home
Psychology of fear
Development of a business plan for a travel company. How to open your own travel agency and not regret it

Development of a business plan for a travel company. How to open your own travel agency and not regret it

18.10.2019

Tourism business: who is who

If the decision to open a travel agency is made, for starters it is worth studying the industry legislation. The legal side of the tourist industry is regulated by law N 132-FZ of November 24, 1996 “On the basics of tourism activities in the Russian Federation”.

According to the document, tourism can be international (inbound and outbound) and domestic, and tourism services are provided by tour operators and travel agents.

Tour operators- legal entities that independently develop tourism products (tours), promote and sell them. The mission of the operators is for the tourist to see Paris and... return home safely. Therefore, the law obliges them to have financial security in the form of a bank guarantee or insurance. All tour operators operating under the law are included in the Unified Federal Register, and those working on organizing outbound travel must also be members of the relevant associations.

travel agents- legal entities or individual entrepreneurs who are the link between the tourist and the tour operator. This side sells tours designed by tour operators and earns from commissions. Relations between tour operators and travel agents are regulated by agency agreements, which stipulate the amount of remuneration - 5-16% of the cost of the tour sold.

The responsibilities of a travel agent are listed in the agency agreement and typically include:

informing about tourist products and selection of tours according to the wishes of customers;
preparation and issuance of documents for the tour to tourists (tickets, accommodation voucher, insurance, memo about the features of the route, visas);
booking guarantee for all services.

We open a travel agency from scratch: we take into account experience and financial capabilities

A travel agency can exist in different forms. It all depends on the starting capital and the swing of a novice entrepreneur. Be realistic about your options, but be optimistic.

You can go one of four ways:

The initial investment when opening a franchise travel agency is 150,000-450,000 rubles. depending on the size of the city, and you can pay for them in the first six months of work. The main drawback is the setting by the franchisor of unrealistic sales plans, especially for the start-up period. Therefore, you need to either choose a partner who does not assign plans, or change the terms of the contract.

How to open a travel agency: step by step instructions

So, what does it take to open a travel agency?

Registration. A travel agency can operate both in the form of a legal entity and as an individual entrepreneur. It is easier for an individual entrepreneur to register, use what he has earned for personal purposes and stop his activity. This option is ideal for travel agencies at home. In other cases, it is preferable to open an LLC - the level of trust in firms in Russia is traditionally higher than in individual entrepreneurs.
When choosing a taxation system, it is worth focusing on the simplified tax system with the object "income" (6% rate).
Office organization. For a travel agency, a room (own or rented) with an area of 15-20 m 2 is sufficient. The office should be bright and comfortable, have a telephone line and the Internet. You will need to make repairs, thematically arrange the premises, buy furniture, office equipment, stationery. On the facade of the building there should be a place for outdoor advertising.
The location of the travel agency is important. The preferred accommodation option is in a shopping center or business center, in an area with high business activity. It's good if kindergartens, schools, beauty salons are located near the office - usually it is women who initiate the trip and collect all the information about the tours.
Software. Information on tours can be searched on the websites of tour operators or in specialized search engines - Internet resources, in the databases of which information on most tour operators is consolidated. Such systems provide travel agencies with the most complete picture of current offers. The use is paid, but it saves a lot of time.
The most famous are the following search engines: TOURINDEX (www.tourindex.ru), "Ride" (www.exat.ru) and "TURY.ru" (www.tury.ru).
Choice of direction of work. This is a key moment for starting, on which the further strategy depends on opening a business.
The following tourist destinations may be preferred:

personally known and verified;

coinciding with the specialization of potential employees;

promising and fashionable types of tourism (eco-tours, beach holidays, extreme sports, etc.).

You should choose a niche where it will be interesting to work. All subsequent organizational stages will depend on the decision made at this step: recruitment, selection of tour operators for cooperation, search for effective channels for advertising.
Site creation. Before creating / ordering a site, you should decide what function it will perform: representative (a regular business card site), informational with the ability to search for tours or an online store. The best solution in terms of the ratio between price and efficiency is the second option.
Selection of employees. This is one of the main problems when starting a tourism business. Finding a professional with a client base who knows how to work with people is difficult. Such specialists are rare and expensive, but investing in them pays off, so it’s not worth saving on remuneration. The salaries of tour sales managers are traditionally calculated: salary and percentage of sales.
Employees need to be developed: thematic trainings, seminars, regular study tours to selected countries increase the effectiveness of managers.

On the accountant, especially in the first year of work, you can save money. With small volumes of sales, accounting and reporting can be handled by the businessman himself, using specialized free online services.
Choice of partner tour operators. You can enter into contracts with several tour operators at the same time. For each chosen destination, it is worth concluding agreements with several operators in order to satisfy all possible requests of tourists in terms of arrival dates, hotel level, etc.
When looking for potential partners, you can use the federal register, which lists all legally operating tour operators, as well as professional ratings, reviews in specialized Internet resources, tourist guides and other sources.

Main selection criteria:

the tour operator operates in key tourist destinations;

popularity of the tour operator, positive image, degree of reliability;

conditions offered to the travel agent (the amount of the agency fee, the frequency of its increase, price offers for tours, etc.).
Advertising. It is necessary to use all available channels with high efficiency.
They work well: business cards in the checkout area of supermarkets, competent promotion of your own website, useful and beautiful handouts (calendars, metro maps, brochures and books), information on forums and social networks, announcements on information stands in elevators and entrances, preparation of joint programs / publications with local media (print, radio, TV channels).

How to open a profitable travel agency from scratch?

No matter what they say about the year-round demand for tours, about the replacement of beach resorts by ski resorts, but the business is still seasonal - experts note a decline in the market from January to February. In addition, the crisis that the economy is experiencing affects the tourism industry. Find out why you should start your own business in times of crisis.

Is it profitable to open a travel agency? What tricks should be used in order not only to work to zero, but also to make a profit?

Analyze the market, study demand, rebuild when external conditions change. Start with interesting outbound destinations, including those in the CIS countries that have recorded growth: Vietnam, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Moldova. Organize custom tours.

It is also worth taking a closer look at domestic tourism, the potential of which is huge. A competitive infrastructure has already been formed in some regions of Russia: the Black Sea coast, St. Petersburg, the Golden Ring. The Russian exotic is also promising in terms of tourism: Gorny Altai, Baikal, Kamchatka, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Khakassia, ski resorts in the foothills of the Caucasus.

According to the Federal Agency for Tourism, domestic tourism grew by 30% over the past year, 2014.

Lazy rest is going out of fashion, so the future belongs to active tours that combine travel and hobbies: yoga tour, ecotour, photo tour, trekking, jeeping, fishing tours, etc. Agritourism is gaining momentum.

And, of course, a lot is decided by the value for money. Offer discounts, develop bonus loyalty programs. Attract customers with quality service, cooperate only with reliable tour operators - create an image that will work for you in the future.

Watch the video interview with the CEO of 1001 Tour:

How to make a travel agency profitable

Travel agency is considered a relatively easy business, even if it is a newcomer to this field. By opening a franchise business () or on your own, you can grab your market share even with a superficial analysis of competition. But advertising and thinking through a system for working with a client to return him is a significant part of the costs.

Choosing the scope of the travel agency

In the tourism direction of services, there are two areas:

travel operators;
travel agents.

The work of the first is to deal with the organizational issues of travel:

Reservation of tickets in one or two directions for a certain period;
Reservation of places in a hotel or hotel;
Delivery of goods and escort of tourists to their destination;
Organization of excursions;
Additional services.

Obviously, operators are a large-scale business, often unable to withstand competition. Another thing is travel agents. Their work includes:

Sale of ready-made services;
Cooperation with tour operators;
Communication between the tourist and the tour operator;
Providing discounts to tourists.

Travel agencies may well be the business of one person, and therefore much less investment will be required compared to opening a tour operator company.

Opening an independent company

The simplest agency format is an independent firm. Usually this is an enterprise of two people and an incoming accountant. Travel agency is enough:

Develop a logo and corporate identity;
Establish relationships with suitable tour operators;
Choose an office;
Hire employees;
Run ads.

Depending on the size of the city, you can manage on your own and periodically invite an accountant. The manager, who simultaneously manages the company, receives calls, registers vouchers and controls the trips of tourists, being in touch with the tour operator.

Opening a franchise company

The work of a franchise organization is the registration of a company according to the pattern of a large-scale network business. The peculiarity of a franchise company is that the entrepreneur enters into an agreement with the tourist network and acts under the agreement. A quick start and network connections give an easier profit, but at the same time they limit the independence of actions - everything, up to the design of the office and the course of advertising, is subject to the contract.

Despite the limited choice in running a business, using a franchise network is a convenient and often the right decision.

The advantages are too obvious and suitable for newcomers to the field:

The company immediately has a brand that does not need to be spent and thought through, which means that the company is easy to recognize, and it already has a certain trust among customers;
The travel agency will immediately have promotional materials for advertising, and this is also a significant part of the costs that can be avoided by using a franchise brand;
The network provides software for registration of tours, which facilitates and automates the process;
The firm will always have informational support of the network in case of questions.

In the case of choosing a franchise, the network usually has courses that can be taken even before registering a business, which is useful if you need to learn about the pitfalls of a business.

The travel agency acts as an intermediary between the tourist and the tour operator and receives a monetary reward for this. The tourism industry is highly competitive. Let's take a look at what a travel agency does, is it a profitable business, and is it worth opening another travel agency in this market.

What does a travel agency do

Travel agencies are one of the areas of business activity that deals with selling tours population.

The tour may include a certain number of services individually selected for individuals or have the form of a fully formed (package) tour.

A tour that incorporates a standard set of services: a booked hotel room, a round-trip flight and insurance is called package tour.

A tour that includes all the same services, but selected individually depending on the preferences of the customer, is called individual.

In the event that you have never worked in the tourism business before, it makes sense to start by selling certain types of tours: either packaged or individual. What type of tour to prefer for implementation, everyone chooses for himself.

If you have no experience in the travel business at all, then you can first work for some time in an existing travel company to understand everything from the inside. Or you can open a franchise travel agency.

Travel companies that have chosen for themselves a market segment consisting of VIP persons sell only individual tours. The percentage of orders here is, of course, lower, but the cost of tours is many times higher. As a result, the income from the sale of individual tours is much more significant than from package tours.

In turn, the implementation package tours much easier - in this case, everything has already been selected. Often, potential tourists know what they want and apply only to arrange, book and pay for everything. Package tours help to reduce the time of selecting a particular service and eliminate the possibility that the customer will be disappointed.

The agency's profit consists in the difference in prices for tours between the tour purchased from the tour operator and the tour sold to an individual. The tour is organized directly by the tour operator: draws up contracts with the embassies of the host countries, concludes contracts and monitors the obligatoriness of their implementation with insurance and transport companies, hotels, etc.

The requirements for paperwork when applying for a visa are strictly regulated by each tour operator in their own way. Responsibility for obtaining travel documents such as vouchers, transfers, insurance and incorrect paperwork for obtaining a visa lies with travel companies.

In order for the tour operator to be able to provide tourists with a full package of ordered services, travel agencies are required to complete all the necessary documents and transfer payment for them on time.

Tour operators provide for penalties if the customer decides to terminate the contract for the provision of services. The amount of fines is specified in the contract and may vary depending on the selected tour operator.

Is it profitable to open a travel agency?

Many entrepreneurs, having opened their own travel agency, prosper. But experts are convinced that before opening your travel agency, need to think very carefully weighing all the pros and cons.

If you agree to change your measured life for constant unrest and stress (and you can’t do without it!), You can start planning your business. After all, with him you will receive a good income and constant travel to different countries, because the head of a travel agency is obliged to establish business ties.

Among other things, it is necessary to mention the high competition in this business area. Statistics show that 30% of travel agencies live no more than a year.

If you still decide to work in the field of tourism, you need to think through everything to the smallest detail and make every effort. So, what does it take to open a travel agency?

What do you need to open your own travel agency?

Stages of registration of a tourism agency.

The most important principle in the tourism business is trust level travel agency chosen by the customer. Therefore, when registering a travel company, LLC, an individual entrepreneur should be preferred, since such an organizational and legal form of management inspires more confidence in the customer.

At the same time, the main thing in trust and reputation is how you will work with clients, and the legal form of your travel agency can be any.

For travel companies, a simplified form of tax deductions is provided. For example, for the simplified tax system, two calculation options can be applied: at a rate of 15% on the difference between expenses and income, or at a rate of 6% of the total income. The most favorable tax rate is 15% if the company has a significant part of the expenses.

Travel agency licensing.

Currently no license required. Although until 2007, licensing was mandatory for travel agencies. Now it has become a voluntary matter, that is, at the discretion of the owner.

If the manager wants to increase the level of trust of potential customers, then the license should still be issued.

Selection of tour operators for cooperation.

After registering an agency, the first thing you should pay attention to is choice of tour operator.

And there is someone to choose from - there is a large selection of tour operators on the market. In this case, you should not enter into cooperation with dubious operators. Exaggeratedly low prices for services should alert you, this will not lead to anything good. Travel for a tourist can be disrupted for various reasons, and a dubious operator, in pursuit of profit, is unlikely to warn about this.

Main emphasis when choosing a reliable operator need to do the following:

company priorities,
the duration of its operation in this area,
financial security.

It will be very convenient for you to choose an operator if its main office is located in your city. In this case, the paperwork will take place without intermediaries.

Staff

Location selection

Advertising, clients

In order for a client to come to you, you need, so that the client knows about you. Here you can use any media: newspapers, magazines, banners, as well as advertising on radio and television, advertising in transport. It all depends on the amount you are willing to invest in advertising.

So, if you decide to open your own travel agency, you need to:

correct preparation and execution of documents;
select qualified workers;
choose a crowded place for the office;
properly advertise your services.

Last year, more than 50 million Russian tourists traveled around the country and around the world. Compared to 2016, outbound tourism has grown by almost a third, and many new destinations and routes have been opened on the domestic market. Many aspiring entrepreneurs are interested in how to start a travel business and how to open an agency from scratch? How much money should be invested in a business? How to register? The answers to these questions are in our article.

How to open a tour desk

Pros: This direction practically does not require investments. Even a student can try himself as a guide, if he knows the sights of the city, tells fascinating stories and easily finds a common language with different people.

Minuses: short season. In winter, there are much fewer tourists.

Step 1. Choose a route

It is necessary to carefully consider the routes of excursions: drive tourists around the city or organize field trips. Choose a topic for city routes. For example, “Temples and Monasteries”, “Beauty of the Night City”, “Historical Places”, etc. Car owners organize individual tours around the city and its surroundings.

In order to open a travel company from scratch and conduct field trips, it is not necessary to buy a bus. Make an agreement with the local bus fleet, they will provide transport to the start of the tour.

In addition to excursions, the entrepreneur conducts hiking trips, takes vacationers on a fishing trip or to mushroom and berry places.

Step 2. Organize a company

If you don’t want trouble with the tax authorities, it’s better to immediately open an individual entrepreneur and register with the Federal Tax Service and the Pension Fund.

Next, you have two options: keep accounts and submit reports to the tax office on your own or hire a specialized one. There is quite a wide choice on the market - from lone accountants to large holdings. When choosing, you need to focus on the range of services, guarantees and customer reviews. it is better to contact reliable companies, for example,. The cost of such services can be viewed

Develop a price. The cost of tourism business services differs from the route and additional services. If you organize an hour-long walking tour, then its price is from 150 rubles per person; if a bus trip with a visit to museums, then the price will be over 1000 rubles. But part of the profits must be paid for the rental of buses and tickets to the museum.

As long as you work without assistants, you don't need an office. Applications are accepted through social networks or a personal website.

Prepare a package of documents:

Contract for services.
Reminder for the tourist.
Route description.

Step 3. Calculate investment and payback

The minimum investment is 800 rubles for the state duty when registering an individual entrepreneur. The rest depends on the budget: spend money on contextual advertising or promote services for free; rent an office or work from home; buy a car for individual excursions or organize walking routes.

It is advantageous to develop a route and offer it to a travel agency. The firm attracts clients, and you only drive groups along the route.

After you have opened a mini-travel agency, you can calculate the profit. The price of a walking tour is 150 rubles, the average group is 20 people. Income per hour of work 3000 rubles. You can conduct 3-5 excursions per day and earn up to 15,000.

How to open a travel agency from scratch on a franchise

Pros: promoted brand and ready-made business plan. Anyone can open without experience in the travel industry and without knowing how to open a travel agency from scratch. The entrepreneur receives from the partner-franchisor a ready-made scheme of the company's work and assistance with the launch.

Minuses: additional costs for lump sum and royalties.

Step 1. Choose a franchise

There are many dummy franchises offered online, so choose your partner carefully.

The selection criteria are presented below.

How many years has the company been on the market? Newcomers do not guarantee the viability of the franchise, as they themselves have just opened. To start a tourism business in Russia, it is better to choose a brand that has been around for more than 5 years.

How many franchises have been opened and for how long? If the network is developed, and franchisees have been working for at least 1 year, you can count on success.
How much does a franchise cost? The seller usually names only the amount of the lump-sum fee and royalties. It is necessary to take an interest in what other expenses are coming and in what amount.
What support does the franchisor promise? If you don’t know how to open a travel agency on your own from scratch, then it’s better to enlist support for the first 2-3 years.

More than 7.5 million tourists visit St. Petersburg annually