Travel agent what. What is a tour operator and travel agent - how do they differ? How much do travel agents earn

Olga Grafskaya, General Director of the tourism bureau "Bonjour Travel"

Looking for travel job

Work in tourism attracts job seekers with the opportunity to see the whole world. I almost always hear this from novice employees. Experienced employees are willing to argue that not everything is so fabulous. Any, even the most expensive medal has a reverse side. Our foreign partners arrange so-called information and study tours for employees of travel agencies. I must say right away: there are never free tours, and the conditions are completely unroyal! The meaning of such trips is to see with your own eyes what we offer customers, to gain personal experience and express an opinion that is far from the phrases from the advertising booklet.

Such tours are organized out of season, and these trips are very difficult. Every day, the agent inspects several hotels, and in countries of mass tourism it comes to several dozen. Your head is spinning and you start to get confused. Experienced specialists make notes, comments for themselves, someone takes photos or videos. And newcomers just walk, look and admire. And in the end, they can't remember anything. For rest, one day is usually left, the rest of the time is working. Partners look at how someone behaves on such tours, and if they understand that the agent is incorrect, he can be blacklisted and will not be invited to the next round. It is possible to travel around the world, but if an employee is constantly traveling, when will he work?!

Who and why works in tourism

The labor market in tourism, like many others, is also experiencing a shortage of personnel. It is divided into two parts: these are young girls with no experience, who believe that there is nothing difficult in this area, and experienced professionals who have worked in the industry for more than one year. The disadvantage of the former is not even in the lack of experience, but in the fact that many do not want to learn.

People from the second category do not need to be trained, they come with a client base, which is good for the head of the agency, but there is a minus here too. Such an employee wants to receive exclusive working conditions. They may not bring direct losses to the director, but the profit for the agency will be zero, since the manager who brought the client will get all of it.

Fabulous salaries in tourism are rare. There is a twofold situation on the market: on the one hand, there is a glut of supply, on the other hand, there is a reduction in the industry as a whole. Therefore, the range of salaries for a tourism manager is from 20 to 60 thousand rubles. But it all depends on the person and his desire to earn.

The perfect travel agent resume

The most important thing in the resume of applicants in the field of tourism is work experience. But this does not mean that I will not accept a person without experience. It is important for me that the employee was interested in earning, not getting.

Template phrases are often written in the resume: purposefulness, responsibility, career opportunities. You can look through dozens of profiles and not find a single worthy candidate. How can you talk about some serious career growth in a travel agency? This work is very interesting, despite all the difficulties that you have to face every day. The increase in wages in tourism depends not only on the management, but also on the employee himself. At the interview, I ask the question: “Are you ready to put in the effort to attract new customers? If so, which ones? If not, why not? Many job seekers are willing to take a small flat fee and do nothing else. I will refuse such an employee.

Personal qualities for professional growth

In tourism, attentiveness is very important, because an insignificant mistake only in writing the personal data of tourists can lead not only to a fine, but also to the threat of disrupting the trip.

An important role is played by punctuality, the desire to develop independently and constantly learn. Exploring new countries, sightseeing routes - isn't it interesting?

And, of course, responsibility is extremely important! Here is an example, or rather, my nightmare, which, I really hope, will never happen in practice. A tourist must fly away on a long-awaited vacation and he needs to get a visa. The employee scrupulously fills out all the documents and takes them to change. On the way, he loses his tourist passport. You can borrow money and pay for a tourist, but what to do with a lost passport?! To say that after this trust will be lost is to say nothing!

Learn to travel and sell travel

A travel agent can get an education in specialized higher educational institutions. When there was a boom in tourism, there were many educational courses on tourism. Now the industry is in decline - not only travel agencies are closing, but also educational institutions. But the presence of a diploma, unfortunately, does not mean anything.

Tourist routine

In fact, a travel agent has a lot of responsibilities: from keeping the workplace clean to being ready to answer their clients at any time of the day or night. The motto of our agency: "Your personal consultant 24 hours." The schedule of the agent is irregular, especially during peak seasons. In the off-season, the load is less. I do not force all employees to be at the workplace when there is no load. Someone is engaged in self-development, someone comes up with methods to optimize their work and attract new customers. I welcome and encourage this.

Each agency has regular clients, and we maintain their files. We store all the data so that each time you do not ask to send the same documents. We keep a history of trips, wishes, comments. Our regular customers do not need to explain what they want to get from the rest. They only say dates and wishes for choosing a country. Everything else is our job. Moreover, this part of the routine duties is the most creative, it provides an opportunity to please and surprise the client, to guess his desires.

Nothing to hide

In other industries, the practice of non-intervention of a specialist in a client's decision has been adopted. We have it the other way around. If we are talking about regular customers, then I already know what they need, and I advise based on their preferences. But if the client chooses a country or a hotel himself, I will definitely talk about the nuances that can ruin a vacation or upset a tourist. But I never insist. This is a personal choice of a person, and it must be reckoned with.

For example, a couple of years ago, several of my clients wanted to go to Egypt for the New Year. I did not refuse them and lose clients. The result, I think, is well known. The Egyptian direction was closed, and it was necessary to resolve the issue of the return of funds. You could say: "Do it yourself, you chose this country, now these are your problems." But I can't afford it, and for several months I fought with partners for the return of the funds of my tourists.

nervous work

Difficult clients have always been and always will be. It is very hard with people who are used to criticizing everything and seeing the bad even where there is none. It is difficult with those who first ask a question about the size of the discount, without even saying what they want. Any work should be financially rewarded.

The current situation in the tourism market is very difficult. Crisis, sanctions, imperfection of legislation and, unfortunately, dishonesty and financial dishonesty of partners have a very negative impact on the position of the agent in the market. After all, a tourist comes to the agency and trusts us, but we are not the last resort and cannot control or influence all the links that are involved in this process. Unfortunately, this cannot always be explained, and some colleagues meet with their clients in court, although the agent did his job at 100% and even more. But the argument is simple: "We came to you, so you are responsible for everyone."

Profession without career

The job of a manager is a bit of a chore from a technical point of view. But it is very diverse: new clients, new requests, new countries, new hotels. Career development occurs in a horizontal plane. There is no step-by-step promotion from an ordinary employee to the director of your own agency. I can’t call it a career prospect, I think it’s more like a transition to a new level. It is not enough for the director of the agency to have knowledge of tourism alone, he must understand both accounting and legislation, and know the work of a manager. You can hire employees who will be responsible for a certain segment of the work, but this is financially expensive. I know several examples of former directors of agencies who closed their companies and went back to being employees, because they did not want the huge responsibility on their shoulders.

Sometimes employees leave. Someone - to larger agencies, someone - to a tour operator, and someone, completely disappointed, - in general from tourism. Some do not want to hear about tourism anymore, others remember this experience with warmth!

One of my partners had a travel agency in another country. Everything got tired, and she closed it. She went to rest in Georgia, and fell in love with this country so much that she stayed there and opened ... yes, yes, a travel agency! She studied the history of Georgia and herself, as a director, often accompanies groups as a guide.

"Jobs for the Young"?

Many people think that a tourism manager is a job only for young people. But I do not agree that in tourism, employees over forty years old are rare specimens. On one information tour, I met an agent who was 72 years old! She has more enthusiasm and energy than some young girls. I have a lot of respect for these people.

A travel agent (travel agency, travel agency) is a company that is directly involved in the sale of a tour package to ordinary citizens, for which it receives a commission from the tour operator for each tour sold (an average of 10-13%). At the same time, travel agents can work with a large number of tour operators and know who has the best prices. Travel agencies have many retail offices throughout Russia. If you heard that someone gave someone a discount on an acquaintance tour, then it was the travel agent who gave part of his commission.

As, probably, it has now become obvious how a tour operator differs from a travel agency - the first organizes, the second sells. But it is not always the case. Many tour operators in Thailand have for some time now started to sell their product directly to customers, through their own network of travel agencies or through online sales.

What is a package tour (tour package)?

A standard package tour is a list of services that a tour operator provides for a tourist, this is prescribed in the contract. The components of a standard package tour are usually the following: transport tickets to the resort, accommodation voucher, internal group transfers.

As an addition, the tour package may include excursions, visa support, car rental, guide services and any other tourist whims. Typically, the price of a tour package with individual selection increases significantly, especially with large tour operators.

To summarize, you should not experience any negative emotions with the word tour package. We must try to understand and use them as much as possible.

Why is it worth knowing about tour operators and travel agents? There is a strong argument for this - the price of the tour. In the low season, the price of a package tour (flight, accommodation, transfers, etc.) may be lower than

Going on a trip on vacation, people often turn to different travel agencies. At the same time, many think little about the main difference in companies providing travel services. The Federal Law "On the Fundamentals of Tourist Activities in the Russian Federation" divides travel agencies into travel agents and tour operators and defines the scope of their activities.

Using the services of travel agencies greatly facilitates travel planning: specialists will provide for everything from accommodation and meals to all kinds of cultural programs. The client just needs to decide on the place of rest. A travel contract can be concluded both with a travel agent and with a tour operator. And the trips purchased (purchased) in such organizations are called tours.

Speaking about the difference between a travel agency and a tour operator, let's say right away that the main difference between them is as follows: the former sell, the latter produce.
Let us express the difference in such a comparison. A travel agent is a store that sells tours, and a tour operator is a tour factory.

The travel agent searches for and accumulates the offers of tour operators and sells them to customers. Profit from this kind of activity is formed by remuneration of producers of tourism products for the sale of tours.
The work of tour operators is more diverse. To offer a tour, the tour operator must contact and negotiate with many, figuratively speaking, performers:

With transport companies to take the client away and bring him back in order to carry out transportation for leisure activities at the very place of stay;
With hotels and hotels in the place of stay, because the client must live and eat somewhere;
With museums, entertainment and shopping centers, local travel agencies and so on for recreation;
With local health and social insurance structures to provide customers with a health insurance policy.

This list goes on. After all this is done: the price that the tour operator must pay for the client is determined, the time and place of leisure activities are specified, the travel agency's own margins are set to make a profit, a new tour appears in the list of the tour operator's offers and its cost is announced. When the work is completed, the tour operator may offer the tour for sale at the travel agency.

In their work, travel agencies, as business entities, can combine the activities of an operator and an agent. Like a store with a factory: a factory can open a store selling any goods, and a rich store can expand its own production. Of course, companies operating in the tourism business do not open stores, and the combination of activities occurs without going beyond the scope of tourism activities. For example, a tour operator can develop tours in Russia and at the same time offer foreign trips to another operator, that is, act as an agent.

When going on a tour, you need to know exactly which organization is the operator. And if you use the services of a travel agency, you need to clarify whether the agency has an agreement with the operator offering this tour. In the event of disputes, the contract must specify the procedure for their resolution with the operator. If this procedure is not specified, then all issues are resolved with the tour operator, as with the main seller of the service.

How to become a travel agent?

The fastest option that does not require higher education would be specialized courses. It is budgetary, does not take much time and in a few months will give the first fruits.

But there is a side effect here: in such a short period of time, a huge amount of information is given - not all people are able to absorb it in full. Upon completion, you receive a certificate of completed courses and the opportunity to work in entry-level positions.

Of course, if you want to move further in this field, you should go to college or university.

Another opportunity to get the profession of a travel agent is given by various colleges of service and tourism. Faculty name: tourism manager. Such institutions create a more complete picture of the future specialization in the head of a young student.

The study lasts an average of two to three years, it happens both on a paid and free basis. At the end of the study period, the college usually guarantees the student employment, which is a good help for specialized courses.

The third option is higher education. Faculties: tourism manager, travel agent and others. In universities, students get a complete picture of the tourist destination, study management and marketing, without which there is little sense in this profession.

This is the longest and the surest way to become a travel agent. Specialists with higher education are always in demand and have every chance of getting a good salary, because the main income of a travel agent is a percentage of sales.

Work as a travel agent

A tourism manager or travel agent sells and arranges tours, advises clients on various issues: from the specifics of a particular country to the availability of wi-fi in a hotel room.

Here it is important to be able to find an approach to each client, to understand and take into account their needs, to be stress-resistant, and most importantly, to have information. A good travel agent is the most erudite person who knows the most important and up-to-date information about different countries.

How much do travel agents earn?

The salary of a travel agent consists of a rate and a percentage of sales. The assistant tourism manager has the lowest salary, on average in Moscow it is 20-35 thousand rubles, and in Russia 15-20 thousand rubles. A novice tourism manager earns 35-45 thousand in Moscow and 20-30 thousand in Russia per month - it all depends on sales.

A good agent with experience and a well-established base can earn from 50 thousand and more, it all depends on him.

In the field of tourism, people who know how to sell tourism products are valued, forming a circle of regular customers, which will later generate income.

The prospects for this profession are the director of a travel agency or his deputy. With the successful mastery of these professions, a top manager follows, he manages the tourism business and creates the direction of its development. The top manager monitors the increase in the company's profits and bears a huge responsibility.

In this answer, we will try to answer such frequent questions as "Why do I need a Travel Agency? Why do I need a Travel Agency? What is the use of a Travel Agency? And in general, what is a Travel Agency?"

So everyone knows the terms travel agency and tour operator. However not all tourists see the difference between them. Hence, there is distrust in the work of both those and others - due to confusion in the role Tour operator and travel agencies.

Let's try in simple words, if possible without abstruse and boring expressions to explain - who are these people who regularly are going in their offices, write a lot of papers, talking on the phone all day long... they meet tourists - satisfied or dissatisfied, kind or unfriendly, knowing a lot or leaving on their first tour ... who are these restless citizens that print something on printers so much, run around, nervous arguing with each other...

And as a result - 20 million tourists annually leave Russia abroad for relaxation!

First, about the boring official side: in the Russian Federation there is a law that clearly describes the rules for working in the field of tourism. it federal law of November 24, 1996 N 132-FZ"On the basics of tourism activities in the Russian Federation", which has been updated several times and at the time of writing this article is valid as amended on November 1, 2012. The law is easy to find on the Internet, to wade through the wording of the articles, and become an expert.

We will explain key things on your fingers.

So, in tourism there is what tourists are looking for and buying: this is the so-called " tourist product" or " tour package" or " tourism product». Tourism product is a set of services that includes a lot of things, but the most important things are transportation (flight) and accommodation.

In order for a tourist to be able to buy this tourist product, it must be prepare.

That is: to sign contracts with hotels, With airlines, co insurers, book places in hotels and on airlines, do not get confused in all this variety of mentalities and approaches to doing business (in Greece they do business differently than in Finland, of course).

In preparation Tourism product it should be borne in mind that the one who forms the tourist product must be ready to bear a responsibility per poor quality tourist product, and must be willing to pay compensation tourists in case something goes wrong. This readiness can be formalized, in particular, by insurance responsibility.

An organization that prepares (forms) a tourist product is called " TOUR OPERATOR». tour operator creates tourist product and puts it up for sale. This is the main role and task Tour operator.

Outcome: there is tourist who wants relax. And there is service (tourist product), which the tourist is ready to buy by choosing the best one. What is missing?

Missing network retailers who will sell this tour! For the entire volume prepared tour packages to sell alone impossible. And retailers not only sell the tour, but also explain to the tourist - why necessary go to this resort in November, and why not go to the same resort in August, will tell about the requirements any country, help you choose hotel or tour operator, help with paperwork and check their correctness.

The task of the retailer is to do this in a non- give money, here is your tour, next!". This retailer a priori devotes more time to the tourist, because the tourist does not always know where he wants to go, the requirements of the tourist often contradict themselves: “we would like to go to the best resort, but at the same time not pay a lot.”

This retailer is called " TRAVEL AGENCY". Role, task, duty of the Travel Agency - inform tourist about the tourist product and implement product.

The travel agency does not generate tourist product, does not create him and does not have agreements with hotels. It is completely right, duty and responsibility Tour operator. Travel agency has contracts only with Tour operators.

But Travel agency is obliged not only to sell the tour, but also inform qualitatively the tourist about the conditions of a trip to the chosen country, to the chosen hotel, tell about the conditions of life on vacation, and prepare the tourist for the chosen country.

Tourist must be ready to travel. If the sea is important to the tourist, and the hotel is not so important, then the Travel Agency should explain to the tourist that “the hotel we have chosen is not so hot, because we have a limit with money, but the beach near this hotel will be wonderful.” The tourist is forewarned, which means he is forearmed! And, armed with this knowledge, the tourist will get the rest he was ready for.

Let's sum up all this flow of information answering the question " What is a Tour Operator and a Travel Agency and what is the difference between them?". The tourism market is:

There is a Tourist who wants to have a rest, qualitatively, and in accordance with his budget. The tourist is ready to buy "rest" and is looking for where to buy it.
There is a Tourist product, that is, the very “rest” that a tourist is looking for, but cannot yet find.
There is a Tour Operator, that is, a large Company that has many contracts and a lot of headaches associated with this. The purpose of the existence of the Tour Operator is to create a ready-made "Tourist Product" (aka "vacation", aka "tour package", aka "tour product"). The tour operator creates a tourist product in accordance with the law, and informs tourists and retailers about its prices and conditions.
There is a Travel Agency, that is, a Company that has access to a variety of travel products prepared by various Tour Operators. The travel agency understands the details in different directions, in Tour Operators, in terms of the tour. The travel agency is located where it is convenient for the tourist, and has knowledge that inspires the confidence of the Tourist.

As a result Tourist comes in travel agency, they jointly choose Tourism product from a variety of ready-made tour packages, Tourist sees prices without any fraudulent markups, and Travel agency sell tour.

Everyone is happy!

Oddly enough, but you have just completed a short course on the basics of tourism (tourism) activities, described in Federal Law No. 132-FZ.

Of course, this is just short course. He does not take into account and does not disclose many nuances of the work of Travel Agencies and Tour Operators.

But we hope that the role Tour operator and travel agencies in the tourism services market has become at least a little clearer, and, therefore, we have taken another step towards strengthening the confidence of Tourists in us- to people employed in this restless and incomprehensible business!

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