Leading travel companies offer Customized Tours as a crucial service. Although the expertise in group tours is high, customized tours demand extensive involvement from travel agents due to their complexity. Therefore, a proficient and motivated workforce of travel agents who are responsive to customer needs is necessary. However, this sector has been encountering challenges in three areas: personnel, procedures, and systems for completing customer orders.
The analysis will focus on the People and Processes aspects of these agencies. This report will cover the analysis approach and propose a competency model as a basis for evaluating people-related issues, recruitment, and training. It will also outline insights from mystery shopping, identify problems based on this primary research, and provide a set of recommended solutions for both people and processes.
The client has the option to select a mix of solutions for different subheadings based on what is practical and appropriate for them. The recommendation has been made with the intention of suggesting an easily implementable solution that requires minimal changes in the organization, incurs little to no cost, and is practically achievable. The analysis assumes that the management policy supports a “customer first” approach and emphasizes the significance of human resources.
The excel sheet presents a comparative study where each company is assigned points on a 5 point scale (5 representing the presence of a trait and 1 representing the absence) for each competency within a competency area. These individual competency points are then aggregated for each competency area and multiplied by their respective weights. The sum total of these scores indicates the level of favorable competencies possessed by a company in the travel agent industry, with a higher score indicating a higher level of favorable competencies.
The prices and offers data are not received on a daily or monthly basis, but rather seasonally by travel agents. Therefore, the information does not need to be frequently changed or updated. Preparing and saving data about different countries and set tour packages in advance is possible. Additionally, travel agents can create a document including the prices of various destinations within the same country, along with price quotes for places to visit and accommodations. This document can be utilized to generate customized tour package quotes based on customer requirements. It is feasible to construct an Excel database with a consolidated interface and one Excel sheet per country to contain country-specific information.
Lack of information about the destination: If the staff members lack information about the customer’s desired travel destination, they have several options to obtain the necessary information. Most travel agencies have partnerships with local tour operators in various countries who assist customers during their visits. Therefore, staff members can contact the tour operator associated with the desired country to gather all the required information for the customer’s trip. These tour operators offer pre-set tour packages and provide a list of activities for tourists to enjoy during their visit.
This can easily be used to quickly obtain information on current rates and share it with the customer. If the travel agent doesn’t have a partnership with a tour operator in the customer’s desired destination country, they can use the internet to browse the tourism board’s website of that country. This website typically includes information on recommended places to visit and various activities that tourists can engage in. Therefore, a wealth of information can be gathered from this resource. If any specific information is not available on the website, there are always contact numbers or email addresses provided by the tourism boards to assist with queries.
Additionally, the national airlines in each country provide details about various tour operators that can be reached locally. In addition, the websites of these airlines offer suggested itineraries for tourists exploring their respective countries. Furthermore, if a travel agent wishes to arrange the trip for their clients, the airlines have partnerships with hotels and tour operators, enabling convenient bookings. As a result, the exchange of information has become rapid and easily accessible today, benefiting travel agents. What is the appropriate approach when a customer desires activities beyond the typical tour?
Once again, the tourism department website offers various options for customers to explore and experience in their country, in addition to the suggested itinerary. A dedicated section on the website provides details about these excursions. The tourism board website of Switzerland provides information on skiing lessons offered on the Zuomfrow glacier, including rates and timings. On the other hand, the tourism board website of Germany features details about their Beer festival, including timing and season. Similarly, the tourism board website of Egypt provides information on rafting locations along the Nile. As a result, the travel agent can gather all this information and effectively create a customized tour package for the customer.
The staff members catering to FIT (Free Individual Traveller) must act as co-ordinators between different office departments such as ticketing, hotel booking, Visa, and accounts. In this role, the employee ensures that air tickets, hotel bookings, and visas are confirmed while monitoring the progress of these departments. This enables efficient and timely completion of work and keeps the customer well-informed about their tour package’s progress. Additionally, timely payment for the FIT tour can be achieved, as the customer will know when and how much to pay, enabling them to arrange funds on time.
Therefore, customer satisfaction and the firm’s image and brand value can increase by implementing strategies such as creating a separate department for Free Individual Traveller (FIT). In the current agency, staff can be hired specifically for catering to FIT and trained accordingly, allowing for the customization of tour packages for these tourists. Alternatively, the company can establish a dedicated department at the company headquarters, comprised of FIT experts with knowledge about different countries. Their primary responsibility would be addressing queries from all offices regarding information needed to cater to FIT, as well as planning FIT packages for those visiting the headquarters.
By having this team responsible for updating information about tours, events, and excursions in different countries, time and efficiency can be saved. Alternatively, the company could establish a call centre specifically for answering inquiries about various countries. These call centre employees can become experts on different countries by completing free certified courses available on tourism board websites, enabling them to provide travel solutions with confidence.
The course includes:
- The different places that a tourist can travel in their country, and what different activities that a tourist can explore in the country apart from the usual sight-seeing
- The modes of travel available in the country and the pattern of operation of these modes of transport
- The different events that take place in the country on a regular basis along with their timings, costs and frequency (E. G Opera in Sydney, Australia)
The tourism boards offer these certification courses at no cost for their respective countries. Upon completion, employees acquire comprehensive knowledge of the specific country. The obtained certificates are not lifelong and require periodic updates to maintain their validity. There are no limitations on the number of certificates an employee can obtain, allowing them to acquire as many certificates for as many countries as they desire based on their capabilities. Recruitment of suitable talents in the travel industry is a crucial concern.
Develop clear job descriptions based on the competency framework and utilize IT in recruitment. Establish a partnership with local colleges to provide them with a tourism diploma and an academic partner in their final year. Offer an industry-ready course for staff training, creating a mutually beneficial situation. Additionally, ensure that the staff catering to the FIT are knowledgeable about and practice essential skills.
If the staff can convince the FIT to travel on November 16th instead of the 18th, the travel agency would benefit in several ways. The agency has partnerships with the airline company for discounted bulk tickets and with hotels for group bookings. Therefore, the travel agent can book an additional 4 tickets at discounted prices and sell them at a higher premium to the FIT or pass on the discounts to the FIT. This not only gives the customer a cheaper deal but also a customized package tailored to their needs, resulting in a satisfied FIT.
In addition, the travel firm’s previous agreements with airlines and hotels based on volume are also accessible. This ultimately enhances the company’s brand value and increases their bargaining power when negotiating travel deals for their clients. Consequently, employees gain a more thorough understanding of their job responsibilities and have clearer guidelines to follow. This enables employees to educate customers in a more detailed and effective manner, resulting in higher customer satisfaction rates, increased repeat business, and an enhanced company image. Ultimately, these improvements lead to significantly higher profits. Performance evaluation serves as a tool to assess employee performance and is utilized for incentivizing, providing salary increases, and facilitating promotions.
Recommendations
- The travel agency can train the existing staff by providing specialized knowledge about the different countries by certified courses to cater to FIT.
- The travel agency can have or hire special staff for catering to only FIT.
- There can be a specialized staff only at the head-quarters with the overall knowledge about the different countries and can provide all the other offices with the information as and when required.
- The company can set up a call centre where the staff with adequate knowledge about the countries and all the activities and excursions possible in those countries, and their sole purpose would be to answer all the queries about the FIT about special packages for FIT in different countries.
- As the company has nationwide exposure, there can be a number of FIT at different places at one point of time, at different offices, in turn creating a pool of FIT for the company, which would then give the Management of the firm, a better bargaining power with the Airlines for tickets, the Hotels and Tour Operators for better deals, thus leading to better profits.
- The company can streamline the processes by giving a flowchart and a checklist which can be used during the first, intermediate and final meeting with the customer.
Conclusion
The client can achieve improved performance by implementing the recommended solutions, as long as proper periodic checks are conducted during implementation.
