Links And Relationships Within The Travel Industry

hang-up operations is a dynamic and complex business environment, where companies must hightail it with m whatever divers(prenominal) strike and electrical circuitism component industries, comply with laws and regulations, and transmit with a variety of external influences and challenges. Unlike move around agents, who sell holidays and a range of other contrive-up the ghost products, arrest factors actually assemble the different separate of a holiday, i. e. the type of travel, accommodation, facilities, transfers, excursions and other services.If we consider that travel agents ar the retail arm of the travel business, then tour operators argon the wholesalers, since they obtain in intensity from the providers of travel services, such as the hoteliers and airlines, break the bulk into manageable shargons and offer the finished product the megabucks holiday (or inclusive tour) for sale via a travel agent or direct to the public. The package is sold for an all-inclu sive price, which is generally lower than if the different parts of the holiday had been booked individually by the holiday take aimr.In working with other travel and tourism industries, tour operators develop links with a wide range of organisations, including motivity agents using agents as a sales outlet for the tour operators holidays and agreeing commission payments and booking procedures Transport providers negotiating and agreeing contracts with airlines (charter and scheduled), rail operators, coach companies, cab operators, etc.to supply transport services for holidaymakers Hotels and other accommodation providers negotiating allocations of bed spaces that gain the accommodation element of the package holiday Ancillary service providers promise with companies to supply representative services, transfers, meet and greet sufficements, insurance, car hire, activities, excursions, etc.Even the large, vertically-integrated travel groups guard to liaise on different functions within their own organisations, since individual parts of the group atomic number 18 usually separate companies in their own right, e.g. stave from Neilson Holidays, part of the doubting doubting Thomas Cook Group, would negotiate with staff at Thomas Cook Airlines to agree seat allocations for a season. As competition in the travel and tourism sector has intensified, tour operators pick out taken oer or corporate with other travel and tourism businesses as a way of maintaining or increasing their market sh ar and maximising their profits. This is near noniceable in the tour operator/travel agent relationship, where TUI traveling UK owns Thomson andFirst Choice tour operating businesses, and the Thomson travel agency grasps (TUI UK is itself controlled by the German company TUI AG) Thomas Cook AG (a German group) owns a number of Thomas Cook tour operating brands/companies, plus the Thomas Cook and Going Places chains of travel agencies. These big two travel grou ps were formed in 2007 from the mergers of Thomson and First Choice Holidays, and Thomas Cook with My touch off. They tower the sale of package holidays in the UK, accounting for just fewer than 50 per centime of all sales.These are examples of vertical integration in the travel and tourism industry, which is when a company has control over other companies that are at different levels in the chain of distribution or in different industries. Some of the largest tour operators similarly own their own airlines, good-looking even greater control over the component parts of package holidays. As competition in the travel and tourism sector has intensified, tour operators have taken over or merged with other travel and tourism businesses.This is called vertical integration and it benefits the travel companies since they get bulk discounts and make savings by using their own companies as suppliers. However, there is reach that vertical integration of this sort may not always be in the publics interest, since it can reduce the number of companies and give customers less choice when buying holidays. Also, customers may not know that a tour operator is owned by the travel agency that is exchange their holiday.Horizontal integration is when a company owns or has control over a number of companies at the same level in the distribution chain or in the same industry. For example, many tour operating businesses that are now part of Thomas Cook and Thomson were originally independent companies, e. g. Neilson and confederacy 18-30 (now part of the Thomas Cook Group), and Something Special and the Holiday Cottages Group (now merged with Thomson). Large travel companies take over smaller independents as a way or reducing competition in the marketplace, but this is not always a benefit for customers who may have less choice.Trade bodies and associations are established to represent the interests of companies in a particular industry sector. ABTA The Travel Association is the main trade body for both travel agents and tour operators in the UK. Its appendages are responsible for the sale of over 90 per cent of package holidays and 45 per cent of independent travel arrangements in the UK.ABTAs role is to ensure that customers benefit from high standards of trading practice in thetravel industry and that the standards of service and business throughout its membership are of the highest calibre. All ABTA members travel agents and tour operators adhere to a strict write in code of conduct. ATOL A United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority purpose to protect people who have purchased package holidays (Thomson, Thomas Cook, etc) and flights from a member tour operator. The majority of UK tour operators are required to hold an ATOL licence, without which they may not legally sell air travel.ATOL licensed firms will have had their business practices inspected by the CAA. An ATOL licensed tour operator must also obtain insurance bonds from the CAA. The aim o f this is to provide refunds to travellers affected by any event which causes the airline to be unable to provide travel for its customers, and to arrange for flights (in addition to accommodation and other items which may be included in a package holiday) to return home those who are still foreign at this time.