AIRLINE/TRAVEL AGENCY

OPERATIONS/MANAGEMENT
Let’s step back and ask ourselves a basic question:
what is travel?
A dictionary would describe travel as “going from one
place to another.”
Let’s step back and ask ourselves a basic question:
what is travel?
Travel is going from one place to another – and doing
things when arriving there – for reasons not
associated with everyday life.
Travel is usually divided into two broad categories:

➢ Leisure travel is travel for the purpose of

enjoyment.

➢ Business (also called corporate) travel is travel

beyond one’s general home area for reasons related
to work.
 Business travelers may set up the trip themselves,
book it through a corporate travel manager (a
person employed by a company to arrange travel for
its employees), or arrange it by using the services of a
travel agent.
Leisure travel can be further subdivided in several
ways. Many people today opt to travel through a
travel package.

In a travel package several travel components

are “bundled” together and sold as one product.
Most leisure travelers, however, travel on their own,
not through a package.

They set up their own trips or enlist the help of a

travel agent, a professional who analyzes a
traveler’s needs and then prices, recommends,
arranges, and sells one or more components of that
person’s trip.
Travel agents are also called travel counselors.

A common form of travel – in fact, the most prevalent

– is VFR travel, or “Visiting Friends and Relatives.
Travel Agencies

▪ Travel agencies are businesses that help the public

with their travel plans and needs.

▪ Most travel agencies operate offices that

consumers can visit or call.
Expedia, Orbits, and Travelocity are “virtual” agencies
that sell through Internet web sites.

➢ They have no offices open to the public and

largely rely on their computer-based self-service
approach to sell travel.
Corporate Travel Services

▪ Just about every big corporation or government

entity must use travel to achieve its goals.

▪ To do this, these organizations must have either

an in-house travel management department or an
outside travel agency to handle many hotel, air,
and other travel-related services their personnel
may require.
Tour Operators

Tours are one of the most common forms of packaged

travel. Some tour companies operate only local tours,
whereas others offer independent tour packages.
➢ These packages can be designed to appeal to the
general public or to serve the needs of special of
specialized groups, such as ecotourists (travelers
who are interested in the natural environment and
its preservation), culture seekers, or religious
pilgrims.
A specialized form of travel is the incentive trip, a
vacation provided by a company as a reward to
certain employees for achieving exceptional, pre
identified goals.
Add knowledge…

Taking a city tour at the beginning of a visit is a

great way to orient yourself to a destination.
Telling Terms…

Demographics pertain to easily measurable factors,

such as age, income, gender, marital status, and the
like.

Psychographics deal with factors that are more

difficult to assess such as attitudes, preferences, and
beliefs.
 How Travel is Sold
Understand three key players:

▪ Consumers
▪ Suppliers
▪ Intermediaries
Consumers
That’s you. You “consume” or use the travel
product.

Different sectors of the travel business refer to you

in different ways.
Consumers
▪ Hotels, cruise lines, and theme park workers call
you a guest.
▪ Travel agents refer to you as a client.
▪ Airlines, tour companies, motorcoach operators,
rail service providers, cruiselines will label you
as a passenger (often abbreviated as pax).
▪ Destination marketing organizations (DMOs)
call you a visitor.
Suppliers
Are companies that create, own, and provide the
travel products being sold.

Clear-cut examples of suppliers are airlines, lodging

companies, car rental firms, rail companies,
motorcoach operators, and travel insurance
companies.
Suppliers
Strictly speaking, attractions, theme parks, and food
service providers are also suppliers.
Intermediaries
These are companies that act as go-betweens, linking
suppliers with the traveling public.

The most obvious example is travel agencies.

 Why People Travel
▪ The word travel comes from the French word
travail, which means “work”.

▪ Why would people want to work at enjoying

themselves, and want to spend their
discretionary money to achieve it?
 Why People Travel
▪ Discretionary money is money that’s left over
after paying for the necessities of life such as
food, shelter, and clothing.
 Plog’s Continuum
Researcher Stanley Plog has identified three types of
travelers: Dependables, Venturers, and Centrics.
 Dependables
o Are cautious people.
o They prefer predictable, routine lives and avoid
unusual things or challenging situations.
o When they travel, they favor safe, familiar
destinations.
o VFR travel very much appeals to them.
 Ventures
o Are bolder people.
o They like different and challenging things and
love to travel to unusual, exotic places.
o They usually prefer independent travel.
 Centrics
o Occupy a psycho-logical middle ground
between Dependables and Venturers.
o They like a little adventure in their lives but not
too much.