Читать книгу Start & Run a Tour Guiding Business - Barbara Braidwood Susan Boyce & Richard Cropp - Страница 31

Tour operators are companies that put together two or more travel suppliers’ products. For example, a tour operator may commit itself to filling a large number of hotel rooms in Hawaii and a certain number of airline seats during a specific time period to get a preferred price. By combining these two purchases into a “package,” the tour operator can sell it to the public for less than if the pieces were purchased separately from each of the travel suppliers. Sometimes it is possible to get the same airline seat through either the airline or a tour operator, but the tour operator’s seat may be cheaper!

Tour operators come in all sizes and their products range from escorted tours to airline seats. Packaging tours is a fiercely competitive business with thin margins. Rules change quickly and agreements are canceled with little or no notice.

Many of the major airlines have their own tour companies — legally separate companies with a different address, staff, and administration. These firms are dedicated to the airline, however, and use the parent company’s equipment most of the time.

If you are just starting to run tours, you may decide to use existing packages instead of designing your own. One of the advantages of working through large tour operators, especially airline-owned ones, is the clout they have with the airlines. As a matter of policy, you may want to play it safe and book your clients only with major tour companies. In a crunch (if you are stranded in a foreign country, for instance), you may be able to count on the tour operator’s connections for help. Smaller tour companies, on the other hand, sometimes pay you more than the large companies to entice you to deal with them. In the end, you will have to decide whether the added risk is worth the extra profit. Although it often is, this is far from a hard and fast rule — sometimes security is priceless.

Tour operators generally specialize in either inbound or outbound markets. As the name implies, inbound tours originate in another country and come to the local area. Outbound tours leave the local area and go to another country. Whether focusing on inbound or outbound, tour operators offer their clients several different types of packages ranging from simple combinations of airfare, hotel, and transfers between the airport and hotel to all-inclusive, fully escorted extravaganzas. Here are the basic divisions you should be aware of.