In recent times, more and more people organise their holidays themselves without the help of specialised operators: they define itineraries to follow, book flights in advance, read reviews on b&b's and then book a room. For this reason, the work of a tour operator or of a travel agency would seem superfluous: however, there are also those who prefer to rely on experienced personnel in order not to run the risk of running into unpleasant situations. Main task of a travel agency in fact, is to create for its customers an exciting itinerary tailored to the personal needs of each person, taking care to meticulously organise visits to all the main places of interest in the area, without forgetting to include unusual places to be discovered en route.
The different opportunities
For opening a travel agency a number of opportunities can be evaluated:
- Relying on a franchise brandThis is the easiest solution because it limits expenses. Partnering with a well-known brand means being facilitated in all phases of the business: since the opening of the travel agency, to the furnishing, to the supply of the packages. In practice, since franchising is an agreement with a company that allows it to use its own brand name, the parent company supplies the entire agency and the travel packages complete with all the agreements with hotels and tour operators; in addition, it offers all its help and expertise for the duration of the activity.
- Opening an independent agencyThis is a much more difficult, but not impossible road. Opening an independent agency has the advantage of being able to run your own business in total freedom; however, on the other hand, it requires a great deal of physical, mental and financial commitment, especially at the beginning. However, once the challenge is completed, the satisfaction proves to be truly great.
- An incoming agencyborn as an alternative way of doing tourism and offering packages, incoming agencies are agencies that represent a very interesting solution: this term usually refers to tourism that performs the activity of receiving visitors arriving at a certain location. The phenomenon is also called inbound tourism and is usually approached by foreign tour operators who need specific services in Italy such as, for example, tourist guides or information on hotels, restaurants or means of transport in the area to be booked.
- For some time now, it has been possible to open aonline travel agencywithout resorting to a physical shop. The costs for opening an online travel agencythan one with a physical location, are more convenient: the investment is much smaller and you can count on the millions of people who rely on the web for tourism. According to a study by Ansa, as many as five million people buy everything related to holidays online.
The online agents they also have the possibility of creating packages on offer, proposing diversified tourist solutions according to users, age, tastes; the more attractive the proposals, the more rewarding the earnings and commissions will obviously be.
Opening a travel agency: creative work that goes far beyond planning
Regardless of the type of tourist, travel represents much more than mere leisure: for some it is an escape route, for others a therapy, for many others certainly a means of human and cultural growth.
For this reason, working at a travel agency means doing a job with passion, commitment and creativity. The role of a travel agent is fundamentally that of being able to focus on the experiential aspect of travel so that the product makes the difference and is at the centre of the programming, unlike, for example, the selling price; the propensity to innovate the proposal on certain destinations is indispensable to differentiate oneself from the competition.
Precisely for this reason, the travel agent labour market is increasingly targeting professionals capable of planning trips for niches of tourists characterised by passions and interests that require increasingly exorbitant ideas for their holidays.
General Distribution System Amadeus (GDS)
For hotel owners and others in the travel industry, a global distribution system is one of the most important channels, and Amadeus GDS is an outstanding example of this: mainly used by travel agencies to gain real-time access to inventories to book hotel rooms, airline tickets, car rentals and other products for their customers, the GDS Amadeus system represents approximately 40% of the travel agency bookings.
Among the different knowledge inherent to the sector, the IET Course to become a Travel Agent gives participants the tools to use the software GDS Amadeus with which the front and back-office work of international Travel Agencies, Airlines and Airports is carried out, and the relevant certification provided at the end of the Course, constitutes the indispensable qualification for access to the world of work in international tourism.
You are interested in opening a travel agency and would like to request more information from our secretariats? Contact us and find out more!
English 
Italian 
Spanish