Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sales targets and switch selling
important role in promoting holidays and other travel
products. They should be changed on a regular basis
to provide customers with a new 'focal point' and as
a way of alerting clients to new products, late deals
and special offers. Displays should, at all times, look
professional and tidy. The use of hand written signs
and posters should be avoided, since they do little to
enhance the image of the product being sold or the
agency as a whole.
Staff in branches of the multiple travel agents have
their sales targets set by head offi ce, and sometimes
monitored by a regional manager. Owners and
managers of independent agencies agree targets
with staff on an individual basis. Sales incentives
are widely used in retail travel to encourage staff to
achieve general sales targets or sell a travel product
from a particular company, thereby earning their travel
agency extra commission. These incentives range from
bonuses and discounted holidays to high street shop
vouchers and travel goods. 'Switch selling' occurs when
a customer is persuaded to buy a different product to
the one originally chosen.
Racking policies and preferred
operators
'Racking' is the practice of deciding which brochures a
travel agency will put on its shelves. An agent's racking
policy is crucial to the holiday companies and other
principals looking to sell their products and services -
if their brochure is not on the shelves, sales are likely
to be low. The decisions on racking taken by the 'big
two' travel agency chains are particularly important.
Thomas Cook and Thomson/TUI have nearly 1,500
branches throughout the UK - a company whose
brochures are racked by these agencies has excellent
exposure to customers and can expect to generate
substantial sales volumes. As we discussed earlier in
this unit, vertical integration means that the racking
policies of the 'big two' will tend to favour their own
holiday companies' products and those of 'preferred
operators'. Independent agents, on the other hand,
are free to rack a wide range of companies' brochures.
Although more people are using the internet to search
for holidays and travel products, brochures still have an
important role to play in customers' holiday choices.
Activity 9.5
Using a local travel agency with which you are
familiar, describe its working practices, using the
previous sections of this unit as a guide.
This activity is designed to provide evidence for P2.
Technology
Advances in technology are revolutionising the
travel and tourism sector in general, and the work of
travel agencies in particular. Technological advances
include the growth of the internet for researching and
booking holidays, advances in computer systems,
changing reservation systems and new methods of
communication.
Commission levels
Using technology in retail travel
We saw on page 305 that commission levels vary
between products sold by retail travel agencies. Most
principals offer incentive commission to generate
more sales, where the percentage paid to the agent
increases as the sales volume rises. It's important to
remember that commission is not the same as profi t.
Out of the commissions that an agent receives, he or
she has to pay all the costs associated with running the
agency, including staff wages, heating, rent and rates,
telephone, postage, computer costs, insurance, etc.
The dramatic growth in the use of the internet is having
a major impact on the work of retail travel agents.
Travellers are increasingly using the internet to research
their holidays and make their own travel arrangements
direct with airlines, hotels, car hire companies, etc., a
process known as 'dynamic packaging', which offers
people greater fl exibility than buying standard package
holidays from a travel agency. All agents, whether part
of large, multiple chains or smaller independent agents,
