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Becoming a Home-Based Travel
Agent, Part 1:
The "Traditional" Travel Agency
Copyright © Kelly Monaghan,
http://www.hometravelagency.com
The twentieth century saw
the rise of the travel agent. Middlemen (which is what travel agents
are, in effect) became necessary for a number of reasons. Travel is
a very complex product -- a whole series of products, in effect. In
the early days, at least, the companies that provided the
products were far more adept at providing than at selling. Their
customers were also very widely distributed geographically. These
and other factors created an opportunity for entrepreneurs who
agreed to represent the products of many different travel suppliers
to a local market
in exchange for a commission on the sale. That commission was
traditionally ten percent, although as in all selling situations top
producers were rewarded with higher commissions, called "overrides"
in the travel business.
The system of distributing
travel products through a network of travel agencies took hold and
travel agencies themselves came to look very much alike, sharing a
great many common features. They were storefront, retail businesses,
located in commercial districts of town, open during normal retail
business hours. In short, they were very much like the clothing
shops, boutiques, grocery stores, bookstores, and other retailers
with whom they shared the block. This picture is what I call the
"traditional" travel agency.
The traditional travel agency
looks the way it does for many reasons, but several concern us here.
Mostly they have to do with the airlines.
Airline tickets are written (or
printed, now) on blank paper called "ticket stock." In its blank
form this paper is like a blank, but valid, check. Anyone who has it
can write a ticket to anywhere for any value. Hence the term, "write
your own ticket." Ticket stock is extremely valuable and since it is
entrusted to travel agencies the airlines had a very valid
reason to ensure that their ticket stock was safe. So they developed
a set of rules that would tend to ensure that they could trust the
travel agents who were selling their tickets.
These rules included things
like:
A business location in a
commercial district. In other words, the travel agency had to look
and act like a "store."
A system of bonding, to assure
the airline that the travel agency owner was solvent and respectable
and, therefore, not likely to be tempted to do anything fishy with
the airline's precious ticket stock.
Another factor determining the
look and feel of the
traditional travel agency is the computer. Travel agencies were one
of the first businesses to be extensively computerized. The complex
and expensive computerized reservations systems (CRS) that made
ticketing easy encouraged even more centralization and
"professionalism" in the travel agent industry.
In other words, if you wanted
to be a travel agent you had to open a storefront agency with its
high overhead and complex computer systems. This took a lot of
money. Of course, you could also get trained to operate a CRS and go
to work in a storefront agency, and many agency owners started out
just
this way.
This pattern, in turn, created
another distinguishing
characteristic of the traditional travel agency: it was a
place to which would-be travelers came to talk to agents
sitting at a desk operating a CRS. Most travel agents became "order
takers." Of course, there were always exceptions to this
general rule. Many travel agencies employed "outside agents"
to hustle up business. These outside agents were, in effect, free
ranging inside agents who returned to the agency
and their CRSs to generate the airline tickets and other bookings
they had made outside. Some agencies used "bird dogs" as they
are called, people who sent customers into the agency location
where inside agents would cater to their needs. Bird dogs
performed a valuable service and were compensated with a small
percentage of any commissions that
resulted from their referrals. This was very much akin to the
"finder's fees" paid in other industries. Nonetheless, these were
exceptions that proved the rule: most travel agents were reactive
order takers tied to their desks and the CRSs that sat on them.
All this began to change in the
90s thanks to a number of interrelated trends, which we will
discuss in the next lesson. Lesson Two
This mini-course on becoming a
home-based travel agent is brought to you by the Home-Based Travel
Agent Resource Center and The Intrepid Traveler, publisher of a
comprehensive home study course for home-based travel agents.
For more information,
visit today.
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