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    Travel Business and More: Step-by-Step Startup Guide
    Travel Business and More: Step-by-Step Startup Guide
    Travel Business and More: Step-by-Step Startup Guide
    Ebook1,526 pages22 hours

    Travel Business and More: Step-by-Step Startup Guide

    By Entrepreneur magazine

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    About this ebook

    Pack Your Bags&hellipFull of Profits

    At over a billion dollars, the travel industry is evolving, creating new trends and new opportunities for eager entrepreneurs like you. Our experts take you step-by-step as you embark on your most exciting adventurestarting a business. Discover success as an independent travel or specialty tour professional offering unique opportunitiesin both geography and market nichethat even online discount travel sites can’t compete with.

    From exotic getaways to adrenaline-pumping extreme tours and time-saving technology to important regulations, learn how to conduct business by land, air, or sea. Led by our experts, find your travel niche, establish your business, price your time and packages, master important destination details, and much more. Plus, access an abundance of resources including important associations, travel-specific software, mailing lists, and in-the-trenches tips from successful travel and tour operators.

    Covers:
    Hot travel markets including: business, leisure, adventure, honeymoons, family, men only, women only, seniors, and more

    Designing and pricing your services and packages to compete in the travel marketplace

    Managing your finances

    Using efficient software systems and mobile technology for daily operations

    Complying with the rules of security and domestic and foreign travel

    Advertising and promoting online and in print

    Growing your business

    And more

    From finding your travelers to delivering a trip of a lifetime and everything in between, learn what you need to know to become a high-flying success!


    The First Three Years
    In addition to industry specific information, you’ll also tap into Entrepreneur’s more than 30 years of small business expertise via the 2nd section of the guide - Start Your Own Business. SYOB offers critical startup essentials and a current, comprehensive view of what it takes to survive the crucial first three years, giving your exactly what you need to survive and succeed. Plus, you’ll get advice and insight from experts and practicing entrepreneurs, all offering common-sense approaches and solutions to a wide range of challenges.
    Pin point your target market
    Uncover creative financing for startup and growth
    Use online resources to streamline your business plan
    Learn the secrets of successful marketing
    Discover digital and social media tools and how to use them
    Take advantage of hundreds of resources
    Receive vital forms, worksheets and checklists

    From startup to retirement, millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners have trusted Entrepreneur to point them in the right direction. We’ll teach you the secrets of the winners, and give you exactly what you need to lay the groundwork for success.

    BONUS: Entrepreneur’s Startup Resource Kit!
    Every small business is unique. Therefore, it’s essential to have tools that are customizable depending on your business’s needs. That’s why with Entrepreneur is also offering you access to our Startup Resource Kit. Get instant access to thousands of business letters, sales letters, sample documents and more all at your fingertips!


    You’ll find the following:

    The Small Business Legal Toolkit
    When your business dreams go from idea to reality, you’re suddenly faced with laws and regulations governing nearly every move you make. Learn how to stay in compliance and protect your business from legal action. In this essential toolkit, you’ll get answers to the how do I get started?” questions every business owner faces along with a thorough understanding of the legal and tax requirements of your business.

    Sample Business Letters
    1000+ customizable business letters covering each type of written business communication you’re likely
    to encounter as you communicate with customers, suppliers, employees, and others. Plus a complete guid
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEntrepreneur Press
    Release dateJul 15, 2012
    ISBN9781613082256
    Travel Business and More: Step-by-Step Startup Guide

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      Book preview

      Travel Business and More - Entrepreneur magazine

      001

      Every small business is unique. Therefore, it’s essential to have tools that are customizable depending on your business’s needs. That’s why Entrepreneur is offering you access to our Startup Resource Kit. Get instant access to thousands of business letters, sales letters, sample documents and more – all at your fingertips!

      Accessing Entrepreneur’s Free Startup Resource Kit is easy.

      Simply visit: www.entrepreneur.com/guideoffer

      and download to any windows or mac computer

      You’ll find the following:

      The Small Business Legal Toolkit

      When your business dreams go from idea to reality, you’re suddenly faced with laws and regulations governing nearly every move you make. Learn how to stay in compliance and protect your business from legal action. In this essential toolkit, you’ll get answers to the how do I get started? questions every business owner faces along with a thorough understanding of the legal and tax requirements of your business.

      Sample Business Letters

      1000+ customizable business letters covering each type of written business communication you’re likely to encounter as you communicate with customers, suppliers, employees, and others. Plus a complete guide to business communication that covers every question you may have about developing your own business communication style.

      Sample Sales Letters

      The experts at Entrepreneur have compliled more than 1000 of the most effective sales letters covering introductions, prospecting, setting up appointments, cover letters, proposal letters, the all-important follow-up letter and letters covering all aspects of sales operations to help you make the sale, generate new customers and huge profits.

      001

      Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

      Cover Design: Jane Maramba

      Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

      © 2012 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

      All rights reserved.

      Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Business Products Division, Entrepreneur Media Inc.

      This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

      Travel Business and More: Entrepreneur’s Step by Step Startup Guide, 2nd Edition

      978-1-61308-225-6

      Previously published as

      Start Your Own Travel Business and More, 2nd Edition, ISBN: 978-1-61308-099-3

      ©2012 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved.

      Start Your Own Business, 5th Edition, ISBN: 978-1-61308-010-8,

      ©2009 Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved

      Printed in the United States of America

      16 15 14 13 12                                                                                  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1 - Pack Your Bags!

      Splurging on Travel

      Mists of History

      If It’s Tuesday

      The Travel Industry Today

      Fulfilling Wanderlust

      On the Job

      The Travel Agent’s World

      You Can Do It Yourself

      Chapter 2 - The Right Stuff

      Counting Your Coconuts

      Are You the Travel Professional Type?

      The Emergence of a Travel Agent

      The Other Side of the Coin

      Concorde Dreams

      Future Forecast

      Travel Business Risks

      Chapter 3 - Meet the Homebased Travel Agent

      License or Not?

      Home, But Not Alone

      Taking on Ticketing

      Host Agencies

      Agencies to Avoid

      Your Homebase . . . Your Office

      Defining Your Space

      The Homebased Lifestyle

      Chapter 4 - Finding Your Travelers Market Research

      Defining Your Market

      Choosing Your Clients

      Researching Your Market

      Sizing Up the Competition

      Chapter 5 - Your Traveler’s Trunk Business Names, Structures, and More

      Name That Business

      Laying Your Foundation

      Choosing a Location

      Chapter 6 - Figuring Your Finances and Your Equipment Needs

      Start-Up Costs

      The Software Skinny

      Operating Expenses

      Let’s Go Shopping

      Funding Your Business

      Chapter 7 - The Travel Agent’s and Tour Operator’s Daily Operations

      The Travel Agent: A Day in the Life

      Give the People What They Want

      Price Your Time and Package

      So, What Else Will You Be Doing During Your Day?

      The Tour Operator: A Day in the Life

      Chapter 8 - All About Tours

      What You Need to Know

      Marketing Tours

      Group Tours

      Making Your Own Tours: Structural Elements

      The Airline Den

      And in the End

      Chapter 9 - All About Cruises

      Why You?

      Give the Cruisers What They Want

      Payment

      Stay Organized

      Make the Sale

      Cruise Dollars

      Cancellations!

      Chapter 10 - Get the Adrenalin Pumping! It’s Adventure Travel

      Do You Have a Niche?

      Chapter 11 - Seniors on the Move

      Catering to the Market

      Intergenerational Travel

      Travel Insurance for Seniors

      Chapter 12 - Advertising and Promotion

      Direct Mail

      The Wow! Brochure

      Mailing Lists

      Chapter 13 - Media Time

      The Golden Word

      Print Ads

      Your Web Site

      Public Relations

      Chapter 14 - Traveler’s Checks Controlling Your Finances

      Making a Statement

      Figuring Profits

      Sell the Big Ticket Items!

      The Tax Man Cometh

      Chapter 15 - Flying High or Bailing Out

      Love and Homework

      Yin and Yang

      Bumps on the Road

      Some Kind of Wonderful

      What Will It Be Like For You?

      Appendix - Travel Resources

      Glossary

      Index

      Preface

      You’re holding this book either in your hands, on your lap, or on your desk—probably dangerously near a spillable cup of coffee—because you’re one of those people who likes living on the edge. You’re contemplating starting your own business.

      This is one of the most exhilarating things you can do for yourself and for your family. It’s also one of the scariest.

      Owning your own business means you are the boss, the big cheese, the head honcho. You make the rules. You lay down the law. It also means you can’t call in sick (especially when you are the only employee) or let somebody else worry about making enough to cover payroll and expenses. Nor can you defer that cranky client or intimidating IRS letter to a higher authority: You’re it.

      We’re assuming you’ve picked up this particular book on starting and running a travel business for one or more of the following reasons:

      • You have a background in the travel field.

      • You have wanderlust in your veins and a permanently packed suitcase in your hall closet, and you think the travel business would be fun and exciting.

      • You have a background in speaking, training, or sales; and you like helping people learn new things about new places.

      • You have no particular experience with speaking, training, or sales but believe you can sell travel or help people experience travel in an entertaining, informative fashion.

      Which did you choose? (Didn’t know it was a test, did you?) Well, you can relax because there is no wrong answer. Any of these responses is entirely correct, so long as you realize that they all involve a lot of learning and a lot of hard work. They can also involve a heck of a lot of fun, as well as a tremendous amount of personal and professional satisfaction. Our goal here is to tell you everything you need to know to:

      • decide whether a travel business is the right business for you;

      • decide what area or areas in the travel business interest you

      • get your business started successfully;

      • keep your business running successfully; and

      • make contacts and advertise your business successfully.

      We’ve interviewed lots of people out there on the front lines of the industry, from all around the country, to find out how the travel business really works and what makes it tick. We’ve set aside places for them to tell their own stories and give their hard-won advice and suggestions—a sort of virtual round-table discussion group, with you placed right in the thick of things. (For a listing of these successful business owners, see the Appendix.)

      We’ve attempted to make this book as user-friendly as possible. We’ve broken our chapters into manageable sections on every aspect of start-up and operations, and we’ve left some space for your creativity to soar. Our pages are packed with helpful tips so you can get up and running on your new venture as quickly as possible. We’ve also provided an Appendix crammed with contacts and resources.

      So sit back—don’t spill that coffee! Get reading, and get ready to become a travel pro.

      1

      Pack Your Bags!

      Once upon a time, travel was only for the wealthy and the adventurous. It took a fair amount of capital, an inordinate amount of time and—unless you were going the luxury trans-Atlantic liner route on a first-class ticket—a willingness to accept discomfort as your due. Today, however, almost everybody travels, from backpack-toting students to briefcase-wielding corporate types, to retirees sporting group-tour name badges. Travel is a trillion-dollar industry that has skyrocketed since the first trans-Atlantic commercial jet took to the air back in 1957.

      Although we still tend to think of travel in terms of airline seats or trips in the family wagon, today’s touring encompasses far more than coach class to St. Louis or an endless drive to Toon World spent squabbling in the back seat with your siblings. You can choose from among a staggering number of cruises and specialty tours—everything from a trip down the Amazon studying ethnobotany with local shamans, to surf camp à la The Beach Boys, to walking, biking, hiking, or chocolate-bingeing tours. There are tours for gardeners, gourmet cooks, antiques lovers, and art history buffs, and tours based on auto racing, agriculture, rafting adventures, wine-tasting, exploring the historic world of King Arthur, dog sledding, storm chasing, llama trekking, caving, cattle driving, and more—much more! You can embark on adventure travel or take a more serene approach, as there are certainly a wide range of options, which we will cover in the various sections of this guide.

      This opening chapter takes a broad based look at the flourishing travel business. It’s a sort of in-your-lap TV-newsmagazine report without the commercials. We will delve into the steadily rising economic success of the field, dip into its secrets and—unlike any TV newsmagazine—help you decide whether it’s the business for you to pursue.

      Splurging on Travel

      According to the Travel Industry Association, travel and tourism generates $1.3 trillion in economic activity in the United States every year. That equates to $3.4 billion a day, $148 million an hour, $2.4 million a minute, and $40,000 a second, for those of you who like to be precise.

      002

      Stat Fact

      Thirty years ago, the average American went on vacation once a year and spent a leisurely two to three weeks off the job, says the United States Tour Operators Association. Today, people take shorter but more frequent vacations that average seven to ten days each.

      Even better, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the money people spend on travel is expected to continue to increase significantly over the next decade. With the current employment boom, rising incomes, and smaller-sized families, funds that formerly had to be doled out for necessities can now go toward splurging on luxuries like travel. People are marrying later than they used to, which makes for a considerable population of young urban 20- and 30-somethings with money to spend, unfettered by family cares. Not that marriage and family is slowing anyone down, as the increase in family travel also continues to spiral upward, as evidenced by the rash of no vacancy signs at any popular family fun destination. Also, with an everincreasing population of peppy seniors, more and more Americans are expected to travel for fun—watch out for those boomers! In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, many folks now take more than one vacation per year.

      But not all travel is recreation-oriented; business travel is also expected to increase.

      Mists of History

      The earliest tour operators have faded into the mists of history, unknown except as shadowy figures who might have organized groups of pilgrims for junkets to holy lands or to view ancient wonders like the Sphinx.

      In the summer of 1841, however, a Baptist missionary named Thomas Cook decided to send a group of people round-trip from Leicester to Loughborough in England for a temperance meeting. He got the Midland Counties Railway Company to take on these passengers at a group rate of one shilling per person—and thus was officially born the modern tour operator.

      From that modest beginning, Thomas Cook went on to fame and fortune. By 1851, he was arranging tours to the Great Exhibit in London, and in 1856, he organized a European grand tour. By the end of the 19th century, Thomas Cook & Son had blossomed into a major travel and tour operation that sent travelers around the world.

      003

      FunFact

      On August 25, 1919, Air Transport & Travel Ltd., the forerunner of British Overseas Airway Corporation, launched the world’s first scheduled international airline with service between London and Paris. Its maiden flight boasted one passenger and a cargo of Devonshire cream, newspapers, and grouse. Air travel was definitely an adventure—according to the British Airways’ web site, one pilot took two days to make the two-hour flight, making 33 unscheduled stops along the way.

      The Thomas Cook & Son firm had lots of emulators. According to the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), other budding tour operators probably got a jumpstart on the business while working as ticket agents for steamship lines and railways. Since the tour operators were already selling the journey itself in the form of tickets, it was only a small jump to the additional business of planning itineraries and booking hotels for their customers. Even today, many of the new independent travel agents were once sitting in a travel office cubicle working for an agency owner, before embarking on their own.

      By the 1850s—courtesy of Thomas Cook and others—you could commonly buy a railway tour; and soon after World War I, you could also purchase a steamship tour package. By 1927, prior to the Great Depression, the tour industry was beginning to thrive. However, it didn’t really soar until after World War II, when aviation technology made long-range commercial flights not only possible but also affordable. Since those heady days, the industry has continued to fly high. The USTOA estimates that, taken as a whole, its active members have logged more than 1,100 years in the travel business. If you imagine that number as a chronological dip backward in time, you can just make out, through the mists, an ancient tour operator booking his flock on a trip to Constantinople.

      If It’s Tuesday

      Leisure travel has come a long way since the cattle-car version of packaged tours made famous—or maybe infamous—by the 1969 film, If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. When the movie was first released, the USTOA says 95 percent of tour passengers were traveling on a passport for the very first time. Today, only 5 percent of tour and vacation passengers are passport newbies.

      If you haven’t seen If It’s Tuesday, you should. It’s charming and funny; and it depicts the quintessential escorted tour of the mid-20th century, in which an eclectic assortment of passengers are herded onto a bus for a whirlwind tour of about 14 European countries in 10 hectic days. But lest you think packaged tours are still like that—they’re not!

      Thirty years ago, says the USTOA, Western Europe was the destination of choice for most Americans, with few brave souls venturing anywhere else. Today, people are eager to visit far-flung outposts from China to the Antarctic to the Amazon. While back in 1969, 80 percent of escorted tours were whirlwinds, featuring a dozen countries in as many days, 80 percent of escorted tours in the new millennium are going to be regional, concentrating on a single country or region.

      004

      Stat Fact

      In 1969, only 2.3 million Americans traveled to Europe. Thirty years later, by 1999, that figure had swelled to 11.6 million. That’s a lot of tourists!

      Now, tourists are both more sophisticated and more adventurous. Many want to be active, rather than just viewing the sights experiencing everything from rappelling down cliff faces to participating in archaeological digs to joining the locals at a Scottish ceilidh (a Highland dance party, pronounced kay-lee). And while new-millennium travelers are eager for new experiences and more than willing to sample the unusual, they’re also more discerning and demanding. Travelers today know that all sorts of amenities are offered. Therefore, many are willing to pay more money to travel than ever before. However, travelers are looking for first rate accommodations whether it means a choice campsite or a suite at a five star hotel. Today’s travelers are a savvy, better educated group that have seen plenty of luxurious settings on television and the internet.

      The Travel Industry Today

      According to the United States Department of Commerce, there was a record $107.4 billion in international travel receipts—travel-related tourism spending, including passenger fares—for the United States in 2006.

      While this is a significant increase in the number of travelers and the amount of money being spent in the travel industry, the means by which the industry operates have changed significantly in recent years. The internet has played a major factor in altering the manner by which many travelers now book their vacations. For this reason, The United States Department of Labor points to the steady decline in commercial travel agencies over the past five years. It would appear that because people can now make hotel reservations, book air travel, and rent cars from their home computers (typically using one of several major discount web sites), the travel agent could be completely cut out of the picture. In addition, domestic airlines no longer pay commissions to travel agents, reducing revenue for such agents. These facts have indeed caused many commercial travel agencies to close their doors. Other agencies have had to start charging customers for their services, which has not sat well with many customers who were accustomed to airline and hotel commissions paying their travel agents.

      So, does this mean you should stop reading here? Not at all. It means you need to buckle down and work a little bit harder. It means you need to provide services the average traveler will not find so readily on a discount web site. It means you need to find a niche, provide tours for adventure travelers, college students, seniors, disabled passengers, or other numerous markets. It means offering the special amenities that a web site cannot offer and the knowledge necessary to navigate a discount web site.

      All of this means it’s time to join the rapidly growing world of independent travel agents, working primarily from homebased offices, sending people around the world, while enjoying the comforts of home . . . and making money to boot.

      Keep in mind that offsetting the adverse effect of the internet upon travel agencies is the increase in spending on travel and the growing number of travelers. Therefore, the overall increase in travelers means that there are enough people traveling via the discount web sites and utilizing the services of independent travel experts. Additionally, we are living in a world that has begun growing tired of poor customer service, or none at all.

      Travel agents can provide the much needed services, details, and nuances not found on web sites. For example, have you ever had to change a flight booked on a discount travel web site? Ever see a photo of a hotel room online and find that the room does not look at all like one in the photo? Ever booked a connecting flight online only to find that making the connection on time, from one end of the airport to the other, is virtually impossible for a mere mortal? Ever rent a budget car online and find that the schlep from the airport to the car rental location wasn’t worth saving a few bucks? And let’s not forget the tiny photo of a cruise cabin you saw on the internet that turned out to be actual size. Well almost.

      Slowly but surely, a growing percentage of customers are learning that saving money can be at the risk of enjoying their vacations. For this reason, the homebased travel industry is growing very rapidly, and while you don’t pass their offices on street corners, these travel agents are busily putting together well-thought-out packages for millions of travelers.

      The complexities of discount travel sites open up more business for an expert, much in the same way that stock brokers survived the glut of online trading businesses that sprung up in the late 1990s by providing additional services and expertise. Many uniformed buyers lost a bundle in the market, despite saving a few bucks on trading fees.

      Along with finding a niche in the travel market, you can handle the specific details, find the best tours to meet the specific needs of a client (not necessarily the cheapest) and put together more complex itineraries. In short, as a travel agent, you are reintroducing the much-needed human element back into travel planning.

      Fulfilling Wanderlust

      So, if you’re diligent and ready to find your market and make your mark, there are opportunities, room for growth, and plenty of scope for the creative entrepreneur. And let’s not forget fun! Many people go into the travel and tour business because they have a strong case of wanderlust and love to hit the high road, the low road, and all those fascinating avenues beckoning in between.

      Being a travel and tour specialist gives you terrific opportunities to do just that, for far less money than nonprofessionals pay. If you lead tours, of course, you’re out there on the journey along with your customers. There is also all the travel you have to do to choose the right sights and sites for your packages. If you’re a travel agent, you get lots of perks called fam trips. Fam is short for familiarization. A fam trip is a freebie or discount offered to travel agents by tour operators, resorts, and attractions (from wax museums to glass-bottom boat trips to amusement parks) in hopes you’ll fall in love with the offering and sell it to your clients. So in the name of legitimate research, you can take advantage of all sorts of low- or no-cost travel adventures. What other business offers this kind of perk?

      On the Job

      Now that we’ve discussed the industry, the question arises, what exactly does a travel and tour agent do? Good question! As a travel and tour professional, you can operate in one of two modes:

      1. As a travel agent. You’ll book clients on various tours and occasionally arrange (but not write) tickets so they can shuffle off to Buffalo or any other chosen destination by plane, train, or ship.

      2. As a specialty tour operator. You will design and implement the tours your travel agent colleagues will sell.

      We’re going to cover both of these modes in this book, with a little more emphasis on the travel agent, since it is often somewhat easier to pursue and there are so many possibilities that await. However, since they’re basically two sides of the same ticket, requiring much the same knowledge and skills, we recommend that you read through everything—even if it doesn’t seem at first glance to apply to the mode you may already have chosen.

      The Travel Agent’s World

      The first thing to keep in mind is that the actual environment of the travel agent has changed radically in the past few years. You may recall seeing travel agencies as storefronts with various retail cubicles, decorated with sheaves of Hawaiian cruise brochures and European vacation slicks, and tucked into downtown storefronts or out-of-the-way spaces at the local mall. Maybe you think customers find their way into one of these emporiums to purchase airline tickets, a Club Med holiday, or one of the traditional travel packages (called travel products in the business). For the most part, with the exception of a few major chains (such as Liberty Travel), this is no longer the case.

      The new trend is toward the homebased, independent travel agent with no walk-in traffic, and no airline tickets to write out. Homebased or independent travel agencies instead tend to focus on a particular market niche, as mentioned earlier. This might be the senior set, or people interested in educational tours.

      But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To explain the phenomenon of homebased travel agencies, let’s step back in time, to the days before computers ran the world.

      Dark-Age Ticketing

      In those barely remembered days (pre-1970s) when people wrote things out by hand, if you wanted to purchase an airline ticket, you had to trot on over to your local Pan Am or other air carrier’s ticket counter—assuming there was a local counter or office—and stand in line until it was your turn. Then you had to wait while the ticket agent looked up flights in a book and wrote out your ticket in longhand.

      Or—and this was a big time and effort saver—you could call your travel agent. He or she would then look up all the information in guides packed with eye-crossing small print, call the airline’s agency desk, reserve your flight, and write the ticket by hand from a supply in his desk drawer. The agent didn’t mind doing this because he or she got tidy commissions on all the fares.

      As the World Turns

      Then, in about 1975, the airline-ticketing world took a breathtaking turn with the introduction of the Computerized Reservation System or CRS. There are several CRS systems, each owned by a different airline or group of airlines; they all work in basically the same manner. Today, just about anybody with a home computer and internet access can reserve their own airline tickets; but back in the Brady Bunch era, computerized reservations were a major innovation.

      With this online system, travel agencies could bypass the agency desk, make the reservations themselves and then print out not only your ticket but even a boarding pass and itinerary. At first, this benefited everyone. The airlines were delighted because they no longer had to pay a union employee to work the agency desk, and the travel agents were thrilled because they could offer lightning-fast automated service to their customers.

      Travel agencies trumpeted the fact that they could give customers airline prices with no additional fees and with instant ticketing. And since even calling the airlines cost money, because they didn’t have toll-free numbers, customers rushed to take advantage of travel agency ticketing. It was so easy; everybody won.

      Of course, it wasn’t all quite that simple. At first, travel agencies had to qualify to get a CRS. If they didn’t show enough revenue to warrant a system, no amount of begging and pleading would get them one. By the time the ’80s rolled around, more than 16,000 travel agencies boasted CRS systems.

      Another Development

      Eventually, however, the bloom fell off the rose. The airlines decided they could spring for toll-free numbers to regain customers lost to travel agencies and put a halt to at least some of those agency commissions they were paying out. By the mid-1990s, customers had discovered that they could reserve their own tickets right from home with their personal computers, which took another notch out of travel agencies’ commissionable sales.

      Then, in 1995, the domestic airlines pulled the rug out from under the agencies by placing a cap on the standard 10 percent commission. This meant that instead of earning as much as $200 or more for each business or first-class flyer, agents now were restricted to $25 for one-way tickets and $50 for round-trip tickets. Adding insult to injury, the airlines then began cutting the standard 10 percent commission down to 8 percent in 1997. That, however, wasn’t the end. In October 1999, a number of air carriers dropped their commission rates to a dismal 5 percent, and in time eliminated commissions completely.

      Put in its simplest form, this means that it now costs a travel agent money to write that airline ticket. Travel agencies spent almost two decades persuading consumers to come to them for their ticketing needs; now they can’t afford to perform the service, and as noted earlier, this caused some travel agents to shut their doors and go into another business.

      Your Host

      Of course, there is more to being a travel agent than writing airline tickets. As we explained at the top of this section, homebased agents could not write tickets even if they wanted to. To do so, you have to have an appointment (which is sort of like a license) from the Airlines Reporting Corporation, familiarly known as the ARC. And the ARC doesn’t hand out appointments to an agency unless it’s housed in a commercial office space.

      So why not just rent that commercial space and be done with it? Well, there’s the overhead, for one thing. It’s far less expensive to run your office from a room in your home, which costs you nothing in rent or additional utilities, than to go the commercial route and have to worry about monthly leasing fees and office utilities. Then there’s the fact that, aside from the whims of the ARC, you really don’t need a commercial office space. Today’s independent travel agents conduct most of their business by phone and e-mail. They don’t rely on random customers who may or may not wander in, lured by that poster in the window, so a formal retail office is an anachronism.

      But how do you sell airline tickets if you can’t get an ARC appointment? Most homebased travel agents affiliate themselves with a host agency, which is a commercially-based outfit with an ARC appointment. The homebased agent is an independent contractor—sort of a freelance salesperson—finding and maintaining his or her own clients, selling travel products to them, and then splitting commissions with the host agency. When clients need airline tickets, the agent makes the arrangements but has the host agency do the actual ticket printing.

      The E-Ticket

      Back in the days when the Mousketeers still ruled Disneyland, an e-ticket was the one that got you on the fanciest and scariest rides, like the Matterhorn. Today, though, an e-ticket is the one that gets you into your airline seat without a boarding pass, at least without a traditional paper one. The e in e-ticket refers to electronic, and this sort of ticketless travel is one of the newest trends in the industry and a great time saver for passengers.

      In 1996, all four major Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS) programs made adjustments to allow for ticketless travel, and the major airlines began developing programs to implement it. There are currently several variations on the theme, but the basic idea is the same. When you make a reservation, you get a confirmation number instead of a paper ticket and boarding pass. You take this confirmation number and your photo ID (driver’s license, for example) to the airport, and you’re in. Having two IDs with you has become a good idea in an age of tighter security.

      The beauty of this system is that passengers do not have to wait to receive tickets or worry about losing or forgetting them. The beauty for the air carrier is that it saves money, reportedly up to $2 per ticket, which is a lot of money when you count the millions of tickets sold every year.

      This is a terrific relationship that truly works well for everyone involved. The homebased agent does not need to worry about that elusive ARC appointment, and the host agency gets additional profit with a minimum of extra work.

      The real reason this relationship is a winner is that there are many more products that can be sold than airline tickets, and these products will pay much higher commissions. Tours and cruises of all sorts abound, and the companies that provide them pay commissions of ten percent or more. Since many of these products are priced much higher than airline tickets, selling them is a lot more lucrative than selling seats on planes.

      005

      Bright Idea

      Do your homework! It’s worth the investment in your business to visit your location(s) and learn the lay of the land inside out. For example, if you want to sell the Bahamas, visit the resorts, dine at the restaurants, talk to the locals, visit the shops, and go to the seminars offered by the tourist bureau.

      What’s the split between host agency and homebased agent? It depends on how the contract is negotiated. Most go for a 70/30 or 80/20 split (with some as high as 90/10) with the host agency taking the lesser percentage. Since the host agency may be working with as many as 200 or 300 independent travel professionals such as yourself, the agency makes money off of the volume sold. In addition, independent agencies pay a monthly fee to affiliate with the host agency. This too is usually minimal. We will explore the relationship between host agencies and independent travel agents further throughout the book.

      You Can Do It Yourself

      If you find the right niche market, you may want to offer tours specifically for that market, or of a specific genre. Tour operators turn to travel agents to sell their products. They also sell their tours directly to consumers through magazines, direct mail, and by contacting associations and organizations that will be interested in their products. For instance, a tour operator would approach garden clubs to find consumers interested in tours of botanical gardens, or genealogy groups to find individuals interested in going on heritage tours. The reality is that today, you can make your own connections with all sorts of businesses that would love to have your travelers spend money in their establishments. This can be more time consuming and more difficult, but you can also serve as a tour operator if you are very well versed in a location and the various offerings the location provides.

      Like travel agents, tour operators are carving out business from formerly unexplored territories, both in terms of geography and market niche. While the traditional tour once packaged tourists of all ages, interests, and inclinations onto a bus and passed them lickety-split through Europe, smart travel marketers today are narrowing their sights and increasing their revenues. Some specialty travel firms focus on a specific interest or hobby such as bicycling, bird watching, art history, archaeology, or murder mysteries, and they organize tours designed specifically around them. Others hone in on a particular region, like the Scottish Highlands or the Greek Islands, and give their clients the full flavor of the area in ways they could never experience on the old If It’s Tuesday tour.

      006

      Stat Fact

      According to the United States Tour Operators Association, a 14-day, escorted first-class tour to China would have cost $1,782 in 1980—which in today’s money would be $3,524. A similar tour now would cost less than $2,500.

      Specialty tours can range from the rugged to the relaxed. Everything from a strenuous mountain trek, with all the thrills of altitude sickness and incipient frostbite, to a luxurious stay at a secluded European villa can be offered.

      Read All About It!

      The written word is a powerful learning tool. One of your first steps in your new venture should be reading everything you can. Blitz the bookstore. Make an assault on your public library and scour web sites so you know what’s out there. There are literally tons of pages of material written about travel.

      Your own business library should contain a plethora of start-up tools. For starters, check out the following:

      • Home-Based Travel Agent: How to Cash in on the Exciting New World of Travel Marketing, by Kelly Monaghan, Intrepid Traveler

      • How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency, by Tom Ogg and Joanie Ogg, Tom Ogg & Associates

      • Start and Run a Profitable Tour Guiding Business, by Barbara Braidwood, Susan M. Boyce, and Richard Cropp, Self Counsel Press

      • Conducting Tours: A Practical Guide, by Marc Mancini, Delmar Publishers Don’t stop with these. Immerse yourself in the subject. The more you know, the better travel professional you’ll be. Read all about it!

      Adventure travel is a popular ticket, and includes trips focusing on a variety of pursuits, from hiking to rafting to trekking to learning about the culture and wildlife of a particular country. Sometimes these tours are the Rough Guide version, where you sleep in tents and eat around campfires. Sometimes they offer the best of both adventure and elegance, as on safaris where guests traverse the bush during the day, spotting lions and rhinos, but spend their nights in first-class hotels.

      The ecotour is another hot ticket, featuring trips to ecologically sensitive areas like the Amazon or the Antarctic, to study the flora and fauna and interact with native people—just like on The Discovery Channel or National Geographic!

      We’ll talk more about Tours and Adventure travel later on in the book. For now, you can just use these ideas as a springboard.

      You may also need to locate outfitters and suppliers. This won’t be necessary if you’re doing tours of Des Moines After Dark, but will be a valid concern if you’re doing African safaris or river running.

      Now you know why specialty and niche travel wasn’t always hot, why it is now, and why it’s likely to become an even hotter industry as we move further into the 21st century. But there’s more to it than just being hip. You also need to consider the weighty issues that come with starting up any business, including what to expect in the way of start-up expenses, how much you can expect to earn, and whether you’ve got what it takes. So buckle up for the next exciting chapter—let’s go!

      2

      The Right Stuff

      As we discussed in our wind-up of Chapter 1, there’s a lot more to being a travel specialist than just a love of travel or a desire to hop into a potentially lucrative industry. In this chapter, we’ll explore the up-close and personal issues involved in starting a travel business, including the skills you’ll need, as well as the start-up expenses and profits you can expect before launching into any type of travel business.

      Counting Your Coconuts

      What can you expect to make as a specialty travel professional? The amount is up to you, depending only on how serious you are and how hard you want to work. As an independent travel agent, you can make $25,000 to $50,000 net annual income by selling low-end products, like Carnival cruises or trips to Hawaii, says Tom Ogg of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents. This income figure reflects part-time revenue, not a full-time effort. And while selling these low-end products is a fairly unsophisticated type of selling, according to Ogg, the income estimate is based on the efforts of serious and professional agents, not dabblers.

      Full-time agents, working at their best, have the potential for much higher incomes. I know outside agents who make $6,000 a year and some who make $70,000 a year, says Connie G., a travel agent with 21 years of experience in the industry, including seven years as an independent agent. It depends on how hard and how smart they want to work.

      According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics, as of mid 2004, median annual earnings of travel agents was $27,640 with the top 10 percent earning over $44,000. However, this does not reflect the growth of homebased individual travel agents, who are not salaried, and work on their own, thus giving them a potentially higher ceiling if they are determined. This new breed of self-employed entrepreneurs can top the $50,000 mark and even the $90,000 mark, or more, in revenues with ingenuity and the low overhead that a home base offers. Of course, this will take some time.

      Not unlike any new business, starting a travel business of any type is slow going in the early stages. For that reason, many newcomers start handling travel as a part-time business while maintaining another job (with flexibility) to keep the money coming in.

      Meanwhile, if a full-time travel business is your goal, you will likely want to build relationships with several tour operators and evaluate which host agency you can affiliate with to get in on the many potential travel products out there to be sold.

      Revenue figures can soar or plummet depending on many variables. A one-person operation that does half-day city walking tours will have a far different bottom line than a multi-employee company that runs 14-day European adventures. Much of it will depends on how much you are ready, willing, and able to take some (calculated) risks based on your knowledge of the business.

      As a start-up, you shouldn’t expect to earn big bucks immediately. It’s high risk, low return, says Jerry Mallett of the Adventure Travel Society, a nonprofit association for adventure travel professionals. But it’s also a lot of fun, according to Mallett, who says, It’s a lifestyle situation.

      007

      Stat Fact

      According to the Travel Industry Association of America, camping is the number-one item on the hit parade of vacation activities in the United States. The average age of traveling campers is 37, and their average household income is $43,000.

      It looks easy, like you can just put an ad in a magazine and develop the idea, says Barry S., a specialist in car race tours who has been in the business for 18 years, and whose company boasts revenue in the millions. But it isn’t easy. It’s a matter of really sticking at it. After about seven years, I was at a point where I was doing $1.2 million and not making any real profits and wondering why I was doing it. But I loved it and continued, and then it started growing from there.

      This is not to say that as a tour operator, or booking agent, you won’t earn a living for seven years, but you should be prepared to grow your company by degrees rather than expect an overnight success. To make the most of your new company—be it an independent travel agent or an adventure or specialty tour operator—find out as much as you can from the start. This book is a good beginning. Its pages will guide you through the many stages of starting a travel-oriented company. However, researching the specific type of business you want to run and the niche in which you want to specialize will be up to you.

      Crank-Up Costs

      One of the Catch-22s of being in business for yourself, any business, is that you need money to make money. In other words, you need start-up funds. For the travel and tour business, these costs typically range from $5,000 to $40,000. You can start out homebased, which means you won’t need to worry about leasing office space. Depending on how you choose to run your company, you may not need employees either, at least for starters. Your major outlays will be for a computer, software, a printer, a fax machine, and internet access which whittles down your other initial expenses to advertising and marketing—both of which are very important expenses.

      Sounds good, and it is—except that direct-mail advertising, or any type of marketing campaign, can carry a hefty price tag. This is not to say your start-up costs will be astronomical. You can start with a limited investment, but you’ll have to go heavy on creativity, and you’ll have to try even harder than the next guy or gal to focus your energies on your specific target market.

      Are You the Travel Professional Type?

      OK, you have decided that running a travel business is potentially profitable. You are willing to invest not only the money but also the time it will take to learn the ropes and become an established professional. What else should you consider? Personality and temperament. Not everybody is cut out to be in the travel business. This is not a career for the creatively challenged. It is not a career for someone who does not like to interact with other people. It is not a career for the chronically disorganized. It takes lots of foresight to figure out what will be a winning program, to design and construct it so that it turns a profit, and to promote it effectively. As a travel agent, you don’t have to design tours, but you’ll need the people skills to match clients with tours and make the sale. If you’re one of those folks who’d rather undergo a root canal than have to come up with a peppy marketing plan, then you don’t want to be in the tour business. If you are a sales-challenged type who cringes at the thought of persuading people to buy a product, you also might be happier doing something else.

      This is also not a career for people lacking in the time management department. Tours must be planned and organized months in advance, with everything from the tour guide to the motor coach to the dining reservations nailed down early on. As a travel agent, you must be aware of deadlines for ticket, tour, and hotel reservations and must be able to pull all the varied segments of a client’s trip into a cohesive whole. If you’re a star procrastinator who can’t seem to get started on anything until the 11th hour, then you should definitely look elsewhere for entrepreneurial satisfaction. But if you delight in dreaming up sparkling programs and star-spangled advertising ideas, if you’re an efficient time manager and organizer, and if you love finding the best match for the vacationer looking for a great trip, then this is the career for you.

      The Emergence of a Travel Agent

      Travel professionals come from all walks of life. The travel agents we interviewed for this book had a variety of alternate careers, from police captain to full-time mom. The tip here is that these entrepreneurs figured out how to make their backgrounds and interests work for them in their new careers in the travel business.

      Cruising for Fun

      Our love of cruising is how this whole thing got started, says Jim T., who, along with his wife Nancy, runs a cruise-oriented travel agency in Dunkirk, Maryland. We took our first Caribbean vacation to St. Thomas in 1989 and just absolutely fell in love with the area. We went back in 1990 on a cruise; and like the commercial about potato chips, we had one, and we were hooked.

      Traits of the Trade

      Hey, kids! Take this fun quiz and find out if you have what it takes to become a travel and tour specialist.

      1. My idea of a fun evening is:

      a. watching five straight hours of the Travel Channel.

      b. snuggling up with a hot toddy and a rough draft of my advertising copy.

      c. cruising around town singing Travelin’ Man.

      2. Here’s how I usually send Christmas gifts to relatives living out of state:

      a. I wait until December 24th, stuff the gifts into bags with the addresses scribbled in crayon, then rush down to the post office and stand in a huge, snaky line with all the other procrastinators, hoping my gifts arrive in time and intact.

      b. I wrap my gifts carefully in specially selected packaging no later than December 10th, call my pre-designated FedEx or UPS courier (already checked to see which is cheaper and faster), and then follow up to make sure the gifts have arrived on time and intact.

      c. I hope no one notices I forgot to send gifts.

      3. Here’s how I manage my library books:

      a. I return them as soon as I receive the first overdue notice.

      b. I carefully note the due date and return them on or before that date.

      c. I start looking for them under sofa cushions and through the dogs’ array of chew toys when I get the collection letter from the city attorney’s office.

      4. When out-of-town guests arrive at my home for a week:

      a. I quarantine myself in the bedroom.

      b. I take them to several exciting local restaurants and drive them around town, showing them the sights, giving anecdotes about local features, and introducing them to interesting people.

      c. I leave a city map and some bus fare on the guest room night stand.

      5. I would best describe my self-motivational abilities as follows:

      a. I’ll get to it eventually.

      b. I love setting and meeting goals and accomplishing tasks.

      c. My self-starter frequently gets stuck.

      Answers: If you chose (b) for each answer, then you passed with flying colors! You’ve got what it takes to become a specialty travel and tour pro. You’re organized, an efficient time manager, and self-motivated.

      008

      Fun Fact

      The colossal 142,000-ton Royal Caribbean cruise ship Voyager of the Seas boasts a 1,350-seat theater, a vertical rock wall for climbing 200 feet above sea level, an inline skating track, an ice skating rink, a full-sized basketball court, a golf course and golf simulator, and the largest casino afloat to date.

      Jim and Nancy both had high-stress careers, he as a police captain in greater metropolitan Washington, DC, and she in a county finance department. Cruising was the perfect answer, Jim explains, getting away and letting somebody take care of us for a week. We started doing a cruise a year as a vacation and escape form, and it got to the point where several of our friends were coming to us for advice about cruise lines and destinations. After our reviews, a couple of them said jokingly that maybe we should do this for a living.

      Jim was nearing retirement from the police department, and the idea of dealing with cruise ships instead of criminals began to sound pretty good. After researching the industry, Jim enrolled at a local travel school, took a 15-week course in the evenings and on weekends, and obtained his travel agent certification.

      We decided that, rather than go to work for somebody else as we’d been doing all our careers, we’d be our own entity—no franchises, no working for anybody, just doing it on our own, Jim says. And, in February 1996, we started the company. Jim and Nancy are still going strong on their own and are about to hit their five-year goal of $500,000 in annual gross sales.

      After almost 25 years in law enforcement, Jim explains, I wanted to get into something where people were coming to you with a smile on their faces and were hopefully leaving the same way. The travel business has lived up to that reputation.

      Again, Mom?

      Roberta E. also runs a cruise-oriented agency in Brayson, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. She too was hooked on cruises long before she opened her own company. Roberta, a full-time mom, took the helm when she found that cruise agencies were sloppy about returning calls—even when she wanted to purchase a cruise. So she decided to become her own agent, as well as an agent for other travelers, and enrolled in the Cruise Lines International Association (familiarly known as CLIA) certification program. This certification is similar to an ARC appointment in that it allows you to book cruises directly with the lines instead of going through a host agency.

      The certification can take time, requiring that you visit five to ten different cruise ships and sail on two cruises, in addition to completing study courses and seminars. According to Roberta, it’s a never-ending process. I continually go to seminars and keep studying up on the industry, she says, after two years in the business. What about those mandatory cruises? My husband and my kids always say the same thing, Roberta says with a smile. Again, Mom?

      009

      Fun Fact

      Celebrity Cruises is known in the industry for its posh suitetype staterooms, which include such highfalutin extras as 24-hour butler service, personalized stationery, and private portrait sittings.

      Boring—Not!

      Connie G. has been a travel agent for 21 years. I had a storefront ARC office for six years, the Glenolden, Pennsylvania, resident says. About seven years ago, Northwest and American airlines got into a bit of a snit with each other, and the next thing I knew we were all in a half-fare war. It hit me when I was pulling 20 hour days—and ultimately losing money in airline tickets in that quarter—that the airlines had too much control over my business. I decided I wanted less dependence on airline tickets, so I’d have to forego the storefront. That’s when I went homebased.

      Connie’s operation has been completely independent for the last four years. She has developed a niche market, specializing in tours and cruises for Christian and physically challenged travelers, and acts as a host agency for four other independent agents who are scattered throughout the country. Our CLIA and other affiliations entitle the independent agents to take advantage of them without the expenses of having to pay these subscriptions and dues, Connie explains. Our business relationship with our suppliers (tour operators, cruise lines, etc.) gives them the buying power they wouldn’t have being on their own. Plus they have help, backup, marketing ideas, etc., with a host agency.

      Connie delights in being an independent agent. Ten or twelve years ago we were all selling the same thing, she says. Now you can be creative, develop your interests, and deal with what you want. I’ve always hated issuing airline tickets—to me it was the most boring thing an agent did, other than filing brochures. Now selling travel is exciting.

      The Other Side of the Coin

      On the other side of the travel coin are the tour operators. Like the travel agents we interviewed, the tour operators we spoke to have also come from varied backgrounds, and only one had any experience in tourism when starting out.

      A Dream Come True

      I don’t think I’ve done a tour or event where someone didn’t ask ‘How did you ever get started doing this?’ says Terry S., who runs city-walking tours and events in Seattle, Washington. Most are just curious, but occasionally someone would like to do the same thing themselves. I encourage them but try to explain that there is much more to it than just walking around. My sound bite answer is something like ‘I lost my computer industry job and decided to try something different.’ But there’s more to it than that.

      The more to it is that Terry had a very successful career in computer programming and product management until 1989, when his employer decided to drop out of the computer business. The company handed out pink slips to all 7,000 of the information systems employees on a single red-letter day. They also asked Terry to stay on and wind down operations, which he did.

      Terry explains, "During the wind-down, I pursued computer industry jobs but found that 1) the best opportunities—and I had some great offers—required I move from Seattle, which was a no-no for me; and 2) locally they wanted me to start at the bottom from whence I came. This circumstance caused me to think about what else I would like to do that I felt I could do well.

      I adopted the philosophy that there’s more to life than computers and that I didn’t need to make as much money as I had in the past. With this mindset, I reflected on the traveling I had done in the United States and around the world, both for business and on my own. When I got to a city, I would try to see as much as possible, often on a guided tour. And I would say to myself ‘What a great job these tour guides have. I’d like to do that.’ But then, like waking from a pleasant dream, I’d be back at my computer job. Now I had a real chance to act on my dream—the real inspiration for me behind my company.

      In 1993, Terry started by putting brochures in hotels, getting listed in the AAA (Automobile Association of America) Tour Book, and joining the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau. I made almost no money the first two years with just my walking tour. Then I created my Mystery & Scavenger Hunt and my web site. Business picked up dramatically and continues so today, explains Terry.

      Concorde Dreams

      Further down the West Coast, in Southern California, Barry S. also started off on a wing and prayer. Barry decided to get into the travel business just over 20 years ago. I worked for the Orange County Transit District, recalls the tour operator from Newport Beach. We had a demand-responsive bus system with 70 to 80 buses out on the streets, running around like taxis, and a computer that crashed three times a day. At one stage I had 50 percent of my staff out on stress-related leave, and I thought ‘This is crazy, living a life like this.’

      I decided I had to do something for the rest of my life that I enjoyed doing, Barry explains. It was really a matter of finding what I loved, which was car racing. So I went with the idea of doing car racing tours.

      010

      Fun Fact

      The first Paris to New York nonstop flight was made in early September 1930, when Dieudonné Coste and Maurice Bellonte set the record with a 37-hour stint in a Breguet biplane.

      But it wasn’t quite that simple. There were other companies in other countries that were doing the same thing, Barry says. "I thought I’d copy what they were doing, but I had no experience in the travel industry. I spent a year and took in total sales of $20,000. If you can imagine, it was pretty disastrous because my expenses were something like $40,000. I wasn’t working at it full time; I carried on with my job and ran the company on the side. My brother came over from England. He worked, and I didn’t pay him anything—it was a way of getting started.

      The second year we went out and found some more money and did $18,000 worth of business. I was working full time at it then, but it still didn’t make any money, so I had to go out and get more funding. This went on for a few years. It was a struggle, explains Barry, adding that it took about ten years to turn the company into something he could really see a future in. "We developed a name, a logo, and we’re known as the leading

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