Essential Requirements for starting a Travel Agency

Essential Requirements for starting a Travel Agency

Tourism Coaster

The articles gives a detail understanding of Essential Requirements for starting a Travel Agency , passport requirements and many other topics as well. Keep reading

Essential Requirements for starting a Travel Agency

A travel agent is one who makes arrangement of tickets for travel by air, rail, ship etc. The requirement needed to start travel agency with recognition of 5 years based on Inspection Report of Regional Director and a member of TAAI will be with:

  • Application for grant of recognition
  • Have minimum paid up capital of INR 3.00 Lakh
  • Should be approved by IATA/GSA/PSA
  • In operation of minimum 1 year
  • Minimum office dimension be 150 sq ft. and 100 sq. ft. for hilly regions
  • Minimum 4 qualified staffs under the owner
  • Only employ regional level guides
  • For outsourcing, use specialized agencies
  • The registration amount is INR 3000.

Types of travel Agents, and Tour Operators

There are different types of Travel agents, Tour operators and various tours carried all around the world.

Types of travel Agent:

    • Full-service agency: The agency offers convenient one-stop shopping; save time and money by letting us handle every aspect of your trip from lodging to activities.
    • Commercial agency: The agency which commercialize their services through various methods in the market like selling services online and offline etc.
    • Implant agency: The agency which work for other travel businesses along with their
      business as well like partially owning a major brand travel company franchise.
    • Incentive agency: The agency which allows incentives to the employees for their work.
    • Online travel agency: The travel companies that pre-book aggregate accommodations,
      attraction and transportation options in bulk and allow their customers to choose one or many components of their trip based on price or other incentives. Examples of OTAs include Booking.com, Skyscanner.com, Tivago.com, Viator.com
    • Wholesale/ retail agency: The agency which is like Global distributor of services like
      accommodation, tour packages etc. to their business partners who further sale
      these adding their markup to their customers.

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    Types of Tour operator:

      • Inbound: It involves bringing travelers/tourists into a country as a group or through
        individual tour packages (e.g., a package from India to visit Canada).
      • Outbound: It involves work within a country to make and take travelers to other countries
        (e.g., a package from Canada to the Switzerland).
      • Domestic: It involves providing tour packages and travel services to the residents of same
        country visiting different locations or cities.
      • Receptive: They are ground operators and represent the various products of tourism suppliers to tour operators in other(overseas) markets in a business-to-business (B2B)
        relationship.
      • Specialized: The operators who provide services for special purposes like having packages for accessible people, or provide services for single women travelers etc.

      Types of Tour:

        • Independent: The tours which is planned or carried out by individuals on their own.
        • Escorted: The tour which is pre booked through travel agency and being done with company’s representative guiding all along the tour. It generally happens in group tours.
        • Hosted: The tour which is hosted by local operator to provide local customs.
        • Group: The tours conducted by in gatherings of like-minded peoples in presence of a guide and a fixed itinerary.

        Types of passport and Visa

        In January 2019, there are over 150 jurisdictions issuing passports

        a. The countries having strong passports are:

        • USA
          with 167 credits
        • Germany
        • Singapore

        b. The countries having weakest passport are:

        • Afghanistan
        • Iraq
        • Pakistan

        c. The types of passport are:

        • Tourist passport– Blue
        • Service passport– White for government employees
        • Diplomatic passport– Maroon, issued to diplomats
        • Emergency passport– issued to the ones who stolen their passport
        • Collective passport– issued to the groups traveling together
        • Family passport– issued to the head of the family
        • Non-citizen passport– issued to people having no citizenship like Latvia

        d. Types of Visa:

        • B-1 for Business purpose
        • B-2 for pleasure/medical
        • H-1-B for Specialty occupation
        • H-2-A for seasonal agriculture
        • H-2-B for skilled & unskilled
        • O for extraordinary talent
        • P for athletes
        • Q for cultural exchange
        • F-1 for student

        Meetings, Conventions, Incentives, Exhibitions and other gatherings

        Detail explanation of various gatherings:

        • Meeting: In this gathering two or more people discuss various topics in a formal manner.
        • Incentive: In here, a motivator in the form of reward for a desired result/action/behavior is presented.
        • Convention: It is a large gathering of individuals who meet to discuss in some common interest. It is less formal in nature.
        • Conference: The meeting of people who discusses about a topic.
        • Exhibition: The organized presentation of a display/ demonstration of a skill.
        • Seminar: The bringing of small group of people for recurring meetings on a particular topic.
        • Workshop: The place where things are more practical and people learn methods
        • Symposium: In this, experts in their respective filed gathers formally and deliver their opinions.