Dynamics of Tourism

Unit-2
Travel Intermediaries

The simplest definition of a travel intermediary is a “distribution agent that participates in the
sale and brokerage of travel and tourism-related products and services.”

Travel intermediaries act as middlemen between suppliers and consumers, buying and
reselling products and services related to tourism, such as packaged holidays, tickets, tours,
accommodation, car hire, etc.

Origin of Travel Intermediaries

The first tourism intermediary was Thomas Cook, a famous English businessman and
founder of Thomas Cook & Son (later Thomas Cook Group), the first travel agency as we
know it.

Thomas Cook was a passionate advocate of the temperance movement. Back in 1841, he
wanted to attend a rally in Loughborough, so he made a deal with the Midland Railway to
organize a group tour for a commission. His return rail journey was an excursion that made
history, leading to other leisure and commercial trips.

In 1855, Thomas Cook organized the first international tour, offering the first holiday
package, which included travel, accommodation, and food.

The agency’s successor, Thomas Cook Holidays, bought the brand in 2019 when the
company went into liquidation.

Functions of Travel Intermediaries

The primary role of travel intermediaries in tourism is to provide travel-related products and services to
consumers. Whether they offer tours, tickets, transportation seats, accommodation, or any other related
service, they purchase them from suppliers and resell them to travelers.

As such, they can perform a variety of value-added functions, including:

1. Providing information about the available travel and tourism products and services
2. Making reservations and travel arrangements
3. Creating travel packages
4. Preparing tickets and confirming bookings
5. Contacting leads, prospects, and customers
6. Buying or reserving products in bulk to resell to businesses or travelers
7. Promoting excess inventories
8. Reducing customer acquisition costs
Types of Travel Intermediaries
There are two main types of travel intermediaries:

 Wholesalers & aggregators

 Retailers

 When it comes to wholesalers & aggregators, travel trade intermediaries can be:

 B2B tour operators – they sell tours to travel agents

 Bed banks – B2B companies that buy bulk accommodation products at a discounted,
fixed price for specific dates and resells them to travel agents, OTAs, tour
operators, airlines, and other bed banks
 DMCs (Destination Management Companies) or DMOs (Destination
Management Organizations) – they sell tours, events, activities, transportation
products, and travel packages to tour operators;
 Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) – computerized network systems with
availability records from hotels, airlines, travel agencies, and car rental companies,
providing real-time inventory access to retailers.

 As for retailers in tourism intermediation, there are:

 Travel agents – brick-and-mortar travel agencies, the main of which are high street
travel agents and specialist business travel agents
 OTAs – online marketplaces that allow consumers to book travel products and
services and explore travel reviews
 B2C tour operators – online platforms that offer access to OTAs, hotels, car rental
companies, and other tourism suppliers.

Examples of Travel Intermediaries

Some of the most popular travel trade intermediaries are Booking, Expedia, Viator,
Hotels, Trip.com, Despegar, and Travelocity. Those are some of the top online travel
agencies worldwide that hundreds of travel and tourism suppliers have partnered with.

TravTravel and Miki Travel are excellent examples of B2B tour operators, while Exodus
Travels, Intrepid Travel, Trailfinders, Holiday Architects, Wild Frontiers, and Selective Asia
are their popular B2C counterparts.

If you’re looking for a good GDS, you can’t go wrong with Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre,
Pegasus, Worldspan, and Apollo.
As for DMCs or DMOs, some of the most notable include Marketing Manchester, Global
DMC Network by JTB Group, Hosts Global, Terra Events, PRA, IVI DMC Enterprises,
Terramar, and Ovation Global DMC.

Difference between Tour Operator and Travel Agent

Comparison Tour operator Travel Agent

It is the person or company responsible It is a broker or intermediary

Definition
for planning the trip. selling the tour packages.
Sell holiday packages
Taking care of the client according to
Role purchased from different
the package description
tour operators.
Specializes in one or a few countries Deal with many countries’
Countries Dealing
destinations destinations.
Earn huge profits since they set the Earn a commission based on
Amount of Profit
price tag. the number of bookings.
Dependence Independent Depend on tour operators
Requirements Business management skills Simple training programs
Offer to advise concerning
Offer advice about the legalities on the
Significance the travel documents like
ground
visa and passport
Their job ends when the traveler Their job ends when the
Job Description
returns home. traveler starts the vacation
Other Look after hotel, accommodation, Only sell and administrate
Responsibilities meals, and conveyance. the tour packages
Retailers in the travel
Act as Wholesalers in the travel industry
industry

Meaning and Nature of Tourism Industry

Tourism is one of the most labour-intensive industries of the world. It gives an employment
opportunity to a large number of people all over the globe. It is considered as an industry, but
it falls under the tertiary sector of economy. Traditionally speaking, industry is the one which
transforms the raw material into finished goods and make the product more sustable for use.
But in the tourism industry, a demarcation of the raw material and finished product is not
clearly distinguishable. At one point of time, an input for tourism industry may be a finished
product to be used by the tourists. For example, a tourist guide is the work force in the
industry. They are the ones who guide the tourists and explain everything about the
destination which is a great help for the tourists to know. But when the same guide is paid by
the tourists for his services rendered to them, they become the end product of tourism
industry. It is also a very important means to achieve the socio-economic development of a
region. It helps in strengthening the economic condition of the region by providing livelihood
to the local people in different ways. A large number of people are involved in the
development of tourism. Those people may be with formal knowledge and training as well as
from informal sector of the society. Tourism gives an opportunity even to the vendors,
rickshaw pullers, auto-taxi drivers, apart from the highly qualified experts in hotel industry,
IT and communication sector, long and medium haul transport, guides, ticketing, hotel
booking, food and drinking etc. In the true sense, it is more of people involving service
industry serving the need of the tourists. Providing livelihood to the people, it is able to
remove many of the social and economic problems like poverty, under development and
social discrimination. Tourism is also a medium through which global and regional socio-
political harmony could be established. Its ability to generate socio-economic opportunities
and help reducing the gap between rich and poor is more important than ever. Many
advocators of tourism also consider that it is a “peace industry”, a means to establish
equilibrium of global peace process. Therefore, tourism developed and practised in a
responsible and sustainable manner would bring peace and prosperity to the people of the
tourists’ destinations as well. At the regional and global level, it would bring a geo-political
stability
 Impacts of Tourism

Crompton’s Push and Pull Theory (1979)

Crompton identified two different levels of socio-psychological motivation. The first level of
motivation is the desire to travel, which drives the initial decision for a trip or a vacation. It
subsequently facilitates an individual’s decision for the destination. The second level of
motivation drives the decision to select destinations. After the initial decision to make a trip,
various motivational factors come into being that impact the selection of a destination.
Crompton proposes two groups of motives among pleasure vacationers, one that pushes for a
trip or tour is socio-psychological motives, while another factor that pulls are cultural motives
Push Factors.
Push factors are defined as intrinsic drives or desires that motivate people to travel. Push
factors initiate the travel desire of an individual to engage in recreational activities or tourism.
It is internal motives that drive tourists to seek activities for the fulfilment of their needs. It is
the internal psychological imbalances that push or forces the individual to search for an
optimal level of motivation to travel. Some push factors of travelling are
• Exploration and evaluation of self.
 • Escape from a perceived mundane environment.
• Relaxation.
• Health and fitness.
• Re-experiencing family.
• Facilitation of social interaction.
• Enhancement of kinship relationships.
• Novelty.
• Cultural experiences.
• Education.
• Prestige.
Pull Factors
Pull factors are extrinsic motivations that pull an individual towards the product offerings of
the destination and the destination itself. Pull factors appear due to the attractiveness and the
attributes associated with the destination. It is related to the external condition, cognitive
aspects or choices available at a destination such as attractions, climate, culture etc. Pull
factors are usually destination-specific, it is the destination setting or characteristics itself that
attract several tourists. Pull factors are more identifiable and can be compared between
destinations according to the knowledge and information that tourists gather about a
destination. Every tourist or an individual is motivated for its own unique reasons from the
nature of the experience to the unique geographical factors that govern travel decisions.
Identifying a set of pull factors that can be applicable to all sites is possible as different
destinations have different or unique sets of pull factors.
Pull factors were characterized by facilities, core attractions and landscape features.
• The facilities factor encompasses all tourism facilities of a destination including food,
lodging, roads, hospitality and security.
• The core attractions factor includes all those activities and services available for
tourism. It includes sports activities, nightlife, entertainment amusement and shopping
facilities.
• The landscape features pull factor strongly relates to the geographical and
sociocultural features of the destination i.e. natural and cultural environment of the
destination.