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A travel agency is a business that sells travel related products and services to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels and cruise lines. Customers of travel agencies include tourists and business travellers. Some agencies also serve as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different countries.
Purpose
Travel agencies have been organized mostly since the development of commercial aviation from the 1920s, although Thomas Cook was a notable early, pre-flight pioneer in 1841. The Portuguese company Viagens Abreu is the oldest travel organization, founded in 1840. Some operate with a chain of stores and others are one store operations. A few of the larger travel agencies sell their own products. Agencies without their own product are arguably more impartial and more likely to offer something to suit the traveller; they are known as independent agencies. there are three different types of agencies: these are Multiples, Miniples and independent agencies.
Most travel agencies do not sell airline tickets only; their services vary, and many of them sell more cruise ship packages than airline tickets. Most travel agencies also arrange car rental deals for their customers, and many concentrate on arranging charter or group trips to different destinations. For this, they deal with regular airlines, but many times, they also hire charter airlines. Many travel agencies exclusively represent a small group of supplier airlines, cruise and car hire companies and, often, the logos of the supplier companies are displayed on the windows of the agency's office.
Travel agencies also market and sell train and hotel products. Generally, their goal is to try to fit an ideal schedule onto the requirements of each specific customer.
The phrase travel agency has changed meaning since the emergence of companies like Thomson or Thomas Cook, who are now considered to be tour operators rather than travel agents. The difference is that tour operators manufacture and sell their own holidays whereas independent travel agents sell holidays from all the tour operators without limiting the range they offer to just their own product. The best travel agents deal honestly with a wide range of customers.
In the UK a group of just such travel agents formed a consortium which became known as Worldchoice. Each agency was independently owned, bonded members of ABTA and Worldchoice was the vehicle for both commercial negotiations with the tour operators and also a forum for best practise. In 2006 there were 700 agents in the Worldchoice consortium of independent travel agents
Organizations
On April 20, 1931, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) was formed in New York City, to defend the rights of US travel agents over the power of the growing commercial airline systems of the day. Now headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, ASTA still represents travel agencies and agents.
The international body for registering travel agents is the International Air Transport Association (IATA), although most travel agents are registered through national bodies such as the Australian Federation of Travel Agents.
ASFA, The Association of Special Fares Agents, Airline Consolidators, Bucketshops and Discount Travel Agents is the mother source for finding cheap fares online. ASFA was founded in 1985 as a platform for discount travel specialists, consolidators and bucketshops from all over the world. ASFA agents are registered and bonded according to the laws of the countries and states that they are operating in. Association of Special Fares Agents web site
The Internet threat
Many agencies feared their services would no longer be needed when many airlines and other travel companies began to sell directly to passengers over the Internet. They were afraid they would be victims of what management science experts call disintermediation .
Another worry was over the fact that airlines have been cutting back the commissions paid to travel agents on each tickets sold; the airlines feel that they are perfectly capable of dealing directly with their own passengers and do not need travel agents as much as in the past to fill seats.
Since 1995, many travel agents have exited the industry, and relatively few young people have entered the field due to a collapse in salaries. However, others have abandoned the "brick and mortar" agency for a home-based business to reduce overhead, and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel products like cruise lines and train excursions, or by promoting their ability to aggressively research and assemble complex travel packages on a moment's notice (essentially acting as a very advanced concierge).
Many travel agencies have developed an internet presence by posting a website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel consolidators. These companies such as Sabre and others can provide up to the minute, detailed data on tens of thousands of hotel vacancies.
Some of the popular online travel sites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies. They often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and or proximity to a city or landmark.
Cargo
Although not as involved in the cargo business, some travel agencies also work with cargo airlines and ships. Those travel agencies that do cargo business, however, are not a significant number of agencies.
References
Andal-Ancion, Angela, Phillip A. Cartwright, and George S. Yip. "The digital transformation of traditional businesses." MIT Sloan Management Review 44, no. 3 (Summer 2003): 34-42.
Edmunds, Marian. "A wake-up call for the industry: As competition intensifies, online and mobile technologies offer huge opportunities across all sectors of the travel business." The Financial Times, 13 March 2002, p. 10.
Tobin, Rebecca. "Wanted: young agents! Are young people shying away from careers in travel? Agents and travel school operators say yes. Look around your agency—see any young faces?" Travel Weekly 61, no. 43 (28 October 2002): 148-149.
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"Travel agency"