Functions of Travel Agency and Tour Operators

The most important component of travel and tourism business. Tourism is impossible without travel agencies and tour operators. They account for more than 90% of international and 70% of domestic tourist traffic. The function of any travel agency and tour operators differ from place to place and agency to agency. Most of travel agencies and tour operators involved in both leisure and commercial tour services.

The following are functions of large scale travel agencies which perform all type of tourism activities.

1. Provide travel information

The most primary function of any travel agency and tour operators is to provide necessary information to the tourists. The travel agency should keep updating accurate information about tour packages ,modes of travel, accommodation , sight seeing , visa ,passport ,clearance and permits required to travel to out of the country.

 In simple words we can say that it's a image builder for a country who are responsible for providing information about each and every aspect of tourism destination to domestic as well as international tourist. The do researches and explore the unexplored destination and present the accurate picture of a country to the tourists.

2. Preparing the itinerary 

One of the biggest task of travel agency is to prepare itinerary which identifies origin , destination and all stopping points of the tour. It is just like a time table which give a clue to the tourists about what they are going to get offered by the travel agency and at what time.

The travel agency prepare two type of itinerary one is general itinerary which is prepared for the general travel such as Kerala tour, business travel etc and another one is special itinerary which is prepared for special tours such as pilgrimage tours.

3. Tour packaging

Travel agencies have linkage with hospitality sectors, transportation sectors , and other service providers. It maintains a close contact with all that service providers and formulate a tour. Tour packaging is combining all the facilities related to a tour such as transportation , accommodation and other travel service. It prepare tour package keeping in mind their target market which is based on various factors such as location, age, income group, interests of the client etc.

4. Tour Costing

The most critical work for any travel agency is pricing of the tour. Before setting the price of the tour package a travel agent need to negotiate with various service providers. Negotiation depends upon the ability of a travel agent as how effectively he is able to negotiate with the principals. Costing is done by including all the elements of a tour such as accommodation, transportation, food ,guiding and other expenses. When the price is set it is ready to be sold in the market.

5. Airline Ticketing

Apart from arranging tour, travel agencies also sell many tourism products airline ticketing is one of them. Airline ticketing is becoming a major source of revenue generation. Today 90 percent of the international air-tickets are booked through  recognized travel agencies.

6. Reservations 

Travel agencies also perform the function of booking and reservations. A travel agency maintain linkage with accommodation sector , transportation sectors and other entertainment organizations to reserve rooms and seats. A travel agency should understand understand the different need of the clients and accordingly it should perform its job.

7. Travel insurance

Future is uncertain so we cannot predict that everything going to be as per plan so to minimize the effect effect​ of uncertainty travel agencies came up with the concept of travel insurance. Travel insurance protect the travelers against personal as well as baggage loss. A tourist who purchase travel insurance receives a contract called policy issued by travel agency. A travel insurance covers personal accident, medical expenses ,baggage loss ,trip cancellation or interruption.

8. Currency exchange

Travel agencies are also involved in business of currency exchange. Travel agencies are permitted by RBI and Foreign Exchange Management Act 1973 to deal with foreign currencies.