TRAVEL AND TOUR BUSINESS IN THAMEL

By

Bimala Saud
Section: Dream
Symbol number: 17030031
PU Registration number: 2016-2-03-0268

A project work submitted to Pokhara University in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration

at the
Apex College
Pokhara University

Kathmandu, Nepal
August, 2019
 i

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work report entitled “TRAVEL AND TOUR
BUSINESS IN THAMEL” submitted for the BBA is my original work and the Project
Work Report has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or other
similar titles.

______________________

Signature of the Student

Bimala Saud

Date
 ii

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Work entitled “TRAVEL AND TOUR BUSINESS IN
THAMEL” submitted by Bimala Saud (17030031) for the partial fulfillment of the
requirements of BBA embodies the bonafide work done by him/her under my
supervision.

______________________
Signature of the Supervisor
Name
Date

______________________
Signature of Program Head
Name
Date

______________________
Signature of the External Examiner
Name
Date
 iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The summer project entitled “TRAVEL AND TOUR BUSINESS IN THAMEL” has
been prepared to fulfill the partial requirements of degree Bachelor in Business
Administration for 6th semester, Apex college affiliated to Pokhara University.

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Anjan Jyakhwo for his guidance
for completing the project. He has guided in each and every step of this report without
losing his patience and encouraging doing my best. I am thankful to him for his feedback,
suggestion and continuous reinforcement, which helped me in every step of this project.
My gratitude also goes to all the respondents for giving their precious time in fulfilling
the questionnaires and helped with the continuation of this project.

Last but not the least, I send my gratitude to those who have contributed directly and
indirectly for the accomplishment of this project. With the help and support from the
supervisors and friends, I am able to show my appreciation for the things I have learned,
the motivation I gained throughout the project.

Bimala Saud
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION..................................................................................................................i

CERTIFICATE....................................................................................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................iv

LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................vii

LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................viii

CHAPTER I.........................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1

1.1 Background................................................................................................................1

1.2 Statement of the problem...........................................................................................2

1.3 Objectives of the study..............................................................................................2

1.4 Significance of the study...........................................................................................2

1.5 Literature Review......................................................................................................3

1.6 Research Gap.............................................................................................................7

1.7 Research Methodology..............................................................................................7

1.7.1 Primary Data.......................................................................................................7

1.7.2 Secondary Data...................................................................................................8

CHAPTER II.......................................................................................................................9
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DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS.....................................................................9

2.1 Respondent’s Profile..................................................................................................9

2.1.1 Age......................................................................................................................9

2.1.2 Gender...............................................................................................................10

2.1.3 Educational Qualification.................................................................................11

2.2 Background of the organization...............................................................................12

2.2.1 Year of completion of business........................................................................12

2.2.2 Type of the organization...................................................................................13

2.2.3 Association of agency with International brand...............................................13

2.3 Capital......................................................................................................................14

2.3.1 Initial Investment..............................................................................................14

2.3.2 Source of Capital..............................................................................................15

2.3.3 Office Details....................................................................................................16

2.4 Operation.................................................................................................................17

2.4.1 Number of Branches in operation.....................................................................17

2.4.2 Number of employees.......................................................................................18

2.4.3 Annual Revenue................................................................................................18

2.5 Expenses..................................................................................................................19

2.5.1 Annual Variable expenses................................................................................19

2.5.2 Annual Fixed expenses.....................................................................................20

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2.6 Service.....................................................................................................................21

2.6.1 Major Service provided by the agency.............................................................21

2.6.2 Exchange or Exchange service.........................................................................22

2.6.3 Emergency facilities.........................................................................................23

2.6.4 Communication method to interact with agency..............................................23

2.7 Promotion................................................................................................................24

2.7.1 Promotion Campaign........................................................................................24

2.7.2 Strategy frequently used by the agency for promotion.....................................25

2.7.3 Discount Offer..................................................................................................26

2.8 Main findings and Discussions................................................................................26

CHAPTER III....................................................................................................................28

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION..................................................................................28

3.1 Summary of the findings.........................................................................................28

3.2 Conclusion...............................................................................................................30

REFERENCES..................................................................................................................32

APPENDIX........................................................................................................................34
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Age of Respondents..............................................................................................9

Table 2: Gender of Respondents........................................................................................10

Table 3: Educational Qualification of the respondents......................................................11

Table 4: Year of completion of business...........................................................................12

Table 5: Type of business..................................................................................................13

Table 6: Association of agency with International brand..................................................13

Table 7: Initial Investment.................................................................................................14

Table 8 : Source of Capital................................................................................................15

Table 9: Office Details.......................................................................................................16

Table 10: Number of Branches in operation......................................................................17

Table 11: Number of employees........................................................................................18

Table 12: Annual Revenue of the firm..............................................................................19

Table 13 : Annual Variable Expenses...............................................................................19

Table 14: Annual Fixed Expenses.....................................................................................20

Table 15: Major Service of the agency..............................................................................21

Table 16: Refund of the package.......................................................................................22

Table 17: Method of interaction........................................................................................23

Table 18: Promotion of the agency....................................................................................24

Table 19: Strategy used for Promotion..............................................................................25

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Age of the respondents.........................................................................................9

Figure 2: Gender of Respondents......................................................................................10

Figure 3: Type of business.................................................................................................12

Figure 4: Association of agency with International brand.................................................12

Figure 5: Initial Investment of the firm.............................................................................13

Figure 6 : Number of employees.......................................................................................15

Figure 7: Annual revenue of the firm................................................................................16

Figure 8: Annual Variable expenses..................................................................................17

Figure 9: Annual Fixed Expenses......................................................................................18

Figure 10: Major Service provided by the agency.............................................................19

Figure 11: Refund or Exchange of service........................................................................20

Figure 12: Method on interaction......................................................................................21

Figure 13: Promotion done by agency...............................................................................22

Figure 14: Promotion Strategy used for Promotion...........................................................23

 1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Traveling is an inevitable and extraordinary experience that every person needs. People
travel for various purposes. It can be for work, recreation, exploring, etc. Too often
people get wrapped up on their lives so they need some time to regain their energy and
refresh themselves. The experience gathered and the means chosen for traveling differs
from person to person. These days traveling are more accessible than ever and everyone
has their favorite travel style. No matter how often people travel, they put the details of
travel process in such a way that they could save time and make travel as pleasant as
possible. And to make these trips successful we need travel agencies that assist us in
planning the trip.
Travel and tour business in Nepal has been one of the major income sources in 2063/ 64,
the contribution of this sector to the total domestic production was 1.2 percent. Tourism
has got a great prospect in Nepal due to the natural beauty cultural diversity and
geographical structure, tourism has proved to be very important in Nepal. Tourism
industry has played a significant role in the up liftment of Nepalese economy. It
contributes the 10.4% of total foreign exchange and 2.9% of gross domestic economy. It
also has direct effect on social-cultural and economic life of Nepalese people. The door
of tourism was only opened in Nepal with the ascent of Mr. Everest in 1953 then Nepal
became open to foreign tourist. The western aggravated by the impact of Second World
War, attracted by easily available marijuana. It was free at that time flocked to Nepal.
The tourism industry achieved next landmark for its promotion and up liftment after
establishment of Department of Tourism in 1959 by the Government efforts. The tourism
act is promulgated in 1964. The effort for tourism development in Nepal continued with
the design of master plan tourism in 1972.

Among the various places of Kathmandu, Thamel is basically considered as one of the
tourist hub. Since it attracts a large number of tourists, there are large number of travel
agencies established in this area, providing travel related services to the tourists.
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Therefore, this place stands to be an apt place for my research regarding tour and travels
and I am curious to know about the various services provided by the travel and tour
agencies of this place.

1.2 Statement of the problem

In Nepal, travel and tour business is playing a crucial role. It has become one of the major
sources of foreign exchange earnings. The potentiality on tourism is very high in Nepal
due to the attractions like natural beauties, unique culture and traditional, rivers,
mountains, cave etc. At the present Nepalese tourism industry surrounded by numerous
problem such as lack of effective plan policy and strategy, effective marketing,
infrastructure, superstructure, security and so on.

Travel business of the country is vast but there are limited factors to gain the potential of
this industry. Poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate marketing strategy has resulted in
the limited growth. The problem is that if this business is able to deal with the customers
efficiently. How does the travel agency handle the situation when the customer is not
satisfied with the tour packages? Similarly what are the preferred means of traveling
favored by the tourists?

1.3 Objectives of the study

 To describe how travel business perform in the market.
 To know how it deals with the customers.
 To understand the preferred means of traveling by the people.
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1.4 Significance of the study

Travel business has played an important role in economical sector in Nepal and it is
expected to bloom in upcoming years too. Tourism contributes towards complete growth
and development of a country by bringing numerous economic value & benefits helping
in build country's image & identity. Tourism industry goes beyond attractive destinations,
to being an important economic growth contributor. It also provides indirect employment
to the community, such as tour guides, hotels, airlines, and more. It has also a social
benefit that it can bring a real sense of pride and identity to communities and encourage
the preservation of traditions.

This research study will make us familiar with the business related to the travel agencies.
How the travel business face the challenges regarding the dynamic environment,
inflation, natural calamities and many more.

1.5 Literature Review

A literature review includes a summary of the body of knowledge based on journal
articles, books, and other sources. The purpose of this literature review is to examine
each of study’s variables through historical perspectives and current findings to
understand the topic.

This topic basically contains basic theories relating to the concept of travel and tour
business, marketing strategies formulated by the agencies from various websites and
books. It also talks about how travel agencies are emerging in Nepal. Several theories
have been put forward by scholars to explain the field of travel and tour business. Some
of them are listed below:

Djeri, (2016) relates travel agencies play a very important role in the tourism market.
Contribution of travel agencies is a result of the role that they have in tourist traffic and
travel facilitation. They appear as mediators between tourists that require a range of
services and business entities that provide those services. Their main task is, therefore, to
connect a large number of subjects on the tourism demand side and a number of entities
(public and private sector) on the supply side.
 4

Milicevic, (2016) says, “Only those travel agencies that meet the expectations and
demands of tourists in terms of quality of services will be able to retain the existing and
attract new tourists. The quality of services of travel agencies is what distinguishes a
successful travel agency from others. The tourists from their perception of the quality of
service of a travel agency before travel, during travel, during their stay at the destination
and after return from trip. One of the key factors in achieving and maintaining
competitive advantage of travel agencies in the market is a high quality of services
provided and customer satisfaction.”

Yadav, (2018) tells that travel agencies are among such private sector wings which are
responsible to bring or has contributed to great extent to invite lots of tourist from all over
the world. So to great extent promotion of tourism by these travel agencies has direct
correlation with the inflow of tourist in Nepal. Travel agencies must not overlook the fact
that a new trend in international tourist is emerging. Before every visit to any country,
tourist are more concern about the security and activities that region can offer. They get
all that information through websites, travel agencies have abundance to packages to
offer the only concern at present is lack of security to tourist and proper way of doing
marketing on internet. If the current problem solved and travel agencies undertake
internet as promotional tools definitely the flow of tourist will rise.

Adetayo, (2006) opinioned in his article that the overall promotion effort usually includes
several individual promotion campaigns. He defined promotion campaign as “An
interrelated series of promotion activities designed to accomplish a specific objective”.
Similarly, the goal of promotion management according to him is to ensure that all the
elements of promotion mix work together to accomplish organization’s overall
promotional activities. Marketing promotion elements play varying roles towards the
achievement of corporate marketing goals and objectives.

Talking about the business performance, [ CITATION Gai12 \n \l 1033 ] states that,
“the score card of an organization involves how able an organization is in fulfilling its
objectives through the better management of the company, strong leadership and a
persistent commitment to achieve set goals.” So, business performance is important in the
 5

process of monitoring the progress of an organization that includes the process of

measuring the actual performance outcomes against its intended objectives.

Nepal can develop a new form of adventure sports because of its unlimited tourism
potentials [ CITATION Avi09 \l 1033 ]. Since, Nepal is listed in one of the best trekking
destination in the world with thousands of trails and endless mountain views
[ CITATION Gor14 \l 1033 ] it has become a challenge in itself as the Nepalese
Himalaya offers a path for everyone, regardless of experience, time available.

According to Sola (1997), “Nepal is listed as one of the popularly associated with various
sorts of adventure world beyond mountaineering and adventure trekking.” So, Nepal has
a great potentiality in developing tourism sector because of its natural beauty having
mountains and various adventure route to travel that are the main attractions of tourists.

Chitrakar, (2018) Talks about guides stated that there is increasing demands for guides
who can help visitors understand the history and culture of the places they visit in
Kathmandu Valley. Increasingly because of the changing nature of the source countries,
guides are needed who are fluent in Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, or
Russian. Guides do not just need to be well versed in the history and the culture of
Kathmandu Valley; they also need to know how to improvise. To become a really good
tour guide, they also need to know about the present relevance of the monuments,
spaces and the cultural events. 

World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) conducted a research about the economic
impact of tourism in Nepal. The direct contribution of travel and tourism in the GDP of
Nepal was NPR 83.7 billion in 2014 which covers the 4.3% of the total GDP of the
country. It is forecasted to rise up to NPR 88.2 billion in 2015 which is 5.4% more than
2014. The money generated by the hotels, travel agents, airlines and transportation
services are the major contributors here. It is estimated that the direct contribution by
travel and tourism would grow by 4.4% per annum which would result to NPR 135.7
billion by 2025. This would cover the 4.8% of the total predicted GDP of the year 2025.
 6

Basnet, (2016) The business industries should focus on starting and establishing new
tourism activities in different parts of country to widen the scope of tourism in the
country. Right now, most of the tourism businesses are concentrated in the same places
and most places are left untouched. There needs to be diversity in it. The communities
which have potentiality of new tourism activities in their areas should work on
maintaining those places and promote it. The involvement of local people in such
activities is also important. People who work on different sectors such as agriculture,
animal husbandry, services industries must do what they can from their sides as well.

Prasain, (2018) reported that Nepal’s travel and tourism sector injected Rs195 billion into
the economy and supported more than 1.02 million jobs directly and indirectly in 2017.
The report said that 497,500 jobs were generated directly out of the total jobs supported
by the industry last year. The Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2018 report released
globally last Thursday said the industry was expected to create more than 1.32 million
jobs directly and indirectly by 2028.

Travelers like to rely on travel agency services when they choose long haul destinations
with which they are not familiar. Consequently, travel agency trips seem to be associated
with an overall higher need for information, not only in terms of ‘typical’ agency related
sources of information (such as tour operator brochures and information provided by the
agency itself) but also in terms of printed information provided by the destinations. Due
to the long haul character of agency-organized travel, travel guidebooks and magazines
also hold a prominent position. However, one travel type with a potentially high
information need is not associated with bookings through travel agencies: sightseeing
trips. There are a number of possible explanations: travel agencies might not have (or
want) to deliver information in an appropriate quantity and quality to match complex
travel needs. Apart from that, and more likely, sightseeing trips result in a high number of
key travel decisions (such as choice of overnight stop and thus accommodation)
sometimes not made before departure (thus without need for travel agencies).
Consequently, an approach offering ongoing services beyond departure should be
seriously considered (such as a booking hotline, etc.). [ CITATION Dol07 \l 1033 ]
 7

It was found that there is a poor coordination between tourism associations and public
agencies, and the tourism industry lacks proper communication and is not well managed.
This finding implies that there is a need for better coordination and more effective
dissemination of information to make information accessible for all concerned parties and
to keep all stakeholders up to date on the latest developments in tourism.[ CITATION
Gel17 \l 1033 ]

1.6 Research Gap

Research gap simply means the topic for which insufficient information limits the ability
to reach a conclusion for a question. The literature review here talks about how the travel
agency is playing a crucial role in the tourism industry and how it continues to evolve
throughout the years.

The main gap found throughout the research is that the researchers mainly talks about the
travelers’ perspective about the travel and tour agency but not the perspectives of this
industry itself. People are familiar with the services and work regarding a certain travel
agency but not the with the perspective of the agency itself. The research has the gap
regarding the challenges faced by this industry and what kind of challenges they are
facing because of inadequate infrastructures and political instability in the country.

1.7 Research Methodology

The data for the research work is collected mainly through the primary source of
collection and secondary source like websites are used to gather some basic data of the
research.

1.7.1 Primary Data

For the collection of data, descriptive data analysis was conducted. It provides the simple
summaries about the sample and the measures. With descriptive statistics, one is simply
describing what the data shows. The task is to get the basic features of the data in a study.
For the purpose of primary data collection, field survey was conducted. During the
survey in addition to reading materials, the means of gathering the data and information
includes both questionnaire and interview technique. For the data collection
 8

questionnaire, information are collected from authorized personnel of travel agency.

Apart from the questionnaires, some unstructured interviews were also taken to collect
more information about tourism sector and their difficulties. The collected data from
questionnaire is transformed into bar-graphs, pie-charts and tabulated, if necessary will
be classified.

1.7.2 Secondary Data

Secondary data is the data that has been collected by and readily available from other
sources. It helps to make primary data collection more specific since with the help of
secondary data, as it helps to make out what are the gaps and deficiencies and what
additional information needs to be collected. Secondary data facilitates large research
projects, in which many research groups working in tandem collect secondary data. The
secondary data of this research will be collected from various sources as follows:
 Articles
 Websites
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CHAPTER II
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

This chapter provides systematic presentation and analysis of primary data. The data are
presented with tables, bar diagrams and pie charts in order to make it more convenient
and easy to interpret. This section is divided into different parts. The first part deals with
respondent’s profiles. The second part is about the background information of the
organization. The third, fourth and fifth part is about the capital, operation and expenses
about the business firms respectively. Similarly, sixth and seventh part talks about the
service and promotion about the business firms. The results are based on response of
 10

questionnaire. Altogether, 40 respondents were surveyed and analyzed in accordance

with the objective of the study.

2.1 Respondent’s Profile

Respondents are categorized into various categories according to their age, gender and
educational qualification. The results of the respondents are shown below:

2.1.1 Age
The age group of the respondents was provided with four options. They were less than
25, 25-35, 35-45 and above 45. 5 respondents were reported to be less than 25 years, 8 of
them were between 25-35, 18 were between 35-45 and 9 respondents were above 45
years.
Table 1 : Age of Respondents

Age Group Count of Age Percentage

Less than 25 5 12.5 %
25-35 8 20%
35-45 18 45%
45 above 9 22.5%
Grand Total 40 100%

Age Group
20
18
16
14
12
Total
10
8
6
4
2
0
Less than 25 25-35 35-45 45 Above

Figure 1: Age of the respondents

 11

It is seen that the maximum age of the respondents were from age 35 to 45 from the
above figures. Similarly, the minimum ranges of the respondents were quantitatively five
with age less than 25 years old.

2.1.2 Gender
The gender was provided with three options. They were male, female and others. 36 were
reported to be male and 4 were female and none were in others category.

Table 2: Gender of Respondents

Gender Count of Gender Percentage

Female 7 17.50%
Male 33 82.50%
Others 0 0.00%
Grand Total 40 100.00%

Gender

18%

FEMALE
83% MALE

Figure 2: Gender of Respondents

From table 2 and figure 2, it is shown that the maximum number of the respondents were
male i.e. 83 percent and the remaining respondents were female i.e. 17 percent.

2.1.3 Educational Qualification

Educational qualifications of the respondents were categorized into four sub categories. It
is seen that maximum respondents were bachelor graduate students with 35 numbers of
 12

respondents out of 40 respondents. Only one of the respondents was secondary education
graduate.

Table 3: Educational Qualification of the respondents

Level of Education Frequency

SEE 1
+2 2
Bachelors 35
Masters 2
Grand total 40

Educational Qualification
40
35
30
25
Total
20
15
10
5
0
S.L.C +2 Bachelor Masters

Figure 3: Educational Qualification of the Respondents

2.2 Background of the organization

The background of the organization talks about the establishment of the business,
whether it is a sole proprietorship, partnership or a corporation. It also shows if it is a
member of any international travel agency or association.
 13

2.2.1 Year of completion of business

In average, it is seen that the business has been in existence for about 14 years and the
median is 14, which is the centre of the dataset. The most number of years is shown to be
12years in the table 4. The dispersion of the data from its mean is 6.829001128. Similarly
the minimum number of year of completion of business is 3 and 34 years being the
highest.
Table 4: Year of completion of business
Descriptive Analysis Years of Business
Mean 14.075
Median 13
Standard Deviation 6.829001128
Minimum 3
Maximum 34
Count 40

2.2.2 Type of the organization

This section consists of the type of the organization that includes sole proprietorship,
partnership and corporation.

Table 5: Type of business

Type of Business Frequency Percentage

Sole proprietorship 12 30%

Partnership 20 50%
Corporation 8 20%
Grand Total 40 100%

Figure 4: Type of business

2.2.3 Association of agency with International brand

Table 6: Association of agency with International brand

Association with Frequency Percentage

international brand

Yes 12 17.65%
No 28 82.35%
Grand Total 40 100.00%
 14

Association of agency with International brand

30%
YES
NO

70%

Figure 5: Association of agency with International brand

2.3 Capital

The Capital section provides the information regarding the initial investment of the
business and what was the source of the capital for that business. It also tells whether the
offices premises are owned by them or on lease.

2.3.1 Initial Investment

The questionnaire of the initial investment is categorized with four options. The first
option is below 5 lakhs, second option is 5-15 lakhs, third option is 15-25 lakhs and the
last option is above 25 lakhs.

Table 7: Initial Investment

Initial Investment Count of Investment

Less than 5 lakhs 4

5-15 lakhs 8
15-25 lakhs 24
Above 25 lakhs 4
Grand Total 40
 15

Initial Investment

30
20
10
Total
0
hs hs hs hs
al k al k al k al k
n
5 15 -2
5 25
ha 5- 5 e
t 1 ov
ss ab
Le

Figure 6: Initial Investment of the firm

The maximum number of the firm has the initial investment within the range of 15-25
lakhs, and less than 25 lakhs and above 25 lakhs being the minimum with same number
of counts i.e. four of the business firm as shown in the above table.

2.3.2 Source of Capital

The source of capital is provided with three options. It includes shareholders fund,
external debt and others option. The table listed below shows that the maximum number
of owner has their source of capital from Shareholders fund, then goes for external debt
and other being the lowest source.

Table 8 : Source of Capital

Source of Capital Count of Source of Capital
Shareholders fund 21
External debt 18
Others 1
Grand Total 40
 16

Source of Capital
25

20

15 Total
10

0
Shareholders fund External Debt Others

Figure 7: Source of Capital

2.3.3 Office Details
The office details include two basic options which tell if the office is currently on lease or
have its own premises.
Table 9: Office Details
Office Details Count of Office Details

Own premises 19
Leased 21
Grand Total 40

Total
Own premises Leased

53% 48%

Figure 8: Office Details

 17

2.4 Operation
The Operation section consists of the branches of office in present and how many
employees are in the business firm. Similarly, the revenue business firm is generating on
annual basis and the understanding and knowledge of the guides about their work.

2.4.1 Number of Branches in operation

This section represents the number of branches in operation of the firm. The data
collected shows that 27 of the respondents have of branch at all and only 13 of them have
less than 4 branches in operation and none of them have above 4 branches.

Table 10: Number of Branches in operation

Branches Count of Branch
No branch 27
Less than 4 13
Above 4 0
Grand Total 40

Total

No Branch Less than 4

33%

68%

Figure 9: Number of branches in Operation

 18

2.4.2 Number of employees

The number of employees is provided with three options to the respondents. It ranges
from employees below 10 and 15 above.

Table 11: Number of employees

Employees Count of Employees
Below 10 20
10-15 19
15 above 1
Grand Total 40

Employees
25
20
15
10
5
0
Below 10 10-15 15 above

Total

Figure 10 : Number of employees

From table 10 and Figure 5, it is seen that most of the business firm have employees
ranging from below 10 to 15. Employees above 15 are being the lowest with only one of
the firm.

2.4.3 Annual Revenue

Annual Revenue helps to know how much the firm is generating in an annual basis. The
options are categorized into three options; below 20 lakhs, 20-30 lakhs and 30-40 lakhs.
The tabulated form and diagrammatic presentation is shown below.

Table 12: Annual Revenue of the firm

 19

Annual Revenue Count of Revenue

Below 20 lakhs 22
20-30 lakhs 17
30-40 lakhs 1
Grand Total 40

Revenue
25

20

15 Total

10

0
Below 20 lakhs 20-30 lakhs 30-40 lakhs

Figure 11: Annual revenue of the firm

2.5 Expenses
The expense of the firm is categorized into two parts that includes fixed expenses and
variable expenses.

2.5.1 Annual Variable expenses

Table 13 : Annual Variable Expenses

Variable Expenses Count of Variable Expenses Percentage
Below 1 lakhs 5 12.50%
1-5 lakhs 25 62.50%
Above 5 lakhs 10 25.00%
Grand Total 40 100.00%
 20

Variable Expenses
30

25
Rs (in lakhs) 20

15

10

0
Below 1 lakhs 1-5 lakhs Above 5 lakhs

Figure 12: Annual Variable expenses

From table 12 and figure 7, we can see that the majority of the business has fixed
expenses from 1-5 lakhs on an annual basis. Then 10 of the respondents have above 5
lakhs expenses and below 1 lakhs being the lowest variable expenses.

2.5.2 Annual Fixed expenses

Table 14: Annual Fixed Expenses

Variable Expenses Count of Variable Expenses Percentage

Below 5 Lakhs 11 14.86%

5-10 lakhs 24 64.86%
Above 10 lakhs 5 20.27%
Grand Total 40 100.00%
 21

Fixed Expenses
30

25

Rs (in Lakhs) 20

15

10

0
Below 5 Lakhs 5-10 lakhs Above 10 lakhs

Figure 13: Annual Fixed Expenses

Table 13 and figure 8 shows that the majority of the agencies have the highest fixed
expenses between 5-10 lakhs and only 5 of them have the annual fixed expenses of 10
lakhs.

2.6 Service
This section includes the major service factor provided by the agency like whether its
main focus is local tours or overseas tours. Similarly, if it any refund choice after the
reservation is done is asked in this factor of the questionnaire.

2.6.1 Major Service provided by the agency

Table 15: Major Service of the agency
Major Service Count of Main Service Percentage
Local Tours 20 50%
Overseas Tours 16 40%
Specific tours for organization 4 10%
Grand Total 40 100%
 22

Main Service

Local Tours Overseas Tours

Specific tours for organization

10%

50%
40%

Figure 14: Major Service provided by the agency

Table 14 and figure 10, shows the major service provided by the agency. The options
were local tours, overseas tours and specific tours for organization. Here, majority of the
agency claim to have specialization for local tours and tours for organizations being the
lowest.

2.6.2 Exchange or Exchange service

Table 16: Refund of the package

Refund or Exchange Service Count of Exchange Service Percentage

Yes 7 17.5%
No 5 12.5%
It depends 28 70%
Grand Total 40 100%
 23

Exchange Service

18%

Yes
No
13% It depends

70%

Figure 15: Refund or Exchange of service

Table 15 and Figure 11 show the refund service provided by the agency. 70 percent
claimed that refund depends upon the kind of the package and have to consider the time
to make the decision. Similarly, 13 percent of them claim to have no exchange at all and
remaining 17 percent considers the refund.

2.6.3 Emergency facilities

The respondents were asked if they have backup facilities for their agency during the case
of emergencies. 100 percent of the agency stated that they do have their backups in case
of emergencies.

2.6.4 Communication method to interact with agency

Table 17: Method of interaction

Method of interaction Count of communication

In person 5
Online 20
Telephone 10
All of them 5
Grand Total 40
 24

Communication
25

20

15
Total
10

0
In person Online Telephone All of them

Figure 16: Method on interaction

Table 16 and Figure 12 shows what means of communication clients use to interact with
the agency. Majority of the respondents i.e. 20 of them claim to use online catalog and 10
of them use telephone and minority of them talks in person.

2.7 Promotion
2.7.1 Promotion Campaign
The question is whether to know if the company does the promotion of their agency to
attract more customers, after all promotion is an important part of the business. Yes No
question was asked in this question.

Table 18: Promotion of the agency

Promotion by the agency Count of Promotion

Yes 28
No 12
Grand Total 40
 25

Promotion

30%
Yes
No

70%

Figure 17: Promotion done by agency

28 of the respondents claim that they do their promotion using different strategy and 12
of them claim not doing their promotion at all.

2.7.2 Strategy frequently used by the agency for promotion

12 respondents claim that they don’t do promotion for their firms. Thus remaining 28
does the promotion strategy and they have their own strategies which were provided in
the options of the questionnaire.

Table 19: Strategy used for Promotion

Strategy used for Promotion Count of strategy Percentage

Print Advertising 9 32.13%
Outdoor Advertising 8 28.57%
Broadcasting 11 39.30%
None 0
Grand Total 28 100%
 26

Promotion Strategy

32% Print Advertising

39% Outdoor Advertising
Broadcasting
None

29%

Figure 18: Promotion Strategy used for Promotion

It is shown that 8 of the agencies go for print advertising of their business firm that
includes newspapers, magazines, flyers, etc. 8 of the agencies do outdoor advertising like
events and remaining 11 goes for broadcast advertising that includes television,
internet,etc.

2.7.3 Discount Offer

The firm was asked if they provide discount offers to the frequent clients and have offers
during the festivals. Hundred percent of the respondents claim that they have occasional
discount offers for their clients.

2.8 Main findings and Discussions

The results of this findings are based on the primary sources of data and for the purpose
of primary data collection, a set of pre-specified questions have been utilized as the
instrument. There were altogether 40 samples of business firms related to travel and tour
agency located in Thamel of Kathmandu Valley. The major findings of the questionnaires
are as follows:
 The majority of the respondents were from age group 35-45 years among the
respondents and minority were less than 25. Similarly, 83% of the respondents were
male and remaining being the female.
 The average age of the business agency were 14 years old with minimum years of 3
and maximum being the 34 years old.
 27

 30% being sole proprietorship, 50% being partnership and remaining 20% were
Corporations. 82.35% of the total business agency claim not to have associated with
international agency.
 Similarly, 24 of the business firms have started their business agency with investment
between 15-25 lakhs and least with less than 5 lakhs.
 Talking about the revenue of the company, majority i.e. 22 of the business firms have
revenue below 20 lakhs and only one have revenue between 30-40 lakhs.
 Fixed Expenses of the firm were maximum in range of 5-10 lakhs i.e. 64.86%,
14.86% being below 5 lakhs and remaining 20.27% between 5-10 lakhs.
 Major of the business firm i.e. 50% business firm have claimed their main focus of
service in local tours , overseas is 30% and remaining being the 10%.
 28

CHAPTER III
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

3.1 Summary of the findings

The research work “Travel and Tours business in Thamel” is conducted to know the
basics of business operation of travel agency located in Thamel. Before conducting this
research, different similar research projects similar to this topic were reviewed. Yadav
(2018), tells that travel agencies are among such private sector wings which are
responsible to bring or has contributed to great extent to invite lots of tourist from all over
the world. So to great extent promotion of tourism by these travel agencies has direct
correlation with the inflow of tourist in Nepal. Similarly, the goal of promotion
management according to him is to ensure that all the elements of promotion mix work
together to accomplish organization’s overall promotional activities. Marketing
promotion elements play varying roles towards the achievement of corporate marketing
goals and objectives.

After going through the literature review, objectives of the study were identified that
includes the performance of business in the market, customer behavior and means of
traveling preferred by the people. So, descriptive analysis was done in the form of
questionnaires.

The results of this findings are based on the primary sources of data and for the purpose
of primary data collection, a set of pre-specified questions have been utilized as the
instrument. There were altogether 40 samples of business firms related to travel and tour
agency located in Thamel of Kathmandu Valley. The questions were desined to get the
behavioral, views, suggestion and perception related information from the respondents.
Data were collected through well formulated questionnaires. The respondents were 40
managers of the travel agencies in Thamel. The study has explored the basics of business
performance of the travel agencies.
 29

The questionnaire section is divided into different parts. The first section includes the
primary data analysis i.e. respondent’s profiles. It is sub divided into four parts that
includes age group of the respondent, gender and educational qualification of the
respondents. The second part is about the background information of the organization. It
consists of name of the organization, year of commencement of the business, type of
organization and its association with international travel agency. of the The third, fourth
and fifth part is about the capital, operation and expenses about the business firms
respectively. Similarly, sixth and seventh part talks about the service and promotion
about the business firms. The results are based on response of questionnaire. The data are
presented with tables, bar diagrams and pie charts in order to make it more convenient
and easy to interpret.

Based on the analysis of the data, the maximum age of the respondents werefrom age 35
to 45. Similarly, the minimum ranges of the respondents were quantitatively five with age
less than 25 years old. The maximum number of the respondents were male i.e. 83
percent and the remaining respondents were female i.e. 17 percent. Educational
qualifications of the respondents were categorized into four sub categories. It is seen that
maximum respondents were bachelor graduate students with 35 numbers of respondents
out of 40 respondents. Only one of the respondents was secondary education graduate. In
average, it is seen that the business has been in existence for about 14 years and the
median is 14, which is the centre of the dataset. The most number of years is shown to be
12years in the table 4. The dispersion of the data from its mean is 6.829001128. Similarly
the minimum number of year of completion of business is 3 and 34 years being the
highest.

The questionnaire of the initial investment is categorized with four options. The first
option is below 5 lakhs, second option is 5-15 lakhs, third option is 15-25 lakhs and tha
last option is above 25 lakhs. We can see that most of the business firm have employess
ranging from below 10 to 15. Employees above 15 is being the lowest with only one of
the firm. The majority of the business has fixed expenses from 1-5 lakhs on an annual
basis. Then 10 of the respondents have above 5 lakhs expenses and below 1 being the
 30

lowest with below 1 lakhs. The majority of the agencies have the highest fixed expenses
between 5-10 lakhs and only 5 of them have the annual fixed expenses of 10 lakhs.
Another section is about the major service provided by the agency. The options were
local tours, overseas tours and specific tours for organization. The majority of the agency
claim to have specialization for local tours and overseas tours for organizations being the
lowest. 70 percent claimed that refund depends upon the kind of the package and have to
consider the time to make the decision. Similarly, 13 percent of them claim to have no
exchange at all and remaining 17 percent considers the refund. In the same way, the
respondents were asked if they have backup facilities for their agency during the case of
emergencies. 100 percent of the agency stated that they do have their backups in case of
emergencies. Another question was about the means of communication clients use to
interact with the agency. Majority of the respondents i.e. 20 of them claim to use online
catalog and 10 of them use telephone and minority of them talks in person.

Final section is about the promotion done by the agency. So, 28 respondents claim that
they do their promotion using different strategy and 12 of them claim not doing their
promotion at all. Those who does promotion have their own strategies which were
provided in the options of the questionnaire. It is shown that 8 of the agencies go for print
advertising of their business firm that includes newspapers, magazines, flyers, etc. 8 of
the agencies do outdoor advertising like events and remaining 11 goes for broadcast
advertising that includes television, internet,etc. And talking about the discount offers
provided by the business, hundred percent of the respondents claim that they have
occasional discount offers for their clients.

Thus, these were the findings of the research project. After literature review and going
through the results, clients, quality and promotion does play an important role in the
business.

3.2 Conclusion
The study provides insight into factors affecting the business performance of an
organization (travel agency) adopted in the form of various factors like investment,
services, expenses and promotion targeting its customers. From the study of business
 31

performance, it was found most of company’s business performance is impacted on the

type of service they deliver in order to make their customers happy.

So the major conclusion is that the travel business is expanding with the increasing
competition than in the past scenarios. But online features have made the work easier as
they can communicate with their clients more intimately. Due to the shortage of
infrastructure and pollution, travelers (mainly international) tend to get sick easily. It is
necessary to improve cooperation between all those involved in the tourism activity, so
that they may offer high quality travel products to address the needs of tourists. Offering
additional services and several leisure options to tourists help to improve their level of
satisfaction with the chosen destination, but will also help to increase the average length
of stay. The business industries should focus on starting and establishing new tourism
activities in different parts of country to widen the scope of tourism in the country. Right
now, most of the tourism businesses are concentrated in the same places and most places
are left untouched. There needs to be diversity in it. The communities which have
potentiality of new tourism activities in their areas should work on maintaining those
places and promote it.
 32

REFERENCES

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Bhanu, S. (2012). Emerging trends on Tourism Marketing. Global Journal of Commerce

and Management Perspective.

Bhatia, A. (1994). The economic imapct of tourism in nepal. New Delhi: Sterling

Publishers Private Limited.

Bhote, G. R. (2017). Perceptions of Tourism Stakeholders towards Tourism Industry in

Nepal.

Chitrakar, A. (2018). Guiding Nepals Tourism Industry. Nepalitimes. Retrieved from

https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/guiding-nepals-tourism-industry/

Djeri, L. (2016, October). Service Quality as business improvement factor in Travel

Agency. Serbia: University of Novi sad.

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Gaia Rubera, A. H. (2012). Firm Innovativeness and Its Performance Outcomes. Journal

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avel/article2575785/TThe-six-best-treks-world-Everest-Bungle-Bungles-

beyond.html (accessed December 14, 2014).

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IndustrySITQUALITY OF SERVICE AS A BASIS FOR REACHING

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF TRAVEL AGENCIE. SITCON.

Prasain, S. (2018). Travel, tourism pumps Rs195b into economy. Kathmandupost.

Shrestha, H. (2000). Tourism Industry in Nepal: Marketing challenges and opportunities.

Nirala Publication.

Sue Bergin Seers, B. O. (2016, May). The travel agency service industry: industry trends

and practices. Retrieved from Research Gate:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37377557_The_travel_agency_service_i

ndustry_industry_trends_and_practices

Yadav, O. P. (2018). Study on Internet Marketing Practices of Tourism Industry by

Travel Agency of Nepal. Pavaha Journal, 10.

 34

APPENDIX

(Research Questionnaire)

Dear Respondent,
I am Bimala Saud, a student of Apex College (Bachelors in Business Administration)
affiliated to Pokhara University. I am conducting a research on “Tour and Travel business
in Thamel”. Please read questionnaire carefully and put your experience on answering it.
The information gathered would be kept confidential and used for the academic purpose
only. Your contribution would be a great help for this study. I would like to acknowledge
your participation in this study.

1. Respondent’s Profile
a) Age
Less than 25 25-35 35-45 Above 45

b) Gender
Male Female Others

c) Educational Qualification
SLC or below +2 Bachelors Masters

2. Background of the organization

d) Name of the organization : ______________________
e) Year of commencement of business : _____________
f) Type of the organization
Sole proprietorship Partnership Corporation

g) Are you a member of any international travel or tour operator Association?

Yes No

3. Capital
h) Total Initial Investment
 35

Less than 5 lakhs 5-15 lakhs 15-25 lakhs above 25 lakhs

i) Source of Capital
Shareholders fund External Debt Others

j) Office Details
Own premises Leased

4. Operation
k) Number of Branches in operation
No Branch Less than 4 Above 4

l) No of employees
Below 10 10-15 15 above

m) How much revenue your agency is generating annually?

Below 20 lakhs 20-30 lakhs 30-40 lakhs

n) The agency makes sure that tour guides have good knowledge about the places to
make clients understand its history well.
Yes No

5. Expenses
o) Annual variable expenses (insurance, rent, salaries)?
Below 1 lakhs 1-5 lakhs 5 lakhs or above

p) Annual fixed expenses (energy costs, cleaning supplies, bonus)?

Below 5 lakhs 5-10 lakhs 10 lakhs or above

6. Service
q) What services your travel agency focuses on?
Mainly local tours
Mainly overseas tours
Specialized tours for schools or any other large organization
 36

r) There is no exchange or return of service after necessary reservations?

Yes No It depends

s) The agency has backup facilities in case of emergencies?

Yes No

t) Which method customers mainly use when ordering the agency?

In person
Online catalog
Telephone
All of the above

7. Promotion
u) Does your company conduct promotional campaign to attract customers?
Yes No

v) Which strategy is frequently used by your agency for promotion?

Print advertising (newspapers, magazines, flyers)
Outdoor Advertising (events, billboards)
Broadcast Advertising (television, internet)

w) The company has discount offers during festivals or frequent clients?

Yes No