Travel agencies provide different services such as purchasing flight tickets, making hotel reservations, making itineraries for tours or cruises, and providing guidance services to certain tourist attractions. In this article, altitudementor.com will discuss opening a travel agency.
Nowadays, travel agencies provide services from home or offices, as well as mostly online. When starting a travel agency business, knowing how to use travel agency software, being experienced in customer service, and having experience in the tourism industry will help you get off to a faster start.
Top 9 Steps For Opening A Travel Agency
1. Decide Travel Agency You Will Open
Decide whether you will become an independent travel consultant, become a franchisee of a corporate travel agency, or open your travel agency.
Independent travel consultants hire travel agencies and receive a commission in return. Consultants can work at home or at the agency’s office. Start-up costs are quite low because the computer software and office space to be used in flight reservations will be provided by the travel agency. They may also provide a list of customers. When you become a consultant, the types of services you provide to customers may be restricted by the agency.
If you get a dealership, you will establish your business under the roof of a successful brand, but you may still have restrictions on certain issues. If you open your own travel agency, you can offer various services without any restrictions and make your own decisions. If you buy a franchise or start your own company, your startup costs will increase because you will need to finance expenses such as phones, computers, software, internet, and marketing materials. You will also need to build a customer base.
2. Offer a Specific Service
Decide on the types of services you will offer to your customers. You can provide customized tour package services such as transfer arrangements, hotel reservations (by air, train, car or yacht), yacht packages, and eco-tourism or martyr tours. You can also differentiate yourself from other agencies by organizing family trips, company trips or academic trips.
Young people, old people, newlyweds; adventure seekers, tranquility seekers, luxury seekers or companies.
In other words, before establishing an agency, you must determine your target customer base well. When you determine your customer base, you know what kinds of things these people will need. When you give people what they want in a good way, they will recommend you to their friends through word of mouth.
- honeymoon holidays
- Corporate holidays
- adventure holidays
- sports holidays
- medical holidays
- Food focused holidays
- Holidays for the elderly
- family holidays
So, if you start from a specific point, you can design your business accordingly. As your business grows, you can enter new markets and new areas.
3. Research the Market Thoroughly
After determining the focus of the travel agency, you should conduct market research and analyze whether there is a gap in the market.
The questions you should ask yourself while doing research are:
- Who needs a travel agency?
- What is the market’s biggest gap?
- What are the factors that push people to seek help from a travel agency?
- How do competing agencies in the market operate?
- What is the business model of these agencies?
- What services can distinguish you from competing companies?
- What kind of technologies are used?
- What are the old and current trends in the industry?
Seeking answers to these questions helps you see the big picture and look at the industry more consciously. In short, thanks to this information, you can see your future more clearly.
One of the most important issues when developing your strategy is the budget issue.
We can list basic expense items such as the TÜRSAB membership fee, software for reservation-ticket transactions, website, computer, and printer.
4. Rent an office for your travel agency or work from home.
Contact real estate companies to find a suitable workplace. Try to choose places that are crowded and have parking. Your workplace should be large enough to accommodate customers and large enough to accommodate computer equipment, furniture, and marketing materials. If you are going to work from home, you should create a space where you can work comfortably and where you can place computer equipment and software, marketing materials, and files.
5. Research Industry Tools and Certifications
After determining the type of agency and conducting market research, it is useful to look at the technologies used in the sector.
Some software frequently used in the travel agency business are, for example:
- Reservation programs such as TravelWorks and Rezdy
- Use programs like Nezasa and TripCreator for travel planning.
- accounting program
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
Some software allows you to do all this under one roof. For example, PipeDrive allows you to handle issues such as reservations, email marketing, and customer management under a single software.
More importantly, you need to know the tourism travel agency classifications.
These are divided into 3: A, B, C.
- Class A Travel Agencies: Class A agencies have all the tourism travel agency features and can provide all services in this sense.
- Class B Travel Agencies: These are the agencies that sell tickets for tourism travel organizations that can be organized by Class A agencies. The activities carried out by these agencies are organizing tours and selling domestic and international tickets.
- Class C Travel Agencies: These are travel agencies that organize only Turkish citizens and domestic tours.
In order to operate legally in Turkey, it is necessary to be a member of TÜRSAB as an agency. To do this, you must apply to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to obtain a travel agency operating license.
6. Prepare a Business Plan
Preparing a business plan may seem like a chore, but it is a very important document on the path to success. No matter how you design your plan in your mind, you should have a written business plan that you can refer to at any time and revise when necessary.
For example, the business plan should include elements such as competitive analysis, financial forecasts, and the number of possible employees.
First of all, you must decide whether your travel agency will be physical or online. If you want a physical office, determine where the office will be located. Keep in mind that rental prices may increase depending on the popularity of the place you rent. If you are going to open an online agency, you will not have expenses such as rent.
You can also start thinking about your agency’s name and website at this time.
7. Brand yourself
If you want to be successful, you must care about your brand image.
Brand image can go beyond the brand name. When developing your brand, there are important details, from the logo to the colors, from the brand slogan to the values of the company.
In other words, when people see your brand, website, or slogan, they should be able to trust you and be willing to do business with you.
People are more likely to shop from companies with which they can establish a human connection. If your brand seems far from providing a human and empathetic experience, they may choose to turn to larger travel agencies.
In this context, you should evaluate the travel agencies that have established themselves in the sector as a brand and examine what they do well.
8. Promote Your Business
After establishing your business, it’s time to get customers!
Design your marketing materials to help promote your travel agency, such as brochures, business cards, and flyers. Prepare a customer list, including email addresses, travel preferences, and previously visited attractions. Send travel discounts, events, or other information of interest to customers’ email addresses to increase sales.
Open a website that includes your services and contact information and also has an online booking option. Invest in a software program that allows you to make customer reservations, collect payments, create online marketing campaigns, and collect email addresses. Share the experiences of customers who are satisfied with your services on your website. Update your website periodically with interesting content to keep customers informed.
We recommend that you use the following methods to promote your business.
- Social media ads
- SEO focused articles
- paid ads
- Presentations to friends and family
You can manage these processes better by agreeing with a professional marketing agency.
9. Get insurance
Insure your business to protect against fines or lawsuits. If you plan to hire staff, you will need to insure them as well. Insurance will protect you against accidents or injuries that occur at work.
Conclusion
If we want to summarize what you have said so far in more detailed information, we can say the following.
| STRATEGIES FOR SMALL TRAVEL AGENCIES | WHAT TO DO? |
|---|---|
| Target a specific market. | Instead of competing with big agencies in every aspect, operate in a specific area. For example, you can focus only on affordable and visa-free international travel for retirees. This is just one of thousands of examples. |
| Offer unique experiences. | Large agencies usually offer standard packages. However, as a newly established small agency, you can design as creative and original travel packages as you wish. You can revise and develop your travel packages according to customer’s requests and demands. |
| Pay great attention to customer service. | Using customer service to your advantage is extremely important for the future of your business. Large agencies, by their nature, offer cumbersome and bureaucratic customer service, but as a boutique and small agency, you can approach your customers in a friendly manner. |
| Take advantage of technology. | Technology is one of your best trump cards to compete with big agencies. You can interact with your customers on social media and get easier and more real feedback from them. For this, use social media tools as much as possible. |
| Get creative with your marketing. | Large agencies also have high marketing budgets. But that doesn’t mean you can’t compete with them. You can do what big brands cannot with original content on social media. |
The travel industry is a highly competitive industry, but if you love this job and are determined to work hard and right, there is no reason why you cannot be successful.
What you need
- travel agency software
- Web site
- IATA number
- Office
Documents required to open a travel agency
a) Application petition,
b) Business opening and working license,
c) Letter issued by the Ministry stating that the agency title is accepted,
d) Trade Registry Gazette, where the company’s articles of association include tourism or travel agency activities as the applicant’s legal entity’s field of activity,
d) Trade Registry Certificate, which also states the person or persons authorized to sign,
e) In the case of applicant joint stock companies, the population registration copy and criminal record certificate of the board members and the person or persons authorized to represent the company, and in other companies, all partners and the person or persons authorized to represent the company,
f) Signature circular of the person or persons authorized to represent the legal entity,
g) Document belonging to the travel agency’s personnel specified in Article 35, a copy of the population registration certificate, a new dated employment certificate obtained from the social security institution,
g) Letter of undertaking regarding the agency title in Annex-1,
h) Letter of undertaking regarding the owners and persons authorized to represent listed in Annex-2,
i) The original foundation guarantee in the amount specified in Article 30, based on the values specified in Article 29.
Access the application forms by visiting the website of your municipality. After obtaining the necessary documents from the relevant institutions, apply to the municipality with your application form. If you want to manage your business successfully, you need to obtain the necessary licenses and permits. Also, contact the tax office and complete your tax transactions. You can review the “Travel Agencies Regulation” for detailed information about the procedures. Click to review now.
Warnings
Apply for the IATA code issued to travel agencies. Visit IATA’s website and read what you need to do to apply for an IATA code, fees, and acceptance conditions.
We will continue to research business start-up ideas and investment opportunities for those who are undecided about what to do or want to start their dream business.
