Wholesale Travel

A wholesaler is a company that does not deal or sell directly to the public. Wholesalers are travel companies that sell packages to retail travel agencies who then sell them on to the public. They can also be tour operators that sell their own tours to travel agencies.

They negotiate special low fares with airlines, accommodation, attraction and activity operators and transport companies because they buy in bulk. Travel agencies buy the packages at a net rate so that they can generate commissions by selling the package to the public at a gross rate.

Each of the retail travel agencies purchase accommodation through the wholesaler for their clients who want to stay at the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney.

In the scenario shown earlier, the wholesaler would then contact the hotel to make the bookings on behalf of the retail agencies.  As the wholesaler is booking a lot of accommodation the hotel will give the wholesaler a special rate.

Some wholesalers publish brochures which outline the packages.  These glossy brochures assist the retail travel agent in selling the package to the public. Almost all brochures found in a retail travel agency are produced by wholesalers.

There are only a small number (about 12) of wholesale travel companies currently operating in the New Zealand market.  This compares with about 800 retail travel agencies.  Most travel documents sold in New Zealand are now issued by a wholesaler, not the retailer. Some examples of wholesalers are Go Holidays, Air NZ Holidays, Williment World Travel, Sunlover, Travelplan and Infinity

Most wholesale travel consultations are completed over the phone, by email or through an internal reservations system such as Dolphin which is used by House of Travel.  Retail travel consultants will phone, or email a quotation request to the wholesaler, who will calculate the best options for the customer and then relay this information back to the retail agent. Alternatively, the retail consultant will check availability and prepare a quote using an internal reservations system. Let’s have a look at some of the positions in wholesale travel.

Let’s look at a few of these positions in more detail.

This is where you might start if you joined a wholesaler and had never worked in the travel industry before.  You are involved in putting all the documents such as airline tickets, vouchers, itineraries, baggage labels, departure cards etc. into travel wallets, and checking that everything is correct and that there is nothing missing. There are itineraries to prepare and cross check to make sure all arrangements are booked and confirmed. You also need to ensure that you have received money from the travel agent before you send out the travel wallets.

A wholesale consultant is also known as a processor.  In this role you must really know the product backwards because you are dealing with travel professionals who are coming to YOU for advice and assistance. There is constant pressure and deadlines and you must be creative in trying to calculate various options.  Often travel agents will ask for a quote as their clients may want to do something slightly different than what’s advertised in the brochure. If the quote is accepted, then the wholesale consultant goes ahead and makes all the bookings and sends an email of confirmation and an invoice to the retail travel agent. This position can offer an average annual starting salary of between $34-$45,000.

Tasks and Duties

• Create quotes for travel agents
• Books accommodation, transport and activities
• Sends confirmations and emails
• Creates invoicing to travel agents
• Handles enquiries from travel agents

A person working in the product sourcing department is responsible for contacting the different hotels, rental car companies, attractions and activities to negotiate bulk wholesale rates with them.

This is a sought after role as it often involves visiting those products to check them out – that means you’re able to experience those hotels and activities to make sure they are of good quality. It’s a tough life! On the other hand, as the product manager, if any of the services or facilities are not up to scratch and there are complaints, then this is your area of responsibility.

The product manager must make sure that the wholesale company is competitive with other wholesale companies in the country and have a say in which hotels etc. are advertised in their brochures. This is a role which would require several years of experience to fully understand and thoroughly know each aspect of the business.

A consolidator is a wholesale consultant that specialises in consolidation – that means dealing with complex airfares. They must have a good knowledge of almost every fare in the market, and the rules of that fare, so that they can advise the travel consultant. This is a very specialised area, and very competitive.