The tourism business seems very easy and attractive to many, but at the same time it is known that competition in this area virtually eliminates the possibility of new players entering the market. Despite this, many novice entrepreneurs seriously think about starting a business in the tourism industry.
But here it is important to understand that in the market for the provision of such services there are two types of companies: tour operators and travel agencies. The main work on the search and the formation of the route is carried out by the tour operator, while the travel agent acts as an intermediary who sells a ready-made tourist product. Therefore, at the moment, the number of operators relative to the number of travel agencies is very small, but it is the tour operators that make it possible to travel, creating a tourist product for customers.
Regardless of what kind of activity the entrepreneur wants to engage in, he should understand that in addition to the high level of competition, there is a toughening of the conditions for the activities of travel operators and agencies by the state. It would seem that this business is absolutely hopeless and does not have all the capabilities that were in this direction several years ago. This is partly true, but nevertheless, with the proper approach, it is possible to capture some part of the market, providing customers with quality services and conducting a full-fledged marketing campaign. It is worth noting that the tourism industry as a direction for his own initiative in Russia will require a lot of investments, huge efforts from the businessman, and the high risks and the presence of many other business alternatives that are not related to tourism, allows him to be called a niche that is better not to try to occupy, which does not need new players, there are too many companies in it, many of which are superfluous. But those who dream of palm trees and golden sand, who want to work while visiting exotic countries, can try themselves in this direction. All of the above is a warning.
It is clear that the work of a tour operator is very different from the work of a travel agency, but in tourism, many companies combine the work of an operator and an agency using a variety of schemes and concepts, which greatly increases the efficiency of activities. In general, a travel agency should offer its customers a proven travel product, and therefore, its employees should have independently visited those countries, tours to which they are organized, evaluated the level of service, and checked the safety of the route.
The safety of the route does not mean the safety of wandering in the wild jungle, but the guarantee that the client will board the plane on time, upon arrival he will be accommodated in the right hotel, he will receive the whole range of services, his life, health and freedom will not be threatened, but in the end On the tour, he is happy, tanned, and with magnets will safely board the plane and return home. So, the safety of the route directly depends on the tour operator, but travel agencies that work with the tour operator should also be sure of it.
The work of the tour operator is a complex, long and painstaking process of creating each tourist product, which is why the tour operator rarely has time for the retail sale of the product, this is done by the travel agency collaborating with him. However, a travel agency can independently develop a tour product in only one or several directions, acting here as an operator, and also offer tours to other directions of other operators for its assortment, and here already acting as an agent. There are very few large operators who develop tours around the globe in Russia, but many agencies are involved in some kind of operator activity.
A tourist product is essentially a service, but it is most often presented on the market as a product that, unlike a service, can be sold at a place other than production. In order for the tour to be successful and safe for the client, the operator is engaged in its long development, for which he visits all countries of his offers, where he first of all needs to find suitable placements and arrange cooperation with the owners.
Next, you should find a reliable carrier that can deliver the client to the place of stay and back, while if possible the cost of the services of the transport company should be low. These are, perhaps, the main parts of the tourism product, everything else is additional services that the client acquires as necessary. The following is a search for suitable excursions, goods, souvenirs, additional entertainment, etc. The formation of a tourist product is taught at the institutes in the relevant specialties, although history knows many examples when a tour operator became a person who independently visited a considerable number of countries, learned all the intricacies of his own experience and gained knowledge not from books, but in the process of his work by trial and error. In order to engage in tour operator activities, you must have a sincere desire to do this and an understanding of what you need to do in general, training in route formation is not included in the provisions of this article. Tourism is a complex field, which today can even be called a science.
At present, it is better to register your travel agency as a legal entity, in which case the form of a limited liability company is preferable. This is due to the fact that it is the legal entity that will have access to all the opportunities and privileges, namely, in the registration process and in further work, the legal entity will have more trust, and the LLC will be liable only with its property, and not the property of the founders. In a field such as tourism, this is especially true, because in case of failure, debt obligations can be very significant.
In principle, individual entrepreneurs are involved in tourism activities, these are the so-called home agents who find successful tours and try to sell them on their own without the formation of an enterprise. However, such an orientation can hardly be called a full-fledged business, and in the light of recent events it is possible that home agents will be outlawed and cease their activities or go underground. It is necessary to correctly indicate the OKVED codes, in this case, depending on the form of work, the activity falls under the definition of (OKPD 2) 79.11 Services of travel agencies, (OKPD 2) 79.12 Services of tour operators, (OKPD 2) 79.90 Booking services and other related services.
It should be noted that at the moment licensing of tourist activities is not required, however, a decision has already been made that all travel agencies, including not only tour operators, but also travel agencies, have been included in a special register. It will be common for the whole country, it is even possible that it will subsequently merge with the international, and only an open travel agency should immediately notify state authorities of its appearance, transfer all the details and be included in the general list. It is forbidden to work without this, but it should be noted that recently the legislative framework of the tourism sector is constantly being revised, and it is possible that in the near future there will be new bills or amendments.
But the difficulties of organizing your tourism business do not end there. The next attraction is the so-called Tourist Assistance, which is an association of tour operators, includes only legal entities and was created in order to help tourists who find themselves in a difficult situation abroad. Material assistance is provided from the compensation fund to affected tourists, and the fund itself is formed by contributions from its members. At the moment, the contribution amount is 0.1% of the amount of money that the tour operator received from the implementation of travel packages in the field of outbound tourism. That is, tourist assistance exists only for tour operators who work in the field of international tourism, but not domestic. Another distinctive feature is that the contribution cannot be less than 100 thousand rubles, regardless of what percentage it is from the tour operator’s revenue. Thus, annually it is necessary to allocate significant funds to this organization.
Moreover, a travel agency should have its own compensation fund, and it doesn’t matter here whether it works in the field of inbound and domestic tourism. This is called a financial guarantee. These are the funds that do not need to be paid anywhere, but which should be frozen at the bank as an insurance amount. At the same time, for a tour operator working in the field of outbound tourism, the amount of financial guarantees should be at least 10 million rubles, for travel agencies this amount is 20 times larger, 500 thousand rubles, but for many small companies this figure is devastating.
It turns out that to open your travel agency you need to have at least 500 thousand rubles that will go only to insurance funds, but the entrepreneur still needs a lot of money to organize the enterprise itself. And this is only for tourism within this country, which is not particularly popular among the population, because, for example, Yaroslavl is much less attractive to the majority as a holiday destination than Istanbul. To some extent, this monopolizes the market and destroys the existence of small and medium-sized firms in this area.
To open the enterprise itself will require slightly less funds than to ensure its financial viability. To do this, you need to find a large room in the city center, furnish furniture, computers and peripherals, make repairs, sign, create your own website and conduct an advertising campaign. For a small company, 200-300 thousand rubles may be enough, depending on the city of work and the level of competition in the area. But these figures are more suitable for creating a travel agency; opening a tour operator will require not only more time, but also funds.
At the moment, opening a travel agency with a new name, unknown to anyone on the market is very risky, and therefore many entrepreneurs turn to franchisors. Everyone knows that the so-called last-minute trips are in high demand among the population, but according to some analysts, too cheap tours will disappear due to innovations, because travel companies will not be able to dump or at least just keep the cost of the permit low.
In the case of expensive tours, the population generally prefers to contact the largest and most well-known companies, even if the cost of their ticket is an order of magnitude higher. People still remember scammers and one-day firms that promised a cheap vacation, and then disappeared with money. Only if only therefore it’s much more convenient to work with a well-known brand, in this case there will be more customers, which means that risks will also be reduced. The cost of a franchise is difficult to name, because it can vary greatly in different companies and even in one company can be offered at different prices depending on the city of work.
To work in a travel agency, it is necessary to attract graduates of the corresponding specialty, who are taught the basics of the tourism business, work with clients, are taught the language, and at some universities they even provide their students with business trips to foreign countries with instruction in tourism at the place of stay, local language and customs. Which specialists, as a rule, are travel agents of a narrow profile, and can be engaged in sales of permits only in one country or region. However, today it is even more preferable than universal tour agents who know a lot of information about all countries, but too little about each specific one. A small travel agency employs 3-4 people, the tour operator has a much larger staff who carry out various types of activities: from selling trips and forming tours to studying the total demand and conducting advertising campaigns.
The tasks of a travel agency include many responsibilities, because it must provide quality rest to its client and fully assume the implementation of all complex procedures. In the case when the client first leaves the country, he may need a passport and a visa. And if he can get a passport on his own, and the company does not particularly solve anything, then in the case of obtaining permission to enter or visas, the agent must solve all the issues that sometimes take a lot of time and effort.
As you know, Russian citizens are not allowed to enter the EU countries without a visa, and they simply do not issue it. A travel agency must provide the embassy with evidence that its clients travel specifically for a limited stay, and that none of them will remain as an illegal immigrant. In general, it is much easier for a travel agent to get visas for their clients than if they were doing it on their own. But for this you need to know exactly what package of documents in each particular case is required, how long it takes and requires financial investments, what results can be and what difficulties can be.
Also, a travel agency is required to book tickets, and in this case, the travel agency must have information about flights and transfers, about transport companies, their offers and the like. Currently, there are global distribution systems aimed at exchanging information and storing all reservation data. The international GDS (Global distribution system) systems are popular, but it is not always possible to use them, and therefore Russian analogues are being developed. But at the same time, one must also rely on the fact that you may have to keep your own database, because there will be no access to the international one, and the Russian one will not work as always.
A travel agency for its clients also selects excursions, determines a list of attractions and features of the place of stay, for which it should have established relations with guides and guides in foreign countries. Very often a person needs translation services, because the vast majority of the population leaves for a foreign country, not even knowing the English language, not to mention the local one. The travel agency must solve all these issues, while the agents must independently check the level of service, the quality of its reliability of the information provided by partners. In this regard, constant business trips are required to form a tour if you plan to engage in at least not extensive tour operator activities. If the travel agency works on a franchise and even with a well-known tour operator, then it is often only required from it to sell ready-made tourist products and receive small commissions (maximum - up to 15% of the cost of the trip).
Tourism in this country is experiencing far from the best of times, now it is quite difficult, risky and often unprofitable to engage in such activities. The rest itself will significantly increase in price due to the adopted amendments to the laws, so the demand for tourism products will decrease slightly. To this it is worth adding that the tourism business is seasonal, and the greatest excitement, and therefore profit, occurs in the summer and New Year holidays, while in the middle of autumn, winter and early spring, very few people buy tickets.
Matthias Laudanum
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08/18/2019