Works of Wonder Tour

Memorable Vacation

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:40:26 +0000

Mumbai is considered to be the heart of India. Mumbai is one of the major metropolitan and big commercial centers of India. Mumbai India travel has been luring many tourists every year. Some of the main attractions of Mumbai India travel offer various travel attractions like Gateway of India and historical monument to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to India in1911. Another prime attraction is Prince of Wales Museum. Mahalaxmi temple, tomb of Haji Ali is another major attraction of Mumbai. Apart from historical monuments Mumbai India travel also has many scenic beaches some of them are Marine drive, Chow patty beach, Juhu beach etc. Besides these Mumbai India travel has many more attractions like Crawford Bazaar, Kalbadevi, Essel world, Hanging Garden, Film city, Flora fountain, Malabar hills and many more.

Rajasthan India travel offers wonderful destinations, heritage spots, wildlife sanctuaries, colorful festivals. Travel to Rajasthan the land of kings endowed with magnificent havelis, beautiful places, invincible forts and rich cultural heritage. Rajasthan India travel offers exciting travel destination and tourism opportunities in Rajasthan are endless. Tour of Rajasthan also offers exotic regal experience through its variegated activities like camel safari on the sand dunes of Thar Desert, wildlife adventures, forts and palaces, temples, colorful fairs and festivals. Rajasthan India travel presents variety of tours to unravel the charisma and traditional heritage of Rajasthan.

Last minute travel package offers a wide collection of reasonable priced luxury travel deals. You can find many options of exclusive properties, offering exquisite locations and gracious service. Last minute travel package are perfect for romantic gateways or family holidays. Last minute travel packages work by keeping your travel package budget in first priority list. They offer amazing travel bargains without compromising on the quality of the hotel. In fact last minute travel packages spelises in low price on air, car rentals and vacation packages. There are many travel agents who offer excellent last minute travel package. In case you are looking for last minute vacation deal then there are many travel operators who can actually save you the horror of getting confused. Whatever it is ether you are preparing for your family reunion, honeymoon travel and you are lost last minute travel will offer you a good and memorable package for the lifetime.

Active Travel

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:58:44 +0000

There seems to be a whole vocabulary for those who sell travel. Active travel, adventure travel, leisure travel, eco-tourism. Do you really need to know what it all means? Not really. In the grand scheme of things you define your own travel style, and it may change from day to day.

You may go to an island and choose to sit on the beach one day, and go scuba diving the next. You may spend a day in the spa that resort has down in a palm grove and go bike riding the next. You’re active one day and quiet as a slug the next.

But if you are signing up for a tour, you should find out what that particular tour operator means when they say active travel. In general, an active tour will focus more on travel and transportation that requires physical activity… walking or cycling as opposed to riding along in a van or bus.

Most tours that fall into this category have a lot of outdoor activities.

OK, you say, but you can do a lot of walking if you’re sightseeing in a big city.

You’re right, even museum tours or garden tours can give you a workout, but active travel sort of indicates that you will be outdoors and biking or hiking or rafting or even horseback riding.

Some companies spell it out for you pretty well… they’ll tell you the activity level that will be required for the whole tour…

Will there be a lot of hiking or walking? For how many hours or how many miles or kilometers. Will there be lots of stairs or hills to climb? They may even have a “scoring” system all the way from easy to difficult… of course, you need to know what their definition of easy is!

A trekking company, for instance, might say Level One, or Easy is 3-5 hours of walking up to six miles a day with low altitude…. While Level Four or Strenuous is 5-8 hours of hiking in mountainous terrain at higher elevations.

Will you be staying in hotels? Or mountain huts where you share a bunkhouse arrangement with other travelers? Or will you be camping…. sleeping in tents? Your tour operator should give you an idea of the type of accommodations you can expect from rugged or spartan to luxury. You could be going on an African safari in the middle of the Kalahari, but if you stayed in a tent at Jack’s Camp, you would definitely find yourself reveling in the luxury category… and still be active in your travels.

You may even find that you relieve more “workaday” anxieties and frustrations with active vacations than you would just sitting on the beach, eating and drinking the night away. Activity is good for you, and sometimes it leaves you just a little tired and more relaxed at the end of the day.

Brochures may use the terms active or adventure travel interchangeably. We think of adventure travel as a little more of a reach…. something that is more apt to get you a little out of your comfort zone. Active travel doesn’t necessarily do that…. but it may make you break a sweat.

And what’s wrong with that?

Bali Vacation

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:33:54 +0000

Bali, an island located in South East Asia near Indonesia, has been a tourists hot spot for years. Being an island, and blessed with its pristine beaches, naturally the biggest portion of tourism is beach related. The population of this country is about 3 million, and the locals are well known throughout the world for being very friendly and welcoming. The tourist season starts in June and peaks around August. This is when surfers and other ocean enthusiast come from all over the world and descend on its beaches.

Even though there are plenty of choices for accommodations such as beach side shacks to 5 star hotels, a popular way to stay in Bali is in a villa. This is especially true for people who are planning to stay in one location for extended periods of time. There are plenty of villas available in all of the popular destinations, such as Nusa Dua, Kuta and Sanur. Bali villas are also available at non-beach locations such as Ubud. Renting a villa also makes more sense if you are traveling with the whole family and friends. The bottom line is, if you are traveling in a group and planning on staying for a while, then staying in a villa will be cheaper on the long run, not to mention more comfortable.

These villas are not stand alone cottages, that leave vacationers to fend for them selves. The villas will have their own staff such as cooks, security guards and sometimes a chauffeur. It all depends on the cost of the villa. Not only that, the villas will have other amenities such as cable television and internet. All of this will be included in the total price. Bali villas can be rented on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Before choosing on a villa, you will need to decide where the location of it should be. Sanur and Kuta have most of the beach villas. The villas located here tend to be more up market. Areas such as Lovina will have cheaper beach villas available. However, no matter where it is located, cost of Bali villas will depend mostly on size, location, time of year and so on.

Travel Agency

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:36:43 +0000

Origins

The British company Cox & Kings is sometimes said to be the oldest travel agency in the world, but this rests upon the services that the original bank, established in 1758, supplied to its wealthy clients. The modern travel agency first appeared in the second half of the 19th century. Thomas Cook, in addition to developing the package tour, established a chain of agencies in the last quarter of the 19th century, in association with the Midland Railway. They not only sold their own tours to the public, but in addition, represented other tour companies. Other British pioneer travel agencies were Dean and Dawson, the Polytechnic Touring Association and the Co-operative Wholesale Society. The oldest travel agency in North America is Brownell Travel; on July 4, 1887, Walter T. Brownell led ten travelers on a European tour, setting sail from New York on the SS Devonia.

Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation, starting in the 1920s.

Originally, travel agencies largely catered to middle and upper class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most British towns, catering to a working class clientle, looking for a convenient way to book overseas beach holidays.

Operations

As the name implies, a travel agency’s main function is to act as an agent, that is to say, selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. Consequently, unlike other retail businesses, they do not keep a stock in hand. A package holiday or a ticket is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests that purchase. The holiday or ticket is supplied to them at a discount. The profit is therefore the difference between the advertised price which the customer pays and the discounted price at which it is supplied to the agent. This is known as the commission. A British travel agent would consider a 10-12% commission as a good arrangement. In Australia, all individuals or companies that sell tickets are required to be licensed as a travel agent.

In some countries, airlines have stopped giving commission to travel agencies. Therefore, travel agencies are now forced to charge a percentage premium or a standard flat fee, per sale. However, some companies still give them a set percentage for selling their product. Major tour companies can afford to do this, because if they were to sell a thousand trips at a cheaper rate, they still come out better than if they sell a hundred trips at a higher rate. This process benefits both parties.

Other commercial operations are undertaken, especially by the larger chains. These can include the sale of in-house insurance, travel guide books and timetables, car rentals, and the services of an on-site Bureau de change, dealing in the most popular holiday currencies.

The majority of travel agents have felt the need to protect themselves and their clients against the possibilities of commercial failure, either their own or a supplier’s. They will advertise the fact that they are surety bonded, meaning in the case of a failure, the customers are guaranteed either an equivalent holiday to that which they have lost or if they prefer, a refund. Many British and American agencies and tour operators are bonded with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), for those who issue air tickets, Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) for those who order tickets in, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) or the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), for those who sell package holidays on behalf of a tour company.

A travel agent is supposed to offer impartial travel advice to the customer. However, this function almost disappeared with the mass-market package holiday and some agency chains seemed to develop a ‘holiday supermarket’ concept, in which customers choose their holiday from brochures on racks and then book it from a counter. Again, a variety of social and economic changes have now contrived to bring this aspect to the fore once more, particularly with the advent of multiple, no-frills, low-cost airlines.

Commissions

Most travel agencies operate on a commission-basis, meaning that the compensation from the airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, sightseeing tours and tour operators, etc., is expected in form of a commission from their bookings. Most often, the commission consists of a set percentage of the sale.

In the United States, most airlines pay no commission at all to travel agencies. In this case, an agency usually adds a service fee to the net price.

Types of agencies

There are three different types of agencies in the UK: Multiples, Miniples and Independent Agencies. The former comprises a number of national chains, often owned by international conglomerates, like Thomson Holidays, now a subsidiary of TUI AG, the German multinational. It is now quite common for the large mass-market tour companies to purchase a controlling interest in a chain of travel agencies, in order to control the distribution of their product. (This is an example of vertical integration.) The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts.

In the United States, there are four different types of agencies: Mega, Regional, Consortium and Independent Agencies. American Express and the American Automobile Association (AAA) are examples of mega travel agencies.

Independent Agencies usually cater to a special or niche market, such as the needs of residents in an upmarket commuter town or suburb or a particular group interested in a similar activity, such as sporting events, like football, golf or tennis.

There are two approaches of travel agencies. One is the traditional, multi-destination, out-bound travel agency, based in the originating location of the traveler and the other is the destination focused, in-bound travel agency, that is based in the destination and delivers an expertise on that location. At present, the former is usually a larger operator like Thomas Cook, while the latter is often a smaller, independent operator.

Consolidators

Airline consolidators and other types of travel consolidators and wholesalers are high volume sales companies that specialize in selling to niche markets. They may or may not offer various types of services, at a single point of access. These can be hotel reservations, flights or car-rentals, for example. Sometimes the services are combined into vacation packages, that include transfers to the location and lodging. These companies do not usually sell directly to the public, but act as wholesalers to retail travel agencies. Commonly, the sole purpose of consolidators is to sell to ethnic niches in the travel industry. Usually, no consolidator offers everything, they may only have contracted rates to specific destinations. Today, there are no domestic consolidators, with some exceptions for business class contracts.

Criticism and controversy

“Racking”

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Travel agencies have been accused of employing a number of restrictive practices, the chief of which is known as ‘racking’. This is the practice of displaying only the brochures of those travel companies whose holidays they wish to sell, the ones that pay them the most commission. Of course, the average customer tends to think that these are the only holidays on offer and is unaware of the possible alternatives.

Conversely, by limiting the number of companies that a travel agency represents, this can bring a better and more profitable, working relationship between the agency and its suppliers. Travel agencies can then obtain special benefits for their customers, from a supplier, by concentrating their bookings with that supplier. Some examples of these special benefits would be room upgrades or the waiver of change and cancellation fees.

(“Racking” is a British expression, not used in the United States.)

The Internet threat

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With general public access to the Internet, many airlines and other travel companies began to sell directly to passengers. As a consequence, airlines no longer needed to pay the commissions to travel agents on each ticket sold. Since 1997, travel agencies have gradually been disintermediated, by the reduction in costs caused by removing layers from the package holiday distribution network. However, travel agents remain dominant in some areas such as cruise vacations where they represent 77% of bookings and 73% of packaged travel.

In response, travel agencies have developed an internet presence of their own by creating travel websites, with detailed information and online booking capabilities. Several major online travel agencies include: Expedia, Voyages-sncf.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, CheapTickets, Priceline, CheapOair and Hotwire.com. Travel agencies also use the services of the major computer reservations systems companies, also known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), including: SABRE, Amadeus CRS, Galileo CRS and Worldspan, which is a subsidiary of Travelport, allowing them to book and sell airline tickets, hotels, car rentals and other travel related services. Some online travel websites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies for free. They often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and proximity to a city or landmark.

Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies’ financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency advice.

All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with GDS, suppliers and hotels directly to search for room inventory. Once the travel site sells a hotel, the site will try to get a confirmation for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with the result. This means that booking a hotel on a travel website will not necessarily result in an instant answer. Only some hotels on a travel website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly. Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Orbitz and WorldHotel-Link.

The comparison sites, such as Kayak.com, TripAdvisor and SideStep search the resellers site all at once to save time searching. None of these sites actually sell hotel rooms.

Often tour operators have hotel contracts, allotments and free sell agreements which allow for the immediate confirmation of hotel rooms for vacation bookings.

Mainline service providers are those that actually produce the direct service, like various hotels chains or airlines that have a website for online bookings. Portals will serve a consolidator of various airlines and hotels on the internet. They work on a commission from these hotels and airlines. Often, they provide cheaper rates than the mainline service providers as these sites get bulk deals from the service providers. A meta search engine on the other hand, simply culls data from the internet on real time rates for various search queries and diverts traffic to the mainline service providers for an online booking. These websites usually do not have their own booking engine.

Careers

With the many people switching to self-service internet websites, the number of available jobs as travel agents is decreasing. Most jobs that become available are from older travel agents retiring. Counteracting the decrease in jobs due to internet services is the increase in the number of people travelling. Since 1995, many travel agents have exited the industry, and relatively few young people have entered the field due to less competitive salaries. However, others have abandoned the ‘brick and mortar’ agency for a home-based business to reduce overheads and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel products such as 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.

Cargo

A small number of companies work with cargo airlines and cargo ships.

See also

Hospitality industry

International Association of Travel Agents Network

Receptive Services Association of America

Travel technology

Notes

^ “Travel Agents”. Victoria (Australia): Business Licensing Authority. 2009. http://www.bla.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/Business+Licensing+Authority/Home/Travel+Agents/. Retrieved 1 July 2009.

^ “Travel & Tourism”. International Air Transport Association. 2009. http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/travel-tourism/. Retrieved 1 July 2009.

^ “First Choice-TUI merger cleared”. BBC News. 2007-06-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6720995.stm.

^ Andal-Ancion, Angela; Cartwright, Phillip A.; Yip, George S. (June 2003). “The Digital Transformation of Traditional Businesses”. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan Management Review. pp. Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 3441. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2003/summer/9/.

^ Edmunds, Marian (2002-03-12). “A wake-up call for the industry”. Financial Times. http://specials.ft.com/ftit/march2002/FT3Z9WRBNYC.html. Retrieved 1 July 2009.

^ “Media Kit”. Travel Agent (magazine). http://www.travelagentcentral.com/digital-media-kit/magazine-media-information. Retrieved 2008-12-28. “based on PhoCus Wright Travel Agency Distribution Landscape Study”

^ Rebecca Tobi (2002-10-28). “Wanted: young agents! Are young people shying away from careers in travel? Agents and travel school operators say yes. Look around your agencyee any young faces?”. Travel Weekly Vol 61, no. 43. p. 148149.

References

Bottomley Renshaw, Mike (1997). The Travel Agent (2nd ed.). Sunderland: Business Education Publishers Ltd. ISBN 1-901888-00-2. OCLC 228287734.

External links

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Commercial air travel

Airlines

List of all airlines List of passenger airlines List of regional airlines List of charter airlines

List of “firms” with multiple IATA coded “certificated air carrier holdings”

Industry associations

IATA ICAO ISTAT

Airline alliances

Oneworld Star Alliance SkyTeam

Ticketing

Airline Reservations System Airline ticket Airline timetable Boarding pass Codeshare agreement Continent pass Electronic ticket Flight cancellation Frequent flyer program Government contract flight Open-jaw ticket Red-eye flight Round-the-world ticket Standby Travel agency Travel search engine Warsaw Convention

Airport

Airline hub Airport Airport lounge Domestic airport International airport Regional airport

Luggage

Bag tag Baggage allowance Baggage carousel Baggage claim Baggage handler Checked baggage Lost luggage

Check-in

Airstair Airport check-in Airport security Boarding Gate

Seating

Aircraft seat map Airline seat First class Business class Premium Economy class Economy class Travel class

In flight

Aircraft lavatory Airline meal Airsickness bag In-flight entertainment Buy on board Inflight smoking

Aircrew

Deadheading Captain First officer Flight attendant Flight engineer Pilot Purser Second Officer Third Officer

Immigration

Arrival Card Departure Card Passport

Safety

Air traffic control Aircraft safety card Airline security Airport authority Airport police Civil aviation authority Flight data recorder Pre-flight safety demonstration Overwing exits

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Tourism

Types

Accessible tourism Adventure travel Agritourism Archaeological tourism Birth tourism Bookstore tourism Christian tourism Culinary tourism Cultural tourism Dark tourism Dental tourism Disaster tourism Drug tourism Ecotourism Extreme tourism Female sex tourism Garden tourism Geotourism Ghetto tourism Halal tourism Heritage tourism LGBT tourism Lists of named passenger trains Literary tourism Medical tourism Music tourism Nautical tourism Pop-culture tourism Poverty tourism Religious tourism Rural tourism Sacred travel Safaris Sex tourism Space tourism Sports tourism Sustainable tourism Township tourism Vacation Volunteer travel Water tourism Wildlife tourism Wine tourism List of adjectival tourisms

Hospitality

Hospitality industry Hospitality management studies Hospitality services General Manager Bed and breakfast Destination hotel Destination spa Front Desk Hostel Hotel Restaurant Hotel manager Motel Resort

Miscellaneous

Campus tour Gift shop Grand Tour Package holiday Passport Perpetual traveler Resort town Roadside attraction Seaside resort Ski resort Souvenir Staycation Sunday drive Tour guide Tour operator Tourism geography Tourism region Tourism Radio Tourism technology Tourist attraction Tourist destination Tourist trap Transport Travel agency Travel journal Travel literature Travel website

Industry organizations

and rankings

Caribbean Tourism Organization Convention and visitor bureau Destination marketing organization European Travel Commission South-East Asian Tourism Organisation Tourism in present-day nations and states Tourist information Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report Visitor center World Tourism Day World Tourism Organization World Tourism rankings World Travel and Tourism Council

Categories: Travel agencies | Airline ticketsHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from June 2007 | All articles needing additional references | Articles needing additional references from March 2009 | Wikipedia articles in need of updating

Works of Wonder Tour

Memorable Vacation

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