel agency sells tourists products directly to the public on the behalf of the products suppliers
and in return get commissions. Some package tour is sold in two ways i.e., on a commission basis and
mark up the price.
When a travel agency sells a tour on the marked-up price it means that first, it markup the cost of the tour
and then sell it at a higher rate. The markup price is the difference between retail price and wholesale
cost.
These agencies are specialized in organizing package tours, which are marketed to the customers/tourists
through the network of a retail travel agency or directly to the prospective clients ( if wholesale travel
agency has a retail division). A wholesale travel agency purchases tourists’ product components in the
bulk and designs tour packages.
Sometimes, a wholesale travel agency buys travel components from the vendor in bulk and resell them to
other travel business originations.
Wholesale travel agencies assemble package holidays and sell them to clients through retail travel
agencies. A typical package tour includes – air tickets, accommodation, and something other services may
also be included in it such as entertainment, sightseeing, and sports activities, etc.
These packages are referred to as ‘package tours’ most of these tours include the services of escorts but
a few are sold to people who wish to travel independently
Today, Travel Agencies have been recognized as a vital component of travel and tourism and have become
an integral part of the travel and tourism industry at globally. They account for more than 90% of
international and 70% of domestic tourist traffic
Further, more than 60% of all travel agency revenues are derived from business travel. Most travel
agencies sell both commercial and leisure travel but there are many travel agencies that only specialized
in one sector or the other.
The operation of each travel agency is based on the scope of its activities and organizational size. Here we
discuss the functions of a large scale travel agency that performs all types of activities such as Retail travel
agency, wholesaling and tour operations, etc. The main function of a large-scale travel agency are:
Travel Information
Itinerary Preparation
Airline Ticketing and Reservation
Tour Packaging and Costing
Reservation
Travel Insurance
TOUR OPERATORS
Tour operator is an organization, firm, or company who buys individual travel components, separately
from their suppliers and combines them into a package tour, which is sold with their own price tag to the
public directly or through middlemen, is called a Tour Operator.
More precise tour operators are primarily responsible for delivering and performing the services specified
in a given package tour. They can provide these services themselves as some have their own cars and
coaches, hotels, and other travel-related services or can obtain these from the other suppliers. That is
why they are called manufacturers of tourism products.
Tour operators are sometimes called wholesalers but this is partially true because a wholesaler buys goods
and services in bulk at his own account to prepare a tour package and then retails it through the travel
agencies or directly to clients. However, a tour operator who has his own one or more tourists products
components, (SOTC, TCI, Thomas Cook, Indo Asia KUONI formulates a new tourist product for example
‘inclusive tours.’
Tour operators generally offer a variety of package tours to cater to the needs of different kinds of
travelers.
Tours operators play a key role in the tourism sector. Tour operators create tourist products, promote
them a finally sold them to tourists.
Tour operators provide the best and competitive price to the tourist. Tour operators negotiate with
suppliers of tourism products such as hotels, airlines and provide the best possible price to the tourist.
Tour operators buy tourist products in bulk and get huge discounts from suppliers. So that they provide
tourist products at a cheap price.
Tour operators organized a tour in the best way. They personalize and make sure each and every
component of the tour is well-taken care. Tour operators provide the best travel experience during a tour.
Tour operators save tourists time and money.
Tour operators provide immediate support systems at the host country as well as a foreign land. When
tourists travel to a foreign land and things get uncertain, maybe its a health or loss of documents and need
to return back or change of travel plan. A qualified tour operator takes care of all these unseen events
with efficiency.
Tour operator caters to the needs of tourists on the based on their taste of travel. Tour operator provides
all the best available option according to tourist needs and demands
Tour operators are basically categorized into four types. These are categories on the basis of their nature
of the business and its operations.
Inbound Tour Operators
Outbound Tour Operators
Domestic Tour Operators
Ground Operators
INBOUND
These are also known as incoming tour operators. Technically, the operators who receive guests,
clients/tourists, and handle arrangements in the host country are called inbound tour operators.
For example, a group of American Tourists is coming through TCI Ltd. to India and the company makes
arrangements and handles the group in India then TCI is called an inbound tour operator.
Incidentally, the inbound traffic to the country for the last two decades has been decreasing. Essentially
the tour operators need to adopt innovative marketing strategies and should introduce a special interest
tour to cater the special needs of Japanese, Americans, French and British people.
OUTBOUND
Tour operator who promote tours for foreign destinations, maybe business tour or leisure tour is called
outbound tour operators. For example, a group of American tourists going to a trip of India and Thomas
Cook handle arrangement in America like as ticket reservation, hotel booking etc. then Thomas Cook is
called Outbound Tour operators in the context of America.
DOMESTIC
Domestic tour operators are those who assemble, combine tourist components into inclusive tours and
sell it to the domestic travelers. In general, these tour operators provide travel services within the tourist’s
native country.
The domestic tour operators operate within the boundary of the home country and offer package tour to
the travelers viz. Domestic inclusive tours or independent tours
GROUND
These are commonly known as handling agencies and their main function is to organize tour arrangements
for incoming tourists on the behalf of overseas operators. Let us take the case of India as a destination
that – has a varied culture.
When a tour operator himself promotes beach holidays, wildlife holidays, adventure tours, heritage tours
at the different places, the difficulty arises. It is the ground operator then who by handling the incoming
travelers in the same season but at different places ensures that the entire operation is according to the
package tours or agreements.
Sometime when a handling agency is at a prominent tourist place i.e., Delhi and it has to make
arrangements to Goa, then it contracts (If it has no office of its own) with a local operator (known as
excursion agent) to handle the arrangement on his behalf.
Why Ground Operators?
Obviously, the tour operation companies do not have close contact with suppliers, governments,
destinations and so on. It leaves no choice with the companies but to appoint handling agencies at the
destinations. The main reasons are:
Over the years of functions and activities of the destination, companies have changed drastically to cope
with the changing environment of the tourism industry. In fact, today’s destination companies have
become more professional and are bound to provide personalized travel services to the tourists. The
following functions are performed by ground tours operators:
Land arrangement
Contract and Negotiate with other vendors
Handling of Arrival and departure procedure
Planning and organizing local package tour
Escorting the tourists
Providing market information
Costing and pricing package tour
