How to open a travel agency from scratch: step-by-step instructions. Where to start a tourism business: travel agency business plan

* The calculations use average data for Russia

A fragment of the book by Yulia and Georgy Mokhov “Travel Agency: where to start, how to succeed” by the publishing house “Peter. Published with permission from the publisher

Do I have enough money to open a travel agency? Should I risk my last savings or not? How long will it take for investments in the tourism business to pay off? How much will I earn? Create your own travel agency or buy a ready-made one? Or join a franchise network? Is it difficult to make a business plan for a travel agency? What are the requirements for a travel agency office? How many employees will you have to hire? Where to look for footage? Which tour operators to work with? Which countries do you sell tours to? Limit yourself to a narrow specialization or sell everything? Should we open air and railway ticket offices immediately or later? How to attract clients? How much to spend on advertising? Do tourists have many complaints? And still…

SHOULD I OPEN A TRAVEL AGENCY OR NOT?!.

We will try to dispel all your fears and support your desire to open a travel agency. But we guarantee: everything that is written here is a real reflection of the state of affairs in the tourism business, without exaggeration or omission.

Development of a business plan for a travel company.

We offer for your reference a diagram that reflects the main parameters and cost items that can be used when drawing up a business plan for a travel company (agency).

1. Travel agency concept

Kind of activity:

• travel agent;
• tour operator;
• mixed activity.

• sale of air and railway tickets;
• transfer services, ordering limousines;
• visa processing;
• insurance;
• preparation of documents for registration of foreign passports;
• services of an individual guide and accompanying person;
• translation services;
• sale of guidebooks;
• sale of related travel products;
• sale of gift certificates;
• booking and ordering tables in restaurants, tickets for events;
• rental of tourist equipment;
• Car rent.

• by type of tourist destination;
• according to the cost of tours;
• by country;
• by type of tourism.

2. Organizational plan

Travel agency office location:

• center;
• outskirts;
• distance from the metro.

• rent;
• own premises;
• other.

• showcase office on the first line;
• in the business center;
• in the administrative office building;
• in the mall;
• on the first floor of a residential building.

• two jobs, three five jobs;
• one-room, two-room, three-room, more than three rooms;
• free layout (number of meters).

tables with reception places, chairs for employees, chairs for visitors, bedside tables with keys, rack for catalogues, wardrobe, hangers, hanger rack,
a board for information and special offers, a sofa for visitors, a coffee table, a safe, blinds, a mirror, dishes (for employees, for receiving visitors), frames for photographs and permits, plants.

Office equipment (cost calculation):

computers, telephones, fax, printers (minimum 2 pieces), scanner, copier, TV, CD and DVD player for showing films about countries and resorts, air conditioning, water cooler, first aid kit, clock, stationery, wall map of the world or globe.

Office design project:

• zoning of space;
• design of the premises according to the concept of the travel company;
• floor plan.

3. Competitive environment

Competitors in selected tourist destinations.
Competitors within the radius:

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• building;
• district;
• cities;
• countries (if necessary).

4. Production plan

Staff:

• staffing schedule;
• wage formation policy;
• training.

Tour sales technology:

• search and booking of tours;
• scheme of interaction with partners;
• processing payment for tours;
• document flow;
• delivery and issuance of documents.

• by season;
• by directions;
• by country;
• by price;
• by target audience.

Travel agency pricing policy.

Features of the tours sold.

Corporate identity development:

• contractor;
• list of required items;

• concept and functions of the site;
• contractor;
• cost and timing of work.

• signboard;
• pillar;
• signs;
• a sign with operating hours and company details.

• booklet;
• Business Cards;
• letterheads.

• budget size for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months;
• advertising media.

6. Legal aspects of opening a travel company

Legal form of a legal entity.

Tax system.

Drawing up a lease agreement.

Required permits depending on the type of tourism activity.

Trademark registration.

Purchase and registration of cash register equipment (if necessary).

Ordering strict reporting forms “Tourist voucher”.

Maintaining accounting records (independently, with the assistance of an accountant, consulting company).

Legal support of activities

7. Financial plan

Sources of funds.

Amount and duration of investment.

Initial expenses plan.

Fixed expenses plan.

Income plan.

Payback plan.

8. Conclusion

Long-term development plan.

9.Applications

Approximate costs for creating a travel agency in Moscow,
one-time:

Registration of a legal entity and preparation of necessary permits for travel agency activities: 20,000–25,000

Furniture and office preparation for sales: 50,000–100,000

Office equipment and communications 100,000–150,000

Development of corporate identity 15,000–25,000

Website development and registration 20,000–45,000

Trademark registration 50,000-100,000

Employee training 5,000–30,000

Additional possible costs

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• Purchase of a ready-made tourism business, payment of legal services to support the transaction
• Payment for premises selection services
• Payment for recruitment services
• Payment for connection services
• Internet and additional telephone lines
• Payment for services of a consulting company

The cost of tours even in the same hotel category is different, and the choice of tourists does not always fall on the 3* level of accommodation. Therefore, in order to make an income plan, it is necessary to analyze season prices for selected destinations with data from 3*, 4*, 5* hotels and compare them with the expected amount of income

Approximate plan of monthly expenses of a travel company in Moscow (rub.)

Office and infrastructure

Rent of premises 25 m2 - 50,000

Communication services 3000

Internet 5000

Water (cooler) 500

Stationery 2500

Other administrative expenses 6000 Staff salaries

• Director 35,000 +%
• Manager 19,000 +%
• Manager 16,000 +%
• Secretary-manager 12,000 +%
• Courier 16,000
• Accountant (outsourcing) 10,000
• Cleaning lady 3000

• Legal subscription service RUB 7,000. months
• Payment for the online booking and tour search system is 1200 rubles/month.
• Refilling cartridges 400 rub./month.

Total 241,500 rub. + percentage of salary

Selecting the status of a travel company. Tour operator or travel agent?

After the abolition of licensing for tour operator and travel agency activities in 2007, a mandatory state procedure was established only for tour operator activities. Any legal entity or individual entrepreneur can engage in travel agency activities. The only thing that determines the status of a travel agent today is the existence of an agreement with the tour operator, according to which the travel agent, on behalf of and at the expense of the tour operator, sells the tourism product generated by the tour operator. At the same time, the travel agent is obliged to comply with a number of requirements established by law, which we will discuss below.

But first of all, it is necessary to find out why it is so important to understand the difference between travel agency activities and tour operators and take the necessary legal actions in a timely manner. The fact is that the law establishes a mandatory requirement - all tour operators registered on the territory of the Russian Federation are required to have financial support. Financial support is a guarantee of the tour operator in case of non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment of the contract for the sale of a tour product, insurance of its civil liability to consumer tourists.

From financial support, injured tourists are compensated for the actual damage they suffered, for example, the cost of the tour if it did not take place, or the difference in cost if the vacation time was shortened. Financial security is provided by an insurance company or banker. The law establishes the minimum amount for which an insurance contract or a bank guarantee contract must be concluded; today it is 10,000,000 rubles. for international tourism (entry and exit) and 500,000 rubles. for domestic tourism.

The cost of servicing financial security averages 1–1.5% per year of the amount of security.

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For example, from the minimum amount of financial support for international tourism of 10,000,000 rubles. the cost of insurance compensation will be 100,000–150,000 rubles. This is the amount that will need to be paid annually to the insurance company for the tour operator’s civil liability insurance contract.

The contractual scheme of a travel agent’s work when selling tours looks something like this:

1. the tour operator enters into an agency (commission) agreement with the travel agent, according to which the agent is instructed to implement (sell) tours generated by the tour operator for a fee;
2. a travel agent attracts a client (tourist) and enters into an agreement with him on the sale of a tourism product, receives the documents necessary to register the tour;
3. the travel agent sends a request to the tour operator to book specific travel services for the client (tourist), indicating the dates, number and details of tourists, hotel, level of transportation, excursions and other components of the tour;
4. the tour operator confirms the travel agent’s request and issues an invoice for payment;
5. the travel agent provides the tour operator with the documents (or information) necessary to process the tour (for example, for a visa);
6. the travel agent accepts the final payment from the tourist (if paying in cash, issues a cash receipt or a strict reporting form);
7. the travel agent makes payment to the tour operator minus the remuneration due to him (by bank transfer or in cash to the tour operator's cash desk);
8. the tour operator issues the travel agent with tour documents necessary for the tourist to travel;
9. the travel agent issues the tourist documents for the tour and all the necessary information to the tourist;
10. the travel agent reports to the tour operator - sends the agent’s report (act) indicating the amount of the tour sale and the amount of remuneration;
11. the tour operator signs the agent's report and issues an invoice for the services provided under the agency agreement.

But it should be borne in mind that the presented scheme reflects only the ideal version of document flow.

In practice, a travel agent may face various surprises; firstly, the tour operator may refuse to enter into an agency agreement with you and will offer a purchase and sale agreement, as a result your legal status will change, it will be necessary to adapt accounting and document flow;

secondly, when making a payment under a tour operator agreement, you suddenly discover that the invoice has been issued for payment to
another company or, making payment through the tour operator’s cash desk, you will be given a cash receipt order for a physical
a person with a “paid” stamp without the organization’s seal.

Travel company staff

The optimal staff for a small travel company looks something like this:

• ¦ leader;
• ¦ manager1;
• ¦ manager2;
• ¦ secretary with an expanded range of responsibilities;
• ¦ courier;
• ¦ accountant and cashier;
• ¦ cleaning lady.

Director.

The head of a travel company is a key figure and resolves a large number of issues, both economic and strategic, but in addition to him, it is advisable to have at least two sales managers.

The manager can also be the chief accountant, cashier, sign documents and register the receipt of funds.
If the head of a travel agency is a hired employee, he must have at least two years of work experience; this is the minimum time during which a specialist can go through all the “seasons” of a travel agency’s work - high, low, “dead” - and learn how to manage a company. If the head - founder of a travel agency has no experience in tourism, this is not a tragedy. It is necessary to invite managers with work experience and, together with them, develop the strategy, assortment, and advertising policy of the company.

Travel company manager.

His responsibilities include: negotiating with clients and partners by phone and in the office, arranging tours with tourists, booking tours and processing documents with tour operators, monitoring the fulfillment of orders, price changes, requirements for documents provided, terms of cooperation, special offers.

A universal manager must maintain and improve his qualifications (master classes, seminars, promotional tours), work at exhibitions and workshops. Requirements for managers: higher education, experience in tourism, absence of bad habits, presentable appearance, competent Russian speech, communication skills , initiative, ability to resolve conflict situations, responsibility.

A manager without work experience should at least strive to work in tourism and have a specialized secondary or higher (incomplete higher) education, since this significantly affects the general level of culture. On
teaching someone who strives for knowledge is a rewarding task, but find out the long-term plans of this candidate so that
the invested effort and money were not wasted - perhaps he will use the knowledge gained in another travel agency.

Travel agency secretary

receives incoming calls, distributes them according to the specialization of managers, answers general questions (“How can I get to you?”, “What time do you work until?”), ensures timely ordering of the necessary office supplies, household goods, and monitors the courier’s work schedule , carries out instructions from the manager, receives visitors and guests of the office. You must understand that sometimes it is very difficult to do without the help of a secretary, especially in the high season - in the summer, when the phone is ringing at the same time and the client is sitting in the chair.

Secretaries are also tasked with filling out questionnaires, recording and registering incoming and outgoing mail, and responding to corporate emails, ICQ, and Skype.

As a rule, a secretary is hired after several months of starting a travel company, when the phone is constantly ringing and clients demanding attention come to the office.

Courier

A very important and responsible position. With the strength (legs) of this person, money, passports, documents must get to the tour operator. Therefore, when choosing a candidate for this position, follow a simple rule: the person must be checked in all possible ways - call the previous place of work, confirm the correspondence of the place of registration and place of residence, call the home phone and communicate with relatives, ask for recommendations. These measures are not unnecessary. The problems that may arise due to the actions of the courier are, without exaggeration, catastrophic - loss of foreign passports and documents, theft of funds that the courier transports daily. The best option is a relative or acquaintance, but, unfortunately, such candidates are not always found.

Accountant-cashier,

certainly a necessary specialist, but the cost of his services is too high for a small travel agency (in Moscow from 30,000 rubles). Therefore, most travel agencies use the services of law firms or an external accountant. Such a personnel solution allows you to reduce accounting costs by at least three times.

Remuneration and bonus schemes in the tourism business

In the tourism business there is a general trend towards increasing wages. This is due to the existing personnel “hunger”. Specialists with experience move to another company, where they offer a slightly higher salary for the same full-time position, and this can happen every six months.

Options for calculating salaries for a tourism manager

The tour is considered sold when 100% payment is made.

1. Interest-free system: salary 22,000–30,000 rub.

2. Salary + interest:
Salary 10,000–15,000 rub. + 10% of tours sold by the manager.
Salary 15,000 + 10% after the implementation of tours for more than 150,000 rubles.
Salary 15,000 + 10% of revenue from sold tours, divided among all managers.
Salary 18,000–20,000 rub. + 5% of tours sold by the manager.
Salary 18,000–20,000 rub. + 10% of all tours sold, divided between all managers.

3. Planned system: fixed salary is paid when the plan is fulfilled; for example, from 50,000 rub. (this refers to the company's income, not the total cost of the tours). If the plan is exceeded by more than 50,000 rubles. + 10%, more than 100,000 rub. + 15%, more than 250,000 + 20%.

During the low season (January, February, May, June) the plan is 50%. In this case, the previous fixed salary is paid.

If the plan is not met, with the exception of the low season, there is a system of fines:

• ¦ the first month - no penalties, an analysis of the reasons associated with the decrease in sales is required;
• ¦ second month and beyond: 40,000–49,000 rubles. – 10% is withheld from the fixed payment (30,000–39,000 rubles – 20%; 20,000–29,000 rubles – 30%).

In the first months after the opening of a travel agency office, a planned payroll system, as a rule, is not used.

Options for calculating wages for a travel company courier

1. Salary 12,000–15,000 rubles, payment for a travel ticket, mobile phone, working hours: Monday-Friday.

2. Salary 15,000–20,000 rubles, payment for a travel ticket, mobile phone, working hours: Monday - Saturday.

During the high season and increased sales volumes, it is customary to give couriers a bonus of 20–30% of their salary. The courier is an important employee of the travel agency, so it is better to pay extra on time, issue bonuses and work calmly.

On the market you can find offers from courier companies that deliver documents anywhere
city, they enter into a formal agreement and bear full financial responsibility for the funds and documents in the parcel.

Options for calculating the salary of a director of a travel company

1. Salary from 40,000 rubles.
2. Salary 18,000–20,000 rub. + 1–5% of monthly income
agency after deducting expenses.
3. 12,000–15,000 rub. + 5–10% of monthly income after deducting expenses.

This was just a small fragment of the book by Yulia and Georgy Mokhov, “Travel Agency: Where to Start, How to Succeed,” published by Peter Publishing House.

In the guide itself you will find detailed advice on choosing a tour operator, organizing document flow, taxation, recommendations for promotion, working with the client base and many valuable links to specialized Internet resources for tourism industry practitioners.

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Calculator for calculating the profitability of this business

Tourism in Russia is now developing at a fantastic speed. People began to live better, incomes increased, which means the field of activity for companies working in this area has expanded.

Where to start a tourism business? Like any other, with planning costs and income. In this article we will talk about what a travel agency business plan should contain, how to properly organize a business, create an assortment of tours, and choose partners.

Choosing a direction of work

This is the first thing you will have to face. All currently operating companies can be divided into two groups: those that organize and implement their own tours, in a word - tour operators, and those that specialize exclusively in selling offers from domestic and foreign companies, that is, travel agents.

Of course, working according to the first option is more profitable, but the risks are higher. In addition, the starting capital is required to be very large. Therefore, it is safer and easier to start your activity by implementing ready-made tours from reputable tour operators. Organizing a tourism business in this case will require much smaller investments from you; you can start with a capital of 200 thousand rubles (of course, this is the minimum figure).

A travel agent is a kind of intermediary between a large company and a buyer. But this does not mean that you should sell tours strictly at the price determined by the tour operator. For example, the organizer of a tour to America offered you a route worth 80 thousand rubles for implementation on the condition that you keep 10 percent of the tour price for yourself. You are selling a ticket in your city, where there are no other similar offers, for more, say, 100 thousand rubles. The benefit is obvious - your income increases.

Travel business. Where to begin?

Once you have decided on the direction of work, you should register your company. You can create a legal entity, or you can function as an individual entrepreneur. As practice shows, to work in the tourism industry it is better to give preference to LLC. The key point in such activities is customer trust in the company they choose, and people trust legal entities more than individual entrepreneurs.

For registering an LLC, a fee of 4,000 rubles is charged, you will also have to make a seal (another 400-600 rubles) and certify the constituent documents with a notary (about 1,000 rubles). The authorized capital must be at least 10,000 rubles, and you must transfer at least half of it to an account opened with a bank (you will also have to pay about 500 rubles for opening an account). Upon registration, the company will be assigned OKVED 53.30 “Activities of travel agencies.” Thus, the minimum amount you will spend on the registration procedure is 6,000 rubles.

License and taxes

What else is needed to open a travel agency? Previously, a license was required, but since 2007, compulsory licensing has been abolished. Therefore, all that remains is to choose the object of taxation. The work of travel agencies falls under the simplified tax system. At your discretion, two objects are offered: income (6 percent rate) or income minus expenses (15 percent rate). The second option should only be chosen if a large share of the costs is expected.

Selecting a room

This step should be completed before the registration process. Yes, they won’t register you if the company does not have a legal address. Of course, it is best to locate the agency’s office in the city center, but focus primarily on financial capabilities. Pay special attention to the design and furnishings of the room. Essentially, a travel company sells promises, “air,” a person gives money now and receives the service later, so an atmosphere of confidence should be created that savings are in good hands.

Office equipment

Don't forget about office equipment: the office must be equipped with a computer with Internet access (one is enough for a start), a telephone, a printer, a fax - without all this it will not be possible to organize work. Furniture costs will also be considerable. A computer desk costs at least 6,000 rubles, a swivel chair costs about 3,000 thousand, you will also need to purchase chairs for clients, a sofa for waiting in case a line forms, a coffee table where booklets, leaflets, etc. will be placed.

On average, the cost of purchasing furniture will be 30-60 thousand rubles. You will need to spend about 50 thousand rubles on office equipment (at conservative estimates). Yes, owning a travel company is not cheap! The business plan should also contain a calculation of monthly office maintenance costs, which will include expenses for office supplies, utility bills, Internet payments, telephone bills, etc.

Selection of partners

Finding the tour operators you want to work with is what is needed to open a travel agency, among other things. Today there are many operators on the market organizing tours to all kinds of destinations. An important point: you need to work only with trusted companies.

Many entrepreneurs who are just starting to develop a tourism business make a serious mistake. They strive to cooperate with tour operators offering tours at the lowest prices. As a rule, such companies turn out to be unreliable. To avoid unpleasant moments, choose companies that have already proven themselves in the market.

Be sure to find out which tour operators have offices in your city. Working with them will save you a lot of hassle. All document circulation is carried out at the main office; if you have a representative office, you will be able to submit documents directly, which is very convenient.

Recruitment

The business plan of a travel agency must include information about personnel and payroll. A small company may consist of only four people: a director, a manager, an accountant and a cleaner. When combining functions, the staff may be even smaller.

After compulsory licensing of tourism activities in Russia was abolished in 2007, many entrepreneurs began to wonder how to open a travel agency from scratch, and the Internet was full of step-by-step instructions for this type of business. This is not surprising, the start-up investment is minimal, and this profitable business with small investments pays off after selling only 500 vouchers. What do you need to open a travel agency and where to start?

There are 2 types of service providers in the tourism services market - travel agencies and tour operators. Travel agencies sell ready-made tours, while operators develop them: they select hotels and book rooms in them, organize air travel, and they also set the amount of commission that the travel agency will receive for selling tours.

Travel agencies, in turn, come in two types: some specialize in domestic tours, while others specialize in international ones.

Opening a profitable travel agency from scratch

So, before opening a travel agency from scratch, you need to choose a priority direction for sending tourists - abroad or within the country. In the first case, they usually offer some unique thematic trips, for example, visiting all the major churches of Russia in 7 days or an eco-tour with a demonstration of how they organize the cultivation of strawberries using Dutch technology, and you can also accept foreigners. In the case of international destinations, they usually rely on popular beach holidays and luxury expensive tours.

What do you need to open a travel agency?

• Registration of the agency as a legal entity - LLC or individual entrepreneur. In most cases, the form of an individual entrepreneur is more profitable, since it is less expensive and does not require authorized capital. However, some tour operators refuse to work with companies registered as individual entrepreneurs.
• Renting premises. It is enough to find a room with an area of ​​20 m2 and preferably in the city center. There is also an opinion that it is better to locate an office next to other travel agencies, since clients love choice and will happily go to all nearby companies to choose the best tour and the best price.
• Repair and arrangement of premises. Cosmetic renovation of an office with an area of ​​20 m2 will cost from 50,000 rubles. Another about 18,000 rubles will have to be spent on two telephone lines, as well as Internet. In total, you will need to spend about 100,000 rubles on furnishings and purchasing equipment.
• Until 2007, step-by-step instructions on how to open a travel agency included obtaining a license from scratch and collecting documentation, but now paperwork has been reduced to a minimum, which is why everyone is attracted to this type of business.
• Receiving statistics codes and opening a bank account, not forgetting to report this to the tax office.
• Purchasing access to a unified search database for tours and tour operators. The most common example is tourindex.ru. Access costs from 13,000 rubles for six months and allows you to quickly show the client all possible offers without going to the website of each tour operator. Any step-by-step instructions on how to open a travel agency from scratch certainly notes that access to the base of tour operators is the most important step. If funds allow, you can also purchase special software to simplify document flow, it costs approximately 9,000 rubles and is designed for 4 seats.
• Search and hiring of personnel. You will need at least 2 sales managers, and the business owner himself usually combines customer service and administrative work. They usually don’t hire an accountant, but pay a part-time employee 5-8 thousand rubles a month. The managers' salary is approximately 10,000 rubles + 1-3% from the sale of tours. Employees are also periodically sent on study tours to popular destinations.
• Signboard, advertising and website creation - searching for clients. Here, too, you need to decide on your priorities - to rely on the Internet or traditional advertising, because today both directions are expensive. However, all companies that have thought about how to open a travel agency and what is needed for this ultimately agree on one opinion - the best advertising is word of mouth, recommendations from satisfied clients.

The average price of a tour in popular destinations is about $700-800. On average, the agency earns a 10% commission from the sale of a tour, that is, $70-80. In the first year of operation of the company, there will be few orders, approximately 40 contracts per month in the summer and only 15-20 in the winter. The most difficult thing is to survive the low season in the first year, as well as send 400-500 clients abroad. If the company successfully survived the first year of operation, then in the future the number of clients will constantly grow by 2-3 times.

And when the travel agency gets stronger, it can try to become a tour operator. To do this, you will need to buy a liability insurance policy for 5 million rubles and enter the Unified Federal Register of Tour Operators. This will allow you to independently create tours, satisfying the demand of regular customers for exotic destinations and set your own prices.

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You can't beat the big players by cutting prices, so you'll have to work hard to make sure your services are worth the money you charge. Those services that set you apart from the rest are very important. Overall service quality is the key to success.

Tourism is an extremely competitive industry and by opening a travel agency you are setting yourself up for a lot of hard work. And when you start a business, you won't be able to take advantage of free or extremely cheap vacations—you simply won't have the time. So the motivation should be related to the work and the service you provide.

You'll spend your days negotiating with people, either in person or over the phone, which takes effort, even if you enjoy talking to people. If you don't have the stamina for this, you shouldn't open a travel agency.

In the tourism business, it is more important not to sell trips, but rather to sell consultations. Your customers want to make sure they can rent a car, go for a walk, or get vegetarian food. It is very important to provide them with a personal approach.

You do not need to have experience in tourism. He will, of course, help, but the most important thing is to be prepared to learn quickly.

How to start

It is quite possible to open a travel agency at home with a computer and a telephone. You can start building a client base with friends and family, so technically it's not difficult to get started.

But you need to think bigger if you want your business to survive. Competition at the local or street level is not high enough for business success. A truly local business will not survive in such a market. It needs to be available throughout the country.

Look at areas that are not yet well covered by travel agencies and start a business there. Or you can start a business that provides specialized travel services and does not require an office.

How much does it cost?

Office costs can be very expensive, but if your travel agency has a narrow specialization, you can save on an office by renting it in an area where it is cheapest.

Staff:

However, a remote but cheaper office can be a disadvantage when it comes to hiring staff. This is not an industry where workers receive very high salaries, but there is competition for good staff.

Look for people who have experience in tourism and who will be attracted to cheap vacations and offer them good working conditions. Roughly speaking, you will need to spend the same amount on salaries as on renting an office, but you need to be prepared to pay more for experience or knowledge of foreign languages.

Before you open a travel agency, you need to think about how clients will find out about your company. Local newspapers, yellow pages, teletext are good ways, but they are not cheap.

Word of mouth advertising is effective, but know that this is not a business where good service will definitely bring you back again. Your customers will tell their friends about the great service they received, but high price competition will force people to explore other options, even if they end up coming to you.

Opening a travel agency

Develop a plan

Develop a realistic business plan for opening your own travel agency. You will need to compete successfully both with existing agencies and with sites that allow people to book their own hotels and plane tickets. If you do not have experience in the tourism business, then you can work for several months in an existing travel agency to get one.

You should also have a realistic financial plan. After compiling it, consult with an accountant.

Define a Niche

When developing a travel agency business plan, focus on your distinctive features. Extended vacations, trips that involve more than one flight and hotel reservations and guided tours are much more difficult to plan using online services. Many companies also prefer to independently organize trips using the Internet to working with a specific travel agency. When defining your niche, focus on what you are interested in and what you are competent at. If you have extensive experience, for example, in excursion tours to Europe, it is better to open a travel agency that specializes in such tours. If you have connections in the business environment and experience in organizing corporate trips, it is better to open a travel agency focused specifically on companies.

Create connections

Advertise your travel agency by highlighting your specialization and targeting potential clients. In your promotional materials, such as a brochure or website, describe your experience organizing tours and why people would find it difficult to organize them themselves. Based on your knowledge, you may be able to save clients money by combining tours or arranging them at less busy times of the year.

Travel agency profit

A travel agency's profit is the commission it receives for selling a tour operator's package. The fame of your travel agency is important, because international tour operators will not provide a large commission to an unknown organization. Commissions can vary greatly.

The minimum commission starts at 10%, and for well-known travel agencies it reaches 18%. So it will be difficult for you to compete if you are just starting out.

For example, if the average cost of a voucher is 25,000 rubles, then by selling 4 vouchers a day, you can earn an income of 300,000 rubles. per month, which should be enough to cover costs.

How to open a franchise travel agency

How to open a travel agency and not go bankrupt in the first year? (and this happens with 90% of new companies) One solution to this problem is to open a franchise travel agency. You will be provided with a business model, a ready-made brand, connections with a tour operator, and streamlined business processes. Of course, you will have to pay for this, but, as a rule, the fee is not very high.

If you are new to business, then a franchise is the best way for you to open a travel agency. Unfortunately, today there are not very many travel agencies on the Russian franchising market, so the choice of franchisees will be limited.

How to open a tourism business

You need to understand that the tourism business is a much broader concept than a travel agency or travel agency. The tourism business includes hotels, transportation, organizing excursions, etc. In general, two areas of tourism business can be distinguished:

1) Your clients are vacationing somewhere else. Your company organizes the collection of documents, delivery and negotiates with the receiving party, which is engaged in servicing tourists. Almost the entire tourism business in Russia operates under this scheme.

2) Another option is to receive tourists from other cities and countries. Most of the tourism business in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Spain, Greece, etc. operates according to this scheme. Although there are travel agencies there that provide local residents with the opportunity to relax in another country.

Organizing a tourism business in the first direction is much simpler, since it does not require the creation of infrastructure, construction of hotels, keeping attractions clean, ensuring the safety of tourists, etc. Usually, when people in Russia talk about organizing a tourism business, this is what they mean.

The tourism business related to the first direction can be divided into 2 areas: travel agencies and tour operators. Travel agencies engage in the resale of finished tourism products, and usually do not require large investments to open them. Tour operators organize tours and often rent planes and hotels abroad. They bear significant risks, but also receive significant profits. They implement their tours both themselves and with the help of travel agencies.

In the tourism business, there is no need to confuse a travel agency and a tour operator. The difference is that travel agencies sell tours, and tour operators organize them. You can open a tour operator company, but you need to compete with large companies that buy seats on planes and hotels in bulk, which allows them to reduce the cost of their tours.

How to become a travel agent

So, you have decided to become a travel agent, that is, to sell tours from one or more tour operators. You do not bear significant risks, but you are responsible for the most difficult problem of business - the problem of sales.

Business idea: opening a travel agency from scratch

And you need to solve it well, because commissions are the only source of your income.

First of all, you need to decide on the direction of activity. Will you work only in the most popular destinations (Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt) or will you provide tours to almost all countries? Will you specialize in beach holidays or ski holidays? Which tour operators will you work with?

Once the answers to these questions are ready, you need to think about how you will attract customers. Use advertising in print media and the Internet, give the company a good name, come up with a twist. And don’t forget to serve your customers well - then they will come to you again and bring friends.

How to become a tour operator

Becoming a tour operator requires a significant initial investment. It is tour operators who organize tours and set prices for them, as well as the size of the commission for travel agents.

Most often, tour operators emerge from successfully developing travel agencies, thus immediately having a market for their services.

How to open a travel company without starting capital

It is possible to open a travel company without start-up capital, but you need to understand that you will have to give up all the benefits associated with large expenses. And this, first of all, is the office, advertising and personnel. The problem of lack of staff is easily solved. While your profits are small, you can do everything yourself. When the number of clients increases, and, consequently, the volume of work and profits, you can hire staff to help you. Lack of an office due to lack of staff is also not a big problem. You just need to find another place to meet with clients.

The lack of money for advertising is a serious problem. You need to look for clients yourself, without spending a lot of money, and build a client base. You can use the Internet, communicate with as many people as possible and tell them about your services... By and large, opening a travel company without start-up capital is the solution to this problem.

How to open a travel agency working with corporate clients

Working with corporate clients is considered a separate niche of the tourism business, and if you open a travel agency focusing on them, you can get many advantages. But entering this market can be difficult. Many companies have their own staff who deal with tours, or travel agencies with whom they have been cooperating for a long time. However, new companies regularly appear that do not yet have established relationships with travel agencies, and some companies are not happy with the travel agencies they work with, so starting a travel agency may be a good idea. Or you can find a position as an independent travel agent working from home. In any case, with the right approach you can earn very good money.

Responsibilities

Owners of travel agencies working with corporate clients often have to deal with various responsibilities. In addition to purchasing air tickets (and adding a markup to their cost) and performing other functions typical of travel agents, corporate travel agencies can also provide the following additional services:

• Search for last minute tours
• Assistance in obtaining visas and passports
• Arranging delivery of clients to the airport
• Fulfilling special requirements of managers (for example, renting limousines, delivering cardio equipment to the room, etc.)
• Making all arrangements required to enable the client's company to attend all conventions and conferences
• Providing planning services for all other meetings
• Providing cost management services to help clients keep costs under control

The nature of the corporate business model is such that many services may be required with very short notice.

But rather than being a nuisance, rush work is always an opportunity to earn larger commissions, although in this situation you need to act according to the circumstances. It may not be worth raising your prices for an important client who makes a lot of orders, unless they are always urgent.

Potential clients

Almost any company is your potential client, although it is more likely that large companies with a large number of employees will work with travel agencies. Most likely, your clients will also include:

• Companies too small to support tour staff and too busy to do so
• Departments involved in organizing tours in large companies. They might need your help
• Travel agencies that cannot cope with the volume of work
• High-ranking executives who travel so frequently that they need someone to focus solely on their plans.
• Musicians (including bands) and professional athletes

Some people can visit several countries at once in a year. That's why the idea of ​​opening a travel agency is just perfect for starting your own business. There are travel agents and tour operators in the tourism services market.

Tour operators are engaged in creating a tourist package, which includes: developing routes, purchasing charters, booking hotel rooms, organizing transfers, organizing the reception and departure of tourists, and helping in choosing excursions.

Travel agents are essentially sellers of travel packages (sort of intermediaries); they are directly connected with tour operators, having entered into an agreement with them to provide their services. The earnings of travel agents is a percentage of the income of the trips they sell.

Before you open a travel agency you need to know:

1. A crowded place is perfect for opening a travel agency; it is advisable that there are some public institutions nearby: banks, offices, business centers, etc., because in the future they will be your regular clients. Don’t skimp on arranging the room, make it as beautiful as possible, you can create a thematic style, in general it should show the level of your services and attitude towards the client.

2. All information about your agency should be in a visible place so that the client can read it without any problems. Although you don’t need a license now, you should have insurance for your activities, so hang it on the wall. Also, in each season of work, you will receive positive feedback and gratitude from travel agents, this can also improve your reputation in the eyes of clients.

3. Please note that before opening a travel agency, you will face a lot of difficulties and it will take a lot of time. Therefore, it is recommended to immediately buy a travel business; this will save you from many organizational issues.

4. Depending on the amount of finances you have, you can even think about an already well-promoted and successful travel business; this will be a very big advantage in your future work. Success will be influenced by such factors as: a well-known name, a positive reputation, a large client base, as well as the agency’s well-known location. If you agree to keep your previous employees, this will also be a significant advantage, because qualified workers who know their job are in short supply in our time.

5. But before you take a ready-made tour. business, carefully familiarize yourself with its background, find out about its reputation, popularity among clients, what share of the market it occupies, this is necessary because the competition is very, very strong. Be sure to find out about the reviews, whether there are any complaints or complaints, and most importantly, whether this agency is suing.

Detailed business plan for a travel agency and travel agency:

If you decide to open your own travel company, then we will tell you in detail where to start this business, so that in a short period of time you can make money from it.

1. To begin with, the right step would be to draw up a business plan for your agency, analyze the budget, it should be selected with reserve. Familiarize yourself with the demand for tourism services in your area, as well as the level of competition, because it is very high. If you do not trust your own views on the situation, then it would be best to turn to people who specialize in the specifics of marketing research.

2. Before registering any business activity, you need to go through many legal nuances. To register a travel agency, you can go in two ways: as a private entrepreneur or as a limited liability company. Since these days the requirement for licenses for travel agencies has been abolished, when concluding an agreement with a tour operator, you can immediately begin your activities.

3. If you are still determined to obtain a license for the full right to engage in tourism activities, then for this you will need to go through a number of legal procedures that meet the requirements of the state. These requirements include the following conditions: your staff must be 20% of employees with secondary specialized education in the field of tourism, or from people who have worked for more than three years in this field, and they must also have well-developed communication skills.

4. The director of a travel agency must have a higher, secondary specialized education, and his work experience in the field of tourism must be more than three years.

5. An office with an area of ​​25 sq. m. or more is ideal as premises for a travel agency. meters. The city center will be the ideal location for its opening. The premises should have a main entrance and preferably a parking space.

Business idea: How to open a travel agency from scratch?

The location for a new travel agency should be chosen near other similar agencies. This will make it convenient for customers to choose between offers. The main criteria by which a client chooses a travel agency are the quality of the hotel being booked and the amount of the discount provided. The office premises should please the client's eye, because people who want to use your services have high hopes for the agency and have a lot of money in their pockets, so their expectations should not be disappointed. No matter the size of the room, the sign should attract attention and be memorable.

6. Agreement with tour operators. Before choosing several tour operators, decide what target audience your travel agency will have and what area of ​​recreation it will operate in. Also decide on the specialization of tours, usually international and domestic.

7. For greater confidence, it is recommended to enter into an agreement with ten tour operators. About half of them should correspond to the key destinations that your travel agency specializes in; Egypt and Turkey would be a good example, because these are some of the most popular holiday countries. The remaining operators can be divided into other, less popular areas; this is necessary to expand the range and load the agency with work. This division will be correct because at the end of the season of the main offers, people who prefer to travel all year round will be able to choose from many other trips.

8. An important factor when choosing an operator will be its time in the tourism services market, as well as customer trust and, of course, reputation.

Do not get hung up on any of the tour operators, basing this on your personal attraction and fame of the company. It would be more correct to distribute contracts, each of which would correspond to its own direction. Thus, the client will be able to choose the most suitable price for the provision of hotel services. You won’t always have clients with full wallets, so you need to balance your prices so that they suit everyone.

The tour operator is the main factor in earning your capital. The commission amount can vary from 5 to 16 percent for each tour sold.

9. After you open a travel agency, the next step will be to promote and promote your agency. You'll have to spend a lot of money on advertising at first, so factor that cost into your business plan from the start. As a rule, there will be expenses: on advertising on the Internet, on TV and in newspapers. Never resort to one-time advertising, as experience shows - this is money down the drain, the frequency of publications should be high, only thanks to this method you will reach a large number of the target audience. Please note that depending on the level and cost of the services you offer, it is necessary to place advertising in exactly those places where it will be seen by citizens who can afford these services.

10. You should not count on clients in the form of acquaintances and friends, no matter how strange it may sound, but these people are the least likely to resort to your services. Although this is contradictory information, as statistics show, the influx of this group of people comes only after your company is sufficiently promoted and becomes quite famous. We wish that your business in the tourism sector will bring you positive results in a short time, and that your travel company will gain many satisfied and wealthy clients who will return again and again.

The travel agency organizes day trips around the city. Should the agency issue travel vouchers?

Answer: If a travel agency organizes one-day excursion trips around the city, then it should not issue tourist vouchers.

Rationale: In order to determine whether tourist vouchers are required when organizing day excursions, it is necessary to determine what constitutes a tourist voucher.

According to Art. 1 of the Federal Law of November 24, 1996 N 132-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law N 132-FZ), a tourist voucher is a document containing the conditions of travel, confirming the fact of payment for the tourist product and being a strict reporting form.

Tourism is temporary departures (travels) of citizens of the Russian Federation, foreign citizens and stateless persons from their permanent place of residence for medical, recreational, educational, physical education, sports, professional, business, religious and other purposes without engaging in activities related to obtaining income from sources in the country (place) of temporary stay.

A tourist product is a set of transportation and accommodation services provided for a total price (regardless of the inclusion in the total price of the cost of excursion services and (or) other services) under an agreement on the sale of a tourist product.

A tourist is a person visiting a country (place) of temporary stay for medical, recreational, educational, physical education, sports, professional, business, religious and other purposes without engaging in activities related to generating income from sources in the country (place) of temporary stay, for a period from 24 hours to 6 months in a row or spending at least one night in the country (place) of temporary stay.

The customer of a tourist product is the tourist or another person ordering the tourist product on behalf of the tourist.

Tourist activity is the activity of organizing travel (Article 1 of Law No. 132-FZ).

These definitions allow us to identify signs of activity directly related to tourism activities. Such signs, in particular, include: travel outside the place of residence for a period of more than 24 hours and less than 6 months, the presence of certain purposes of departure (educational, medical and recreational, etc.), placement in the country (place) of temporary stay, etc.

For persons visiting a country (place) of temporary stay for educational purposes for a period of less than 24 hours without spending the night in the country (place) of temporary stay and using the services of a tour guide (guide), guide-interpreter, Law No. 132-FZ allocates a special term - excursionist .

Tourist agency

One-day excursions around the city do not fall under the definition of travel and tourism, and are not fully considered a tourism product, since they do not involve the departure of citizens from their permanent place of residence and the provision of accommodation services. This means that the activity of a travel agency in organizing one-day excursions is not a tourist activity.

However, day trips (excursions), although not directly related to tourism, may be indirectly related to tourism activities if services for organizing day excursions are provided as part of a single tourism product. In this case, one-day excursion trips are partially regulated by Law N 132-FZ.

If a travel agency organizes one-day excursion trips as an independent service, then this activity is subject to regulation in accordance with Chapter. 39 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the provision of paid services.

In addition, according to Art. 4.1 of Law N 132-FZ, organizations providing excursion services on the territory of the Russian Federation for no more than 24 hours in a row are not required to have financial support in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

Thus, based on an analysis of the legal nature of organizing one-day excursions within the city, we can conclude that this activity, carried out as the provision of independent services, does not relate to tourism activities and is not subject to regulation by Law N 132-FZ.

According to the provisions of the Federal Law of May 22, 2003 N 54-FZ “On the use of cash register equipment when making cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards,” organizations and individual entrepreneurs carrying out cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards are required to use cash register equipment included in the State Register. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs, in accordance with the procedure determined by the Government of the Russian Federation, can carry out cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards without using cash registers in the case of providing services to the population, provided that they issue the appropriate strict reporting forms (clause 2 of Art. 2 of Federal Law N 54-FZ).

A tourist voucher is a strict reporting form, and its form is approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 07/09/2007 N 60n “On approval of the strict reporting form form”.

Forms of strict reporting forms approved before the entry into force of the Government of the Russian Federation Decree No. 359 of 05/06/2008 “On the procedure for making cash payments and (or) settlements using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment” are used by organizations and individual entrepreneurs providing to the population such services for which these forms are approved by orders of the Ministry of Finance of Russia.

Consequently, an organization engaged in tourism activities has the right to carry out cash payments without the use of cash register equipment in the case of providing services to the population, subject to the execution and issuance of a strict reporting document “Tourist voucher”.

Registration of a tourist voucher is mandatory for organizations engaged in tourism activities (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 10, 2010 N 03-01-15/4-120, Federal Tax Service of Russia for Moscow dated November 1, 2010 N 17-15-114738; clause 3 Letters of Rospotrebnadzor dated August 31, 2007 N 0100/8935-07-32 “On the peculiarities of law enforcement practice related to ensuring the protection of consumer rights in the field of tourism services”).

This means that for carrying out other non-tourist activities, including activities for organizing one-day excursion trips as an independent service, issuing a tourist voucher is not mandatory.

M. R. Zabelina

Auditing company LLC "INSEI"

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The easiest way to open a travel agency is to buy.

But if you still want to do it yourself, we offer you step-by-step instructions from an expert from the company “Sletat.ru”.

Tourism, despite all the difficulties recently experienced, remains an extremely attractive business area. It makes it possible to open your own business with a small investment and is associated with a lot of positive emotions: helping people arrange a vacation, and then hearing their positive impressions is very pleasant. And yet, the tourism business is a tough nut to crack. In order not to break your spears on it, or rather not to lose all your money, you need to take a very balanced and serious approach to opening your own travel agency.

Where to begin?

First of all, it is necessary to find out how the tourism market works and what it consists of. The business owner must decide whether to work with a franchisor or as an independent agency. By opening on your own, you take on more risks. Firstly, unknown travel agencies do not inspire confidence, which means they need more serious efforts and budgets for promotion. Secondly, you will have to independently resolve issues of acquiring technologies related to searching and booking tours. And thirdly, it is more difficult to work with tour operators - suppliers of tourism products.

In modern conditions, it is more effective to open not independently, but under the brand of a large network of travel agencies.

Network travel agencies offering franchises can be divided into main categories, each of which has its own branches.

1. Travel agencies from tour operators whose task is to sell the tourism product of a given supplier. Obviously, a tour operator can offer low prices for travel only in some destinations, so such a travel agency may ultimately not be profitable enough.
2. Travel agencies receiving traffic from offline channels. Such agencies are not limited in their choice of tour providers. Their disadvantage is the poor development of Internet technologies.
3. Travel agencies receiving traffic from online channels. More modern networks that attract audiences using the Internet and have various online tools for searching, booking and selling tours. The downside is that such a network misses out on the “classic” offline audience.
4. Networks that combine online and offline communication channels and provide technologies for automating work, as Sletat.ru does. The main mission of such companies is to give the travel agency the opportunity, using modern technologies, to sell the most affordable tours and put this process on stream.

When choosing a franchisor, it is important to pay attention to his experience and specifics of doing business. Some companies have a high risk of bankruptcy during a crisis. This is due to the fact that in a number of situations, a tour operator may require an advance payment for tours of up to 100%, while tourists often pay for them in parts, and the management network does not have a sufficient financial “airbag” for such a case.

There is no specific formula for opening a travel agency that will be 100% profitable. Any business involves establishing business processes, and therefore competent management and, of course, the ambition of the travel agency itself often become a certain guarantee of success.

Before opening a travel agency, it is important to analyze the presence of the target audience. If you are going to open in a large city - St. Petersburg, Moscow or another million-plus city - it makes no sense to analyze it entirely. Choose the most attractive area and assess how much demand your company will have there.

Another important element of preparation is analysis of the competitive environment. Find out what agencies are nearby, what they offer, and what your competitive advantages and differences are. You can even go to a competing travel agency as a secret shopper if you really need it.

Investment size

Investments in opening a travel agency are, as a rule, relatively small: this business does not require expensive equipment or the purchase of goods. Nevertheless, the volume of investment can be very different. The main expenses when opening a travel agency are office rent, purchase of equipment, promotion costs and payment of a fee if you are opening a franchise agency.

The larger the city, the higher the rental investment. The rental rate in 2016 is on average about 1.5–2 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m. m, but in Moscow and St. Petersburg it can be slightly higher - on average from 2.5 to 4 thousand rubles. Thus, the minimum rental costs will be about 30–60 thousand rubles.

Personal experience

To provide quality customer service and minimize queues in the office, it is optimal for two managers to work simultaneously. To accommodate two workstations and a comfortable waiting area, a room with an area of ​​15 sq.m. or more is required.

Don't forget that the room will most likely need renovation. Even if it is in good condition, it will need to be brought up to certain standards. For example, our offices must be branded in accordance with the guidelines. Compliance with these requirements allows you to create a comfortable atmosphere for clients and managers and increases the loyalty of tourists to the brand as a whole.

As for the costs of furniture and appliances, there can be a wide variation in the amount of investment. You can buy inexpensive furniture and used equipment or choose more expensive options.

Don't forget about the costs associated with registering an agency. You will need to register an individual entrepreneur or LLC and pay a state fee, open a bank account (for which the bank will take a commission), recruit staff, register employees with the labor inspectorate and the pension fund. If not strict reporting forms (SSR) are used, but a cash register, then it must be registered. As for settlement and cash services, Sletat.ru, for example, cooperates with the largest Russian banks and offers favorable conditions for franchisees.

The average cost of opening a travel agency “Sletat.ru” (with furniture, equipment and repairs) will be about 150–200 thousand rubles.

The budget for promoting a travel agency can again vary: there are both expensive methods and channels that do not require any investment. On average, you need to budget about 100 thousand rubles for this expense item in the first 4–6 months of work.

Among the fixed expenses of a travel agency is the salary fund for managers. Their salary consists of a salary and a percentage of sales. In St. Petersburg or another large city, a manager can receive 15–20 thousand rubles in salary + 10–20% of the agency’s profit. If we are talking about a small city, then the ratio will be 10–15 thousand rubles of salary + 10–20% of profit.

At the same time, when calculating the volume of investment, you need to firmly understand that in the first six months the agency can operate without profit. And this means that you need some kind of financial “cushion”. Therefore, you should not invest your last funds in the business. An entrepreneur also needs to understand how he will live. Money should not be related to its current costs; a clear budget allocated for business development is needed.

Step-by-step instruction

At the initial stage of development of a travel agency, promotion is a very important point. For it to work best, you need to understand which channels of attracting tourists are most effective in a particular case.

See what potential partners are nearby your travel agency. The tourist audience is adjacent to the leisure sector audience - restaurants, cafes, bars, beauty salons, etc. You can establish contact with representatives of such businesses and conduct joint promotions while spending a minimum of money. For example, you can jointly provide discounts to clients, print double business cards, prepare and place table tents with information about your partner on tables, etc.

Keep in mind that tourists come to the office next to which they live or work. Therefore, it is important to convey information about your discovery and existence to residents of nearby houses. If you opened in a residential area, you can do a mailing list. Moreover, this should not be an attempt to sell a tour, but a beautifully designed invitation to visit your office.

Try to involve local media: tell them about your discovery, make announcements regularly. Remember that promotion should be constant, it should never stop. Otherwise there will be no influx of new tourists.

The first clients are your friends, so you need to call them all.

Personal experience

People spend a lot of time on social networks and do not want to leave their comfortable space. In contact with,Facebookand other similar platforms are a modern, popular and budget channel for attracting tourists. Sletat.ru has developed a special module for searching tours in social networks. Thus, a tourist can search for tours where it is convenient for him, and send requests for selected tours from there.

If you have opened an agency in a small city, it makes sense to reach out to audiences in city-forming enterprises, negotiate with their management and leisure department, offer employee participation in interesting events, etc. Remember that tourism is not limited only to foreign destinations, domestic ones can also be sold. They are well suited to “accustom” the audience to themselves in particular and to travel through travel agencies in general, gradually transferring clients to foreign package tours.

Having decided on the format of work, the place to open and promotion channels, you need to start looking for managers. To determine how many people you will need on staff, you need to understand how large your client base is and how many people will come to the office. Most often, a travel agency employs 1-2 managers. One of them attracts clients, calls, invites them to the office, processes applications, the other sells tours in the office, works with visiting tourists, and conducts further sales work. You need to understand that tourists, when they come to the office, do not always immediately buy a tour. More often than not, they simply find out information, and in order to complete the deal, it is necessary to maintain communication with them.

Businessmen should not undertake the sale of tours on their own. An entrepreneur must think strategically, promote a travel agency, monitor development, look at what the business is missing, etc. If you go headlong into selling tours, it will be impossible to manage your business.

In a modern travel agency, it is important to automate processes related to searching and booking tours and processing incoming applications. Travel agency managers have to search for suitable tours hundreds of times a day. To do this, you can use the “search engines” that are on the website of every self-respecting tour operator. In this case, the manager will actually have to work manually, opening many sites and tabs to find a suitable tour from different suppliers, and during this time the price may change. In addition, it will take too much time to work with one tourist.

Today there are special search engines that “collect” offers from all tour operators. They allow you to accumulate all information in one information space and save managers time. When choosing such a service, you need to be careful: it may lack relevance and reliability. The system should upload and update information about the package contents and its price online, and instantly update information about hotel and flight accommodations.

Personal experience

Sletat.ru has developed a tour search system that contains offers from all major tour operators and updates data on tours in real time. An agency can install the service on its website and promote it on social networks. In this case, the lion's share of the work in finding a tour is done by the tourist himself. As a result, the time a manager spends working with one client is reduced from 2 hours to 40 minutes.

Another important point is booking the tour. It is much more convenient when the agency does not independently communicate with tour operators, but uses the services of a reservation center. Sletat.ru has created its own Central Bank, which simplifies the work of a travel agent, increases the speed of customer service, allows you to store data on all applications in one place, increases the security of tourist databases and provides a higher percentage of sales and additional bonuses when the plan is fulfilled.

The issue of placing a travel agency should be given special attention. First of all, analyze the city in which you plan to open and the specific location. At first glance, the most successful option is an office in the city center. However, this does not always guarantee success, nor does opening in a residential area.

It all depends on the specific location. If you open in a budget area remote from the center with new development, things may not work out. The bulk of the population here are young families, who often bought housing with a mortgage and do not have extra funds for travel. Therefore, try to choose middle and elite class areas for placement.

You can open on the ground floors of residential buildings, in separate buildings or shopping centers. In the latter case, it is better to choose modern buildings and try to avoid old low-class buildings. But this again depends on the specific shopping center, its location, the freshness of the renovation, and the brands represented.

It is also worth taking a closer look at your surroundings. For example, you can open next to a grocery store. This does not have to be an establishment of a well-known chain, but it is worth focusing on the above-average price segment.

Another tip: it is best to open where there is an opportunity to place an illuminated sign.

A sign is 20–30% of the success of a travel agency. Without it, it will be difficult to find you even for those who purposefully go to your agency. And the sign will also allow you to “lure” those who are simply passing by.

As for the premises itself, there are also certain requirements for it. First of all, you need to focus on the convenience of the tourist. It is advisable that the office be square in shape: this will make it easier to brand it and create comfortable conditions in it. It is important that there are windows in the room, otherwise the atmosphere will “put pressure” on the client. Basements and semi-basements are not the best choice.

You shouldn't open on the top floors either. If the building has an access system, it should not be complicated. If a tourist, in order to purchase a tour or receive documents, needs to take a passport, write down his data and go up to the 11th floor, then he will most likely give up the trip altogether - few people will want to overcome so many obstacles.

It is advisable to provide a waiting area in the office. When all managers are busy, the client should be able to wait his turn in comfort. Otherwise, he will simply leave for another agency. It is worth placing coffee, tea, and a cooler with clean water in the waiting area.

Another important point is the children's corner. One of the key types of travel agency clients is a woman aged 30–35 with one child. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a play area in which children can do something while parents choose a tour or wait in line.

Documentation

To start a travel agency, you need to register an LLC or individual entrepreneur. Everyone chooses the preferred form for themselves; it is only necessary to stipulate that the owner of a registered individual entrepreneur is liable for obligations with all his property, and an LLC - in the amount of the authorized capital. Also, the owner of a tourism business needs to decide whether he will work with an imputed or simplified tax system.

Many people are confused by the issue of licensing a travel agency. Previously, in order to sell tours, a travel agency actually needed to obtain a license. But according to current rules, licensing is not required. At the same time, a unified all-Russian register has been created for travel agencies on the basis of the Tourist Assistance Association. It is not yet clear whether participation in it is mandatory or the register is advisory in nature. This issue should be clarified by additions and amendments to the tourism law, issued in 2016.