HOW TO RUN YOUR OWN DISCOUNT AIR TICKET AGENCY
THE POTENTIAL
The number of people travelling overseas has risen virtually
every year since the early 1950's and, although that figure
is now starting to round off, that's still many millions of
people who travel overseas.
In fact, almost a hundred million Americans travel overseas
each year, and that includes many who make several journeys
per year, whether for business or pleasure.
Very few of these journeys are arranged direct with
operators, they virtually go through travel agents. Hence
tons of potential to start a travel agency business.
Yes, there are lots of travel agents in existence already,
but it's generally a growth area and accepted that there is
room for more.
A LUCRATIVE OPENING
Despite the fact that more and more people are travelling,
it's very much a changing market. That is, very budget
conscious! People are looking to travel overseas at ever
lower cost. Cheaper and cheaper than the year before!
This has changed the market in that people expect cheap
flights and holidays. They don't expect to pay full price.
As a result, a whole market has been set up to handle cheap
flights and holiday bargains. Often, these are last minute
offers at 'silly', cheap prices.
If you know where to get these offers, you can promote them
locally and sell them to local customers, then link them up
with the suppliers. You don't buy anything yourself (so you
don't need any cash), but you will get a good commission from
the suppliers and satisfied customers who, hopefully, return
year after year, time and time again.
HOW TO SET UP
This is a business that will thrive if you have a small
office or kiosk in a town center where you can advertise the
service and accept bookings. However, that can be in the
future.
In the early days, this is a business that you can operate
from home, but you will certainly need a telephone to take
enquiries and make bookings on.
Some neat headed business notepaper will also be invaluable.
This is a business which you can operate full time during
normal office hours, hence ideal for someone who has to stay
at home. But it can be worked part time, in the evenings and
at weekends, if you like. This is when most customers will
be making their travel plans anyway.
No significant capital is required because you don't actually
buy the tickets yourself. What capital is available will be
spent on advertising. This should be as high as you can
easily afford. It could be as little as $20, but a higher
figure would produce more profitable results.
Arrange an efficient office filing system, as an efficient
prompt service is a must in this business.
MAKING CONTRACTS
Before you can start selling the cheap tickets and holidays,
etc, you must find where to get them from. In the trade,
there are several cheap discount houses who get details of
cheap tickets from airlines, holiday companies, etc, and
resell them to the trade.
These companies will be pleased to deal with you, but make
yourself look a reputable company. They will only deal with
bona fide traders and not with private individuals.
The best way of getting in touch with one of these companies
is to take a course. A couple are advertised on the internet
and the national newspapers.
These courses will tell you exactly how to operate the
business but, more importantly, they will reveal the special
procedure to be followed to get the cheap tickets.
Make contact with a selection of suppliers so that you can
get relevant information. Some send out regular bulletins,
others have a telephone hotline for details of the latest
cheap tickets.
ADVERTISING YOUR NEW SERVICE
With contacts made, you can set out to advertise your
service. Initially, remember that you aren't setting out to
compete with travel agents. There are various services that
they can offer that you can't.
The accent of your service should be the cheapest possible
prices. In most cases, your local travel agent can't compete
with these because of his overheads, even though he can buy
from the same place as you. That said, you are offering a no
frills service for bargain hunters, whereas the agent serves
those with more to spend.
It depends on what you want to offer. You might just offer
cheap scheduled flight tickets to any country in the world.
Or you might offer package tours. Or both. The commissions
vary accordingly to circumstances. They can be up to 30%
sometimes, whereas most tour brochures will give you a 10%
commission.
In addition, you can sell hotel rooms, car hire and travel
insurance etc. The commissions on these can be very high
indeed.
The best way of selling is to take out advertisements in your
local paper. Classified lineage advertisements will do, but
just small blocks are best. The cost will be very low. Just
note that you offer cheap tickets, or, perhaps give some
examples, e.g. 'New York by scheduled flight, $299'.
The important thing to note is that you can't just place one
advertisement and wait to be deluged with response. That
won't work. You really need to place an advertisement in
your local newspapers, if possible, every day, or every other
day. You can work nationally, but it's better to stay local
to begin with.
Remember that you will be building up regular custom. So,
although advertising costs may be high in the beginning, they
have to reduce in the future as people come back to you as
regular customers.
OPERATING THE SERVICE
Give your advertisements a couple of weeks to start bringing
in a good response. Then you should get people ringing you
with enquiries for the full details of your service. When
you get a customer, get details of where they want to go,
when they would like to travel, and how many people a booking
is required for.
The next step is to ring round your contacts and match things
up to provide the service. With luck, you'll find something
that fits their exact requirements. However, it should be
noted that some cheap tickets are restricted to certain times
- often the unpopular ones. So, if the exact date is not
available, take some alternatives.
Then go back to your customer and make agreements. If they
have to alter their plans, you can usually convince them that
it's worth it, as the savings are large.
When you agree on a booking, collect payment from the
customer, then order from the agent. The tickets will be
sent on to you for passing on to the customer.
One good thing is that the agents probably won't expect to be
paid by you for at least a month, so you can keep the
client's money in your bank account until you have to pay the
agent. This adds extra profit!
EXPANSION
Basically, the service is as simple as that, but you do need
a flair for organisation. If you make mistakes, it can be
costly and you'll lose customers.
To expand, go back to your customers and get regular trade.
Most travel agents don't do this. But if, for example, you
had a family of four booking a package holiday once every
year, that's a good regular income at a total cost of $3,000.
When you are established, you could probably set up as a
travel agent, although there are a lot of small details in
this work that don't produce large profits. So, it is best
to handle only cheap flights using low overhead premises.
This allows you to be the cheapest in town, no matter who
else sets up in competition.
A good method of expansion is to set up premises. This
allows you to be the cheapest in town no matter who else sets
up in competition.
Another good method of expansion is to set up in other areas.
Perhaps get agents to work for you from their home. They'll
expect a cut in your commission, but good profits are still
possible.
All in all, you should not expect a massive commission
money-wise on a single booking, because travel prices are
incredibly cheap these days. But you can make up for it in
volume. With twenty million travellers each year, what if
you just scooped 1,000 in your region, spending only $1000
each!
