Travel agency
A travel agency is a form of business in tourism . It offers all forms of vacation and business travel. It can act as a tour operator or as a travel agent. In modular tourism , travel consultants support the customer in the selection and compilation of travel offers and, in contrast to package tours , can cater to the individual needs of the customer.
Top performers
- Tour operator
- Airlines
- Transport companies (e.g. railway companies , car rental companies , shipping companies , bus companies )
- Insurance company ( travel insurance )
- Accommodation company
Sales and earnings development
For the placement of orders, travel agencies receive commission from the respective service providers, depending on their status , which is between 4% and 13% of the travel price, and in exceptional cases can be higher or lower (railroad). Large sales volumes at the end of the year are additionally compensated by so-called overridings in the form of an increased commission rate.
In the last few years a development has been initiated that will result in a decline in sales in one year with commission repayments or reductions in the next year, the so-called 'malus system'. Big tour operators try to control their sales with this. This system also has disadvantages for the consumer, because the travel agency is forced to give preference to the products of one or a few leading tour operators in order to be able to meet the sales and commission requirements. However, a trend reversal seems to be starting again in 2007, since customer wishes cannot be controlled solely by punishing or rewarding commissions.
Since the 1960s, sales and passenger numbers have grown annually. As a result, travel agencies, like the tourism industry as a whole, could expect good returns until the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 . After that, the industry went through a profound change with in some cases considerable declines in sales, but also losses or even complete loss of income (such as the commissions for flight tickets ).
This development is exacerbated by other factors:
- Increase in unemployment
- Consumer restraint, uncertainty, fear of the future
- the rapid growth of communication options (internet, fax, telephony)
- Changes in the purchasing behavior of consumers - decrease in loyalty to the regular travel agency
Tour operators and airlines are looking for new and cheaper distribution channels such as
- Internet presence (customers can book directly with service providers)
- Travel channels on TV
- Call center
- Sales channels of travel z. B. via supermarkets
This means that the tour operator business is partially bypassing the travel agency.
Advantages and disadvantages of travel agencies
The increasing travel experience of customers and the dwindling information advantage of the travel agency put the existence of many travel agencies in question in the medium term. Today customers can get detailed information about hotels, sights and transport options around the world via the Internet, which was once a classic core function of the travel agency.
The great future potential of travel agencies, however, lies in the diverse product knowledge and advice options. While a website usually only offers the product of a service provider, often does not provide detailed country information and hardly any empirical values are conveyed via these pages, employees in the travel agencies have much better information here due to their personal experiences and opportunities to exchange experiences.
Travel agencies will have to specialize, as knowledge of all areas and products is almost impossible these days. But here, too, a development begins in the direction that specialized companies have this advice paid for.
Overall, it can be said that every type of travel distribution has its advantages and disadvantages and its place in business life. The figures also show that in some parts sales via the Internet are increasing (flight tickets, only hotel stays) and in some parts sales via travel agencies are increasing (high-quality trips, study trips, group trips).
Zero commission in air transport
In 2003, Lufthansa, as the first major partner in tourism, gave up travel agencies' traditional intermediary status. Broker status means for the reseller that he receives a commission from the commercial owner for his brokerage activity.
Since then, travel agencies have been forced to purchase the flight tickets from the airline net (which means that the travel agency no longer receives any commission from Lufthansa) and to resell them to the customer with a surcharge (service fee, processing fee, booking fee, handling fee). The surcharge is necessary so that the travel agency can continue to cover its own costs (telephone costs, rent for the computer terminals, etc.) and thus secure its continued existence in the economy. The original idea of the service fee quickly found its way into online travel portals, especially flight portals. While some EU states impose sanctions against the lack of transparency in these fees, there is no extensive official regulation in Germany.
The fact that airlines offer their tickets in direct sales ( call center , internet ) sometimes more cheaply than a travel agency can hold great potential for conflict . One restriction here is that they can only offer their own connections and prices and not, like travel agencies, can also see the tariffs of other airlines at a glance in their computer systems.
Lufthansa only played a pioneering role in this development. 99% of airlines have now joined this practice. The German Bahn AG has the travel agencies with DB agencies reduced the basic commission since the beginning of 2005 to 6%. Agencies collect part of the lost commission from the customer in the form of service fees.
Computer systems in the travel agency
Reservation systems: The most important reservation systems on the German market are currently Amadeus (formerly START - market leader in Germany) with the flight booking mask “AMADEUS Air” and the tourism booking mask “TOMA”. There are also other booking systems, for example MySabre + merlin , Worldspan or Galileo .
Price comparison systems: In addition, there are auxiliary systems such as Traffics Cosmo, Bistro Portal or LM-PLUS that carry out price comparisons, filter out offers that can still be booked and find trips and travel modules from various tour operators that match the customers' holiday wishes.
Types of travel agents
Full travel agency
Full licensing: IATA , Bahn , DER and at least one leading organizer. In addition to normal trips / package tours, the full travel agency also sells scheduled flight tickets and rail values. The full travel agency also usually represents a major operator such as TUI , DER Touristik or Thomas Cook, as well as many smaller tour operators. Numerous full travel agencies also act as tour operators themselves and sometimes have their own travel catalog.
Features: often a chain travel agency, annual turnover depending on location and chain affiliation approx. 1.5 million euros, can also have a high share of turnover in the corporate business area
Tourist travel agency
The brokerage service is limited to the offers of the tour operator and other service providers such as hotels, airlines or travel insurance companies. You can also have an IATA (authorization to issue tickets yourself).
Travel agency chains
As in other areas of the economy, cooperation began years ago in the travel industry. The original purpose of these alliances was to obtain better purchasing conditions from service providers (“Together we are strong!”). However, many of them did not have enough financial reserves to survive, and so some of the existing travel agency chains were bought up by the major tour operators and integrated into their sales network and expanded.
Three large travel agency chains share more than 2/3 of the turnover in the private customer business. The market leaders include:
- the sales brands of REWE-Touristik - approx. 600 travel agencies of the brands DER Reisebüro, DERPART and ATLASREISEN plus approx. 1200 cooperation travel agencies
- TUI Leisure Travel with travel agencies of the brands Hapag-Lloyd, FIRST, TUI Reisecenter and their franchise and cooperation partners
- Thomas Cook / Neckermann and their franchise and cooperation partners
Booking office
They are characterized by the fact that they primarily sell trips from their own tour operator, but have agency contracts with other tour operators. There are two types of booking offices:
The company's own booking office of a tour operator
For example, the sales office of a sports travel company at the location of the company's headquarters, where the services of the tour operator are sold in direct sales.
Travel departments in non-industry companies
Gas stations , banks, book clubs, lottery shops and others.
Consolidator
Until a few years ago, the activities of a consolidator included the sale of so-called gray market tickets. These are scheduled flight tickets that are sold "unofficially", but with the tolerance of the providers, at special rates below the state-approved flight prices.
Due to the rapid change in the airfare market (the release of all prices means the elimination of the authorization requirement within the entire European air traffic area), gray market tariffs have meanwhile lost their significance. For long-haul connections, they have been replaced by two new tariffs: these are net tariffs negotiated between consolidators or chains or even large companies on the one hand and airlines on the other, and tariffs that only come with the sale of a land service (e.g. accommodation, rental car ) be valid.
Nevertheless, consolidators still have their right to exist. Because more than two thirds of all travel agencies do not have a license to issue flight tickets (they are not so-called IATA agencies). These travel agencies must obtain their tickets from the Consolidator . Most internet portals also do not handle their trips themselves, but commission a consolidator or other service provider to do this , which is called a fulfillment center .
For private customers with the idea of using the consolidator to get a cheaper flight price, trying to find one does not make sense. Firstly, due to today's largely fully automated processing, the margin of around 5 euros is too low to be worthwhile, and secondly, there is no infrastructure for the necessary advice.
The consolidator is the interface between travel agencies and airlines
A consolidator acts as an intermediary between travel agencies and airlines. Essentially, the following areas of responsibility belong to the consolidator business:
- Contracts with airlines
- Publication and maintenance of flight tariffs in databases
- Contracts with travel agencies
- Service, telephone advice for travel agencies
- Ticket creation (Etix, ticket deposit, paper ticket ...)
- Shipping department, courier service
- Accounting organization
Due to the wide range of tasks in the large customer business, it is usually not possible to take care of private customers. A structure for end customer support is not intended and also not desired. Therefore, only the partners from the travel agency industry receive flight tickets at special conditions, but not the end customer.
Connection to a consolidator is particularly important for travel agencies without an IATA license . Without such a license, a travel agency is not authorized to issue airline tickets. In order to cover this important area in the travel agency industry, a contract with a consolidator is necessary . For a basic fee that is well below the travel agency's commission, the consolidator creates the flight tickets, taking into account the tariff conditions.
But a contract with a consolidator is also worthwhile for travel agencies with an IATA license . Due to the high number of flight tickets issued, a consolidator receives better conditions for purchasing from the airlines than a travel agency. These prices are then passed on to the travel agencies, who can then sell cheaper trips. Years ago gray market prices were communicated to travel agencies with the tolerance of the airlines. In the meantime, a whole jungle of tariffs has emerged in addition to the published tariffs, such as Nego tariffs, bulk tariffs, corporate tariffs or Unifares.
Despite the tendency that airlines no longer pay commissions and sell to direct customers themselves through their own booking systems over the Internet, Consolidators cover a very important area in the travel industry. Since the airlines, due to their route network, can only publish their limited offers, the end customer often lacks an overview of the variety of tariffs for the individual travel destinations. A travel agency with a consolidator behind it creates the necessary transparency.
Incoming agency
The incoming agency is located in tourist destinations and arranges travel services in the region of the location to foreign tour operators and guests. The incoming agency is available to guests on site and is also known as the destination agency.
Outgoing agency
The outgoing agency is the classic travel agency based in the tourists' countries of origin; it deals with the so-gen. "beyond tourism " (from English. outgoing tourism ), that is, they created travel programs at home and abroad for their advertised in the domestic source market customers.
Corporate travel agency
This travel agency is specialized in the requirements of the company's business travel either as an independent company or as a department of a full travel agency (in this case, however, as a "company service" spatially separated from the public traffic of the full travel agency). In addition to the travel agency, other services such as travel planning or business travel accounting are usually provided by employees. The term “implant” describes a travel agency branch in a foreign company.
Corporate travel agency
In contrast to other travel agencies, the travel agency is not a tourist company, but a department of a non-tourist company. Travel agencies do not have and cannot acquire licenses for the sale of air tickets and tickets, so they usually work with the company service of a full travel agency.
Online travel agency
Some online travel agencies have recorded large increases in turnover in the past few years, others are experiencing sharp declines, and some have already closed again. They offer the user the option of putting together trips after work or on the weekend and booking them with a click of the mouse. Many online travel agencies also offer extensive information on their websites, such as hotel reviews or excursion tips.
In purely technical terms, online travel agencies work on the same principle as conventional travel agencies. They all have access to so-called published GDS tariffs and, like stationary travel agencies, add a service fee to cover their running costs. In many cases, online providers can only offer personal advice to a limited extent, but some have recently improved this with telephone hotlines and live chat offers.
Special travel agencies
Target group oriented
These are travel agencies that consciously tailor their offers to specific target groups. In the case of target groups, for example, the disabled, senior citizens or wheelchair users, people in need of care, dialysis patients, sports trips (tennis or football clubs and the like).
These travel agencies either use special tour operators (such as BSK-Reisen GmbH, HandicapNet, Mare-Nostrum, Süße-Reisen etc.) or act as tour operators with special trips themselves . The advantage for affected travel guests is that offers are offered that are specially tailored to their target group and that deliberately indicate the specific framework conditions required.
Target country-oriented
There are a number of tour operators who specialize in just one or two destination countries in order to have such a high level of product knowledge that gives them an advantage over those types of sales who need to know about all countries and types of travel. These tour operators then offer special programs and also organize individually tailored trips.
Future prospects for travel agencies
According to a study by the Association of Internet Travel Sales in 2014, 37 percent of those surveyed had already used the Internet to book vacation trips in the past. In 2000 it was only 2 percent. At Deutsche Bahn , the share of Internet sales in sales rose from 7.9 to 26.0 percent between 2005 and 2012.
The number of stationary travel agencies in Germany fell by 31.7% between 2001 and 2013 (from 14,235 to 9,729). In 2013 they achieved sales of 22.7 billion euros.
The travel agency business is characterized as old-fashioned in view of the alternatives in the network .
Others
Tour operators offer travel agents several ways to get to know their products personally:
- Information trips - which in Germany, however, are considered part of the payment by the tax office under certain conditions and must be taxed. If there is a time-tight sightseeing and educational program without a recreational character, this type of further training is recognized tax-free.
- Discounts on regular bookings that exceed the agreed commission: this also includes so-called PEP offers; However, many tour operators only grant these additional discounts to employees of agency offices who book a certain (minimum) turnover per business year with the tour operator.
- Program presentations in vacation areas
National legal regulations
Germany
The status of a travel agency when the travel contract is concluded is regulated as follows:
- The office acts as a commercial agent and concludes commercial agency agreements in accordance with §§ 84 ff HGB ; An essential feature of the commercial agent status is the so-called agency contract with tour operators , for whom they then act as so-called vicarious agents ; Commercial agents are authorized to conclude; this also results in higher tour operator loyalty;
- It can also act as a trading broker according to §§ 93 ff HGB, who take a more neutral position without agency contracts; Commercial brokers do not have a power of attorney, but are only entitled to accept and forward contract offers from those interested in traveling for the tour operator to be mediated.
The travel contract law is regulated by § 651a ff BGB ; Here the rights and obligations of the two contracting parties (end customer and service provider, the travel agency is not involved in this due to its purely acting as an intermediary) are presented and explained.
Founding or opening a travel agency in Germany does not require any special qualifications. When you register with the trade office, it opens its doors. However, other requirements are necessary for tour operators . So if a travel agency also wants to organize trips, it must take care of these additional requirements (for example, insolvency insurance). In other countries there are quite different requirements for opening a travel agency.
The most important source of qualified personnel in travel agencies is the training in them to become a tourism clerk (private and business trips). But to an increasing extent, college graduates are also working for large travel agencies. Further training centers are tourism schools and academies. In 2011, the training content was adapted to the new requirements of the industry and the previous training title of travel agent was renamed to travel agent (private and business travel). The year 2007 showed a development towards a clear decline in training in the travel agency itself. The reasons include, among other things, the moderate pay and the stress in this occupation (further training after work, psychological stress from sales and customer pressure, etc.). Older skilled workers often change jobs because their earning and career opportunities are very limited
In Saarland, travel agencies must remain closed on all Sundays and public holidays (including those that are open for sale).
See also
Web links
Germany:
- IHK Potsdam: Legal basis for travel agencies and travel agents
- A collection of independent consolidators in Germany
- Allianz Independent Travel Company - Bundesverband eV
- German ReiseVerband e. V.
- Travel agency directory for Germany
Individual evidence
- ↑ Facts & Figures on the Online Travel Market, 9th edition, 2014. ( Memento from February 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Basis: German-speaking population aged 14 and over; 2000: only Germans. Association of Internet Travel Sales. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
- ↑ Reinhold Pohl, Stefan Krupp: DB video travel centers open up new perspectives in the area. In: Der Nahverkehr , Issue 7–8 / 2013.
- ↑ Facts and figures on the German travel market. German Travel Association (DRV). Retrieved March 8, 2014.
- ↑ Adventure with half board , Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 19, 2018
- ↑ https://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/saarland/saarbruecken/verkaufsoffene-sonntage-im-saarland-reisebueros-machen-sich-strafbar_aid-47003075 Sundays open for sale in Saarland: travel agencies are liable to prosecution