Retail Travel

The travel and tourism industry cannot survive without sales distribution.  This is how all of those travel products within the accommodation, transport and attraction and activities sectors are sold to customers.  So, this is the sector that incorporates where all those hotel rooms, flight tickets and activity tickets are sold, and who sells them.  The tourism industry is very similar to other industries whereby there is a retail and wholesale distribution chain.  The sales distribution sector collectively includes retail travel involving agents for local, domestic and international travel as well as, wholesale travel involving packages and consolidation for travel agents.

Let’s look first at retail travel.

Retail travel involves two areas. They are leisure travel agencies and corporate travel agencies.

Retail travel refers to the travel agencies who sell tourism products to the client.  For example; Hello World, Flight Centre, House of Travel etc.

Retail travel agencies do not run or own all these products; they simply sell tickets on behalf of the companies that do run them.  In order to generate an income, travel agents act as the agent for the products they are selling.  Those products come from companies within each sector of the industry we have learnt about; transportation, accommodation, airlines and attractions/activities. These companies pay commission to the travel agency for selling their product. 

Commission

In order to survive, travel agents need to make money.  They do this by acting as the agent for the companies/products (e.g. hotels) they are selling, and then receiving commission on what they sell.

Service fees

Because of the drop in commission rates, most retail travel agents now charge service fees (e.g. $25 - $125 per booking, depending on the complexity.)

Leisure travel agencies deal with New Zealanders wanting to travel on holiday or to visit friends and relatives.  They are mostly located on shopping strips, with street frontage or within a shopping centre. They mainly sell outbound products; that is New Zealanders travelling out of New Zealand to overseas destinations such as Australia, South Pacific and the rest of the world. They can, however, sell the New Zealand domestic product. The ‘product’ includes resort accommodation packages, flights, transfers, extended coach tours, cruises and ferry transfers.

Corporate travel agencies are usually located inside large buildings, on higher floors, without street frontage, sometimes even inside other businesses.  Corporate travel consultants mostly deal with flights and accommodation for businesspeople travelling for work.  Their business is usually conducted over the phone or by email that’s why they don’t need to be on the high street.  They require a certain standard of accommodation or transportation and they usually have less notice when booking travel arrangements than leisure travel consultants do.

Traditionally, Visitor Information Centres have provided information and sold products for their local region.  They mainly serve overseas visitors, though New Zealanders do use i-SITEs as well.  They are sometimes funded by councils and staff must have strong selling skills as well as a good knowledge of the local area.  The majority of the product is local and domestic attractions, day escorted tours, activities, accommodation and coach transport.

Let’s look at some of the positions in retail travel. 

These positions are only found in very large leisure or corporate travel agencies.

 Tasks and duties include:

• Typing letters and itineraries for clients
• Collecting and posting the mail
• Answering the phone and taking messages
• Ordering brochures and stocking the brochure racks
• Doing the daily banking
• Delivering tickets etc.

A starting salary for this role would typically range between $35-45,000 p.a.

Tasks and duties include:

• Dealing with customers both face to face and over the phone
• Handling bookings for accommodation, buses, trains and rental cars in New Zealand
• Booking domestic flights
• Completing some travel accounting returns 

Domestic travel consultants need to be able to read timetables, use a CRS (Computer Reservation System) quote fares, complete reservation sheets, and issue tickets.  Domestic travel consultants are found both in leisure and corporate travel agencies.

They would also need to attend seminars, listen to sales representatives when they come in, and hopefully go on educational visits – also known as familiarisation trips – or famils. (visit destinations).

An international travel consultant will normally have worked in the travel industry for at least two or three years selling domestic travel before moving on to sell international travel. 

Their starting salary would be around $35-$45,000 each year depending on the company they work for.  They may earn commission on top of that if that is the way the company works. Some successful international consultants will therefore earn $60,000 plus.

International travel consultants need to be able to read timetables, use a computer reservation system, quote fares, complete itineraries, and issue tickets.  They don’t need to know everything, but they do need to know where to find the information.  Having a good knowledge of world geography is really helpful as well as the ability to sell and offer great customer service.

They would also need to attend seminars, listen to sales representatives when they come in to learn more about the different products, and hopefully go on famils*.

*famil. Noun. (plural famils) (travel) A free or low cost trip for travel agents or consultants, provided by a travel wholesaler or airline as a means of promoting their service.

They work in either leisure travel or corporate travel agencies.

Information officers that work at i-SITEs offer free advice and information as well as book travel and accommodation in their local region and all-over New Zealand.  This means that on occasion, they compete with leisure travel agencies though they generally attract different customers.  Most information officers hold qualifications in tourism or travel. 

 Their tasks and duties include:

• Greeting customers
• Book accommodation, transport and activities
• Assist with local knowledge
• Handling enquiries
• Answering the phone
• Order and restock brochures

 

Hannah graduated from New Zealand School of Tourism and secured a job at the Thames i-Site Visitors Centre as a Visitor Information Officer.  Hannah has now moved over to work in the Marketing department of Destination Coromandel, which is the Regional Tourism Organisation covering that area and she’s loving it!

Check out the job advert below for Rotorua i-Site.

Salary Range $34 -$45,000 per annum