Aims of Travel Agents (The Adventure Company, 2014)
-Selling tour packages and participate tour products and services, such as money exchanging, car hiring and making tourist insurance.
-Providing effective and essential tourism information to tourists.
-Advising customers about tour packages, products and services.
The role of Travel Agents
Travel agents act as intermediaries for clients' complaints, plan tour itineraries, provide knowledge on national and international tourism, communicate and advise clients about destinations, accept travel’s payment, make reservations and arrangements for passport and visa for international tourists and keep record reservations.
Daily procedures
-Entry of invoices: Daily basic performances of travel agents were creating a pending invoice, completing reservations (for suppliers and consumers) and confirming complete details (already be reviewed)
-Review of invoices: Weekly basic invoice review is done by managers. First, check the information and documents from all customers and customer fare received and all amounts received, ensuring the supplier about reservations, entering payment and sending completed invoices to back office operations.
Cost involved in travel agency (Rural Women’s Network, 2006)
-Fixed cost is the cost of not-fluctuated business activities, such as market research, maintenance and staff salaries.
-Variable cost is the cost of the capacity of sales that vary over time, such as hire of equipment, telephone, internet and part-time staff.
A travel agency’s valuable documents
All details and documents are important, that make travel products and services costly and perishable. Travel agent maintained documentations of present clients. There are types of valuable documents which are booking form, tickets. Invoices, flight manifests, statistic to keep track of sales and hotel rooming lists.
Sales promotion
Sales promotion is not an informative activity that planned to support the sales of a product or services.
Sales promotional materials
-Printed materials, such as brochures, folders and sales letters
-Sales points, such as posters and window displays (late deals)
-Virtual sales materials are online features, such as World Wide Web
The importance of accurate and attractive presentation
To make business successful developing products and services and promoting them practically process is in needed. The client’s presentation in 4-steps process;
Probe- Asking the expression of customers in a question to know their needs.
Present- Collecting questions to promote and present travel products benefits that on offer.
Prove- Backing up the benefits with proof of reliability of products.
Close- the presentation is done and presenters should make a trial close to know the customer’s acceptation of the benefit.