Relationships among suppliers, tour operators and clients

Suppliers’ Relationships Relationships among the tourism services providers must be excellent Suppliers including Hotels, Airlines, F&B outlets, Car rental companies, Wholesalers etc.

Suppliers’ Relationships To ensure that travel agencies continue to have an excellent working relationships with suppliers, TA’s operations department must play a major role. Useless to sell top quality tour packages if the operational department does not come through with the products that client expect

Suppliers’ Relationships Various activities the operations department needs to take note of so that important dates will not slip by, deposits are paid to travel suppliers and promises made are kept and deadlines met

Keeping Track of Activities Careful planning of work schedules is important to make sure that the workload is controlled and monitored 1)Planning guidelines checklist of all activities, involved in a task, arranging them, deadlines, reminders of work to be done at different stages

Keeping Track of Activities Complete tasks in order of priority, planning each day’s work as follows :- a)Urgent b)Non urgent but important c)Not urgent and less important

Record and Updating of Travel Agency Client database :- Search several fields to select all clients with specific criteria, for example, all those who have expressed an interest in the following :-

Record and Updating of Travel Agency a)Travelling at a particular time: select the clients and send out required information at time when they may be thinking of traveling b)Travelling at a particular destination: call or send out on relevant information when specials are released on this destination

Record and Updating of Travel Agency c)Undertaking a specific type of our holiday, such as cruises: send out information when relevant brochure or special promotional package being released d)Travelling to a specific destination when special airfares are available: search for these clients in the database when special airfares are released

A Tour Defined A tour is any prearranged (usually prepaid) journey to one or more destinations and returning to the point of departure. It is a combination of travel elements and is sold as a unit without price breakdown by component.

Elements of a Tour Transportation Lodging Dining Sightseeing/guide service Attractions Shopping

Record and Updating of Travel Agency Customer information to be recorded should include some of the following :- Name Address, Phone, and fax numbers for home and business Details of airline club memberships (FFP) Travel requirements including travel class, seating preferences, special meal

Agency Sales Transmittal for BSP Airline-tickets issued under the IATA system are accounted for by Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) system Remitted weekly on dates set in advances by BSP Reporting periods are at the close of business on the 8 th, 15 th, 23 rd and the last day of every month, regardless of these days fall on a holiday or weekend

Tour Operators Businesses that put together these packages are called tour operators (also called tour companies, tour packagers, tour brokers or wholesalers).

Tour Operators Tour operators contract with suppliers (e.g. hotels, restaurants, airlines, motor coach operators, and other transportation companies) and attractions (e.g. theme parks, historical buildings and museums) to create multiday tour packages

Tour Operators Travel agents especially like to sell tours, because they can make a commission on most of a client’s vacation activities (even meals and airfare) with minimal arrangement hassles

Tour Operators All travel agencies must be registered and licensed through Singapore Tourism Board From here, up to travel agencies to join NATAS (National Association travel agencies Singapore) that may even include tour companies, suppliers, attractions and destination marketing organisations