Travel Agency and Tourism 9789380075433

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First Edition, 2009

ISBN 978 93 80075 43 3

© All rights reserved.

Published by: Global Media 1819, Bhagirath Palace, Chandni Chowk, Delhi-110 006 Email: [email protected]

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Fundamental Elements 3. Significance of Travel Agency 4. Motivation for Travelling 5. Ticketing Process 6. Agencies at Work 7. Tourism Management 8. Organization of Tours 9. Movement of Travellers 10. Sale of Tickets 11. Ticketing for Foreign Tours

Introduction

1

1 INTRODUCTION India is one of the few countries in the world blessed with a tremendous variety of tourist resources. But, the country attracts only 0.4 per cent of the world’s international tourism. A country which always attracted foreign visitors throughout its history, India has lagged behind in developing adequate infrastructure and creating the right image for international travellers. India recognised the economic significance of tourism soon after independence and established a full-fledged Department of Tourism as early as 1958. In fact, India was one of the first countries among the newly independent Asian nations to undertake the promotion of international tourism in a professional way. It was the first country of Asia to open overseas tourist offices in USA and the United Kingdom as early as 1952.

EVOLUTION

AND THE

PAST

In 1951, there were about 17,000 tourists who visited India, in 1982 the number went up to 12,88,162, in 1994 to 17,64,830 and in 1996 it was about 23,00,000, including visitors from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Earlier, India did not include visitors

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from Pakistan and Bangladesh in visitors’ tally because these figures fluctuated drastically with political ups and downs. Now, the Government of India has decided to include these arrivals. However, it is a matter of regret that as the size of international tourism grows, India’s share in worldwide arrivals declines. While India’s share in world tourism was about 1 per cent in the sixties, it has come down to 0.35 per cent in the nineties. India’s official targets for tourist arrivals laid down by the Ministry of Tourism in the late seventies were 3.5 million for the nineties. But, the country barely touched 1.5 million by the 1990. The tourism authorities have been giving unrealistic targets against the expert advice. Now, again the Ministry of Tourism has given a tall order of 5 million arrivals by 1997 — the last year of the 8th Five Year Plan. In the current scenario, India should be lucky to achieve 2.5 million arrivals by 1997. Tourist traffic essentially moves from one developed country to another both for pleasure as well as for business. The developing countries do not receive major benefit from tourism due to various reasons, including their poor image as a holiday destination and inadequate tourist infrastructure. India is no exception. However, the number of tourists visiting a country need not always be the norm by which a country’s performance in tourism field may be assessed. It is also the quality of tourists a destination attracts and their capacity to spend money. From this angle, India is not doing badly. The average stay of visitors to India during the past two decades has been varying from 27 to 30 days — next only to Australian average. Similarly, India attracts tourists primarily from the affluent countries of the West whose capacity to spend is higher. Averages are made by the size and diversity of a country. In Europe, an American tourist may visit ten countries in 14 days, or at least 4 to 6. But, in India even the American average is 17days and the European average is over 20. A European tourist travelling from his home country

Introduction

3

to the next may not be spending much money in the host country. Often they pick up their trailers and camping equipment from their homes and drive 300 kms and pitch their tent in the host country, bringing with them their own food. They fill the gas in the car tank from their side of the border. After a couple of days stay in the neighbouring country, they return home again filling up the gas tank from their side of the border. This story was told by the head of the German National Tourist Organisation to the author of this book about the Dutch tourists visiting Germany. Tourism in Europe is like domestic tourism in India— people of West Bengal going to Kashmir or people of Punjab visiting Darjeeling. Not even that. Often inter-European tourism is like the people of Punjab visiting Haryana or Uttar Pradesh and people from Madras going to Kerala ! The numbers can be misleading. Malaysia with 6 million arrivals may include two million Singaporeans who live only 30 kms across the border. If average stay is 6 days for 5 million visitors to Thailand, 2 million visitors to India with an average stay of 28 days can surely be more advantageous to India.

DEVELOPMENT STEP-BY-STEP International tourism to India had a reasonably good growth since independence. Comparison with some of its more popular neighbouring countries like Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand can be misleading because the Government of India in its own wisdom accorded low priority to tourism till the early eighties. Despite the government’s apathy, tourism registered an impressive growth till it tapered off in 1980. The Indo-Pak War of 1971 brought traffic to a virtual halt, but it revived soon after. An analysis of the 1995 international tourist arrivals by the country of residence reveals that visitors from Western Europe accounted for 7,54,182 or 33 per cent; North America 2,67,188 or 11.7 per cent; West Asia 1,14,748 or 5 per cent; South Asia 5,40,209 or 23 per cent; South East Asia 1,29,449 or 5.6

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Travel Agency and Tourism

per cent; Africa 87,238 or 3.9 per cent; Eastern Europe 53,275 or 2.3 per cent; and Central and South America 16,672 or 0.6 per cent. Countrywise analysis shows the following countries are the top ten markets of India: Top Ten Markets Country

Arrivals

Percentage of the total

1.

United Kingdom

3,00,696

19.2

2.

USA

1,76,482

11.3

3.

Sri Lanka

89,009

5.7

4.

Germany

85,382

5.7

5.

France

73,088

4.7

6.

Japan

63,398

4.1

7.

Canada

56,441

3.6

8.

C.I.S.

56,387

3.6

9.

Singapore

44,187

2.8

Italy

43,500

2.8

10.

Note: Pattern of traffic has remained more or less the same— occasionally Germany and France exchanging places. Among other primary markets of India are Malaysia, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland. South Africa and Israel are also emerging as important markets. Seasonality : There is a high degree of seasonality in foreign tourist traffic to India. While the peak is during the last quarter of the year, October to December, the arrivals at the lowest ebb are during the second quarter — April to June. That causes some problems as hotel rooms go begging during the off-season. Fortunately, due to the recent liberalisation of the Indian economy, a large number of foreign businessmen are

Introduction

5

visiting India during the off-season. The 1995 percentage for the first quarter was 26.5, second quarter 19.2, third quarter 24 and the fourth quarter 30.3 — an improvement on the past. It was little over 20 per cent in 1995. Foreign Exchange Earnings : Because of longer duration of stay, India earns more per tourist than most other countries. Over half the visitors to India have an annual income of over one million rupees or US $ 50,000 or more. The foreign exchange earnings were estimated by the Reserve Bank of India for the year 1995 at US $ 2.5 billion or Rs. 9000 crores. The average spending for visitors exceeded Rs. 35,000 — the average has gone up recently as the Rupee has been devalued by about 40 per cent during the past five years. Tourism stands third in foreign exchange earnings after textiles and gems and jewellery. The percentage share of India in world tourism receipts was about 0.40 in 1995-96. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism as percentage of GNP were 0.65 only. The percentage contribution of tourism to Net National Product was 0.70 (1991-92). The estimated direct employment provided by tourism in 1991-92 was 6.39 million, including employment generated by domestic tourism. The size of domestic tourism was estimated to be 66 million in 1992 according to a report of the Department of Tourism. The 1997 estimate is 100 millions tourist movements.

MODES

OF

TRAVELLING

Air travel continues to be the preferred mode of travel for tourists to India. During the years 1996 and 1994, 98.4% per cent arrived by air and less than 2 per cent came by land. Only a few thousand visitors came by sea.

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Delhi was the major port of entry with 39.5 per cent, followed closely by Bombay — 36.3 per cent. Both these ports together accounted for 75.8 per cent of the arriving foreign tourist traffic. The pattern continues. The arrivals at Madras and Calcutta were 11.9 and 3.1 per cent respectively. For road traffic Sonauli checkpost continued to be the most popular entry point (1.1 per cent). Goa airport was opened to international traffic in 1992 and it is at present receiving about 70,000 visitors annually, mostly those coming by chartered planes from Europe. Length of Stay : The estimated average length of stay in 1996 was 28.7 days against 30.2 days in 1991. The total tourist days spent by foreign visitors in 1996 were estimated to be 41,500,000. Age Group : More young people visit India. In 1996, about 61 per cent of visitors to India were below 44 years of age and the remainder 40 per cent fell in the age group higher than 44. The percentage of women among the visitors to India has always been low. It was 39 per cent in 1996 compared to 28 per cent in 1987. The highest was 54 per cent among Hong Kong citizens followed by Sri Lanka 42 percent.

THE TRAVELLERS From time to time, the Department of Tourism has sponsored studies to know the profile of visitors to India. One survey was undertaken by a Delhi-based Research Organisation, J.K. and Associates, during the period February 1988 to September 1989. The method of survey was through personal interviews. As many as 19,000 foreign tourists and 2,000 transit visitors were interviewed—14,000 at exit points and the remaining 5,000 in their accommodations. The results were interesting. A majority of visitors to India were well educated professionals. The following is the break-up:

Introduction

7

1. Scientists/Doctors - (20%). 2. Executives/Managers (12.5%). 3. Production, Sales, Service Workers (11.6%). 4. Students (9.4%) 5. Housewives (6.2%) 6. Entrepreneurs (6.1%) 7. Government Administrators (4.5%) 8. Retired persons (2.7%) 9. Others (27%)

PURPOSE

OF

VISIT

Of the visitors to India 57.9 per cent of them declared ‘Pleasure’ as their purpose of visit, while 22.4 per cent were on business. People visiting friends and relatives were 7.3 per cent followed by students 4.3 per cent and pilgrimage 3 per cent. The rest came for purposes other than the above. Another interesting revelation was that 8 per cent of the foreign visitors were of Indian ethnic origin — down 0.8 per cent from an earlier survey conducted in 1982-83 by the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.

AFFECTING FACTORS Travel agents appear to be the major influencing factor to bring visitors to India — 14.6 per cent, followed by India’s Tourist Offices overseas 12 per cent; foreign international carriers 7.4 per cent, Indian national carriers (Air India, Indian Airlines) 7.1 per cent. Among other organisations and people influencing them to come to India were Indian missions abroad 7.1 per cent and Indian hotel chains about 4.7 per cent. The remaining 47.1 per cent came to India influenced by their own curiosity or through the advice of friends who had already been to India, etc. India is, apparently, a destination loved by visitors. There are many who come to India again and again. The survey

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Travel Agency and Tourism

revealed that 52.2 per cent of the visitors were coming to India for the first time — the second timers were 16.5 per cent and the third timers 13.8 per cent. The remaining 17.5 per cent had been to India more than three times. Among the visitors 40.9 per cent came alone; 23.2 per cent came with friends; 27.9 per cent with family. Ratings : In the overall rating of their stay in India, 37.25 per cent rated it as excellent, 51.92 per cent rated it good and the balance from ‘fair’ to ‘satisfactory’. Tourists also recorded favourable and unfavourable factors as perceived by them, of their visit to India. On an overall basis, the first five favourable factors were: (1) Friendly people (2) Beautiful scenery and sights (3) Comfortable accommodation (4) Good shopping (5) Good climate. The unfavourable factors listed were: (1) Unpleasant climate (2) Complicated travel formalities (3) Uncomfortable travel (4) Lack of good accommodation (5) Lack of night life. Satisfaction Index : Of the total visitors, 71.95 per cent liked the friendliness of the Indian people and 81.5 per cent of visitors were satisfied with their India tour. Among the visitors who experienced difficulties following were some of the reasons: (a) Poor sanitation

-

31.60

(b) Tiresome entry formalities

-

30.21

Introduction

9

(c) Unhelpful people/unethical traders

-

17.83

(d) Non-availability of right type of food

-

15.45

(e) Poor quality of accommodation

-

12.88

(f) Difficult air-bookings

-

12.38

(g) Difficult rail-bookings

-

12.22

Image among Americans : The following are the highlights of India’s tourist image among the American visitors according to a survey conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute: 1. India has a moderate level of familiarity amongst potential US travellers. 2. India does not have an image advantage over other Asia- Pacific destinations. 3. Ratings for India with regard to reasonable costs for travellers’ stay in the country having sunny comfortable weather and good shopping are moderate. India has not been effective in communicating these benefits to potential travellers. 4. Her image of having good shopping is below average rating. 5. Her ratings on hotels that meet American standards and a good place to relax are low. 6. India is not perceived as a place with activities for children, good recreation, sporting facilities or for familiar types of food, not a relaxing place to visit with interesting night life or beautiful beaches. 7. India is also perceived as not a safe place to travel. 8. It is seen as having interesting customs, an exotic place, one with scenic beauty and unique natural attractions and a place that offers lots to see and do. 9. It is able to provide with a feeling of adventure and challenge and having many out-of-the-way places which are worth seeing even if it means roughing it up.

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Travel Agency and Tourism

The Spendings : The average per capita expenditure of (Rs. 22,000 in 1982) by visitors to India is distributed as per the following chart: Percentage Spent on Tourist

Package Tourist

Non-Package

Accommodation

33.5

11.0

Food and Drinks

20.5

13.5

Entertainment

2.6

1.8

Shopping

24.8

64.8

Internal Travel

13.6

5.3

Miscellaneous

5.0

3.0

Source: A Survey of Foreign Tourists to India —1982-83, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.

SPOTS

FOR

VISITS

India is fortunate that its visitors are not concentrated in one or two cities of the country — they travel to far off places. In the 1975-76 survey, the number of places where a sizable number of foreigners travelled was only 40; the number increased to 58 in 1982-83 and the present number of places included in the itinerary of foreign visitors exceeds 75. This diversification brings about more evenly spread benefits to the Indian nation. There is a trend to discover new tourist places in the country and the Government of India is also opening new travel circuits for foreign tourists.

SIDE

OF

SHADOWS

The following are the reasons why tourists in millions do not come to India: 1. Distance: India is located far from the affluent tourist markets of the world. High airfares are major constraint.

Introduction

11

2. Image: India is not yet well known abroad as a holiday destination. Its image is essentially that of an exotic country with an ancient history and civilisation as the two main resources. 3. Facilities: Tourist facilities in India are not adequate and well developed. There is inadequate hotel capacity, unsatisfactory domestic air and ground transportation, etc. 4. Non-affluent Neighbours: India’s neighbours are not rich. Their citizens cannot, therefore, afford to travel. European tourism is basically travelling to neighbouring countries. Even in ASEAN countries the international tourism is over 50 per cent from the neighbouring countries. In India, it is less than 10 per cent. 5. India’s political problems with its neighbours, especially Pakistan, are a major constraint. A country may be host to a large number of thrifty visitors, or a small number of high-spending visitors, but no country (except totalitarian regimes) can determine the kind of tourists it would prefer to welcome. While the number may be a test of the success, or otherwise, of promotional and marketing efforts of a country, in economic terms, what matters is the volume of tourism and foreign exchange receipts derived from this source. The volume depends on the average length of stay.

ANALYSIS

OF

MARKET

Having understood the current profile of Indian tourism, it is possible to analyse the marketing efforts put in by the Department of Tourism, Government of India. While starting tourism promotion in a modest way in the early fifties, the Government of India had no clear-cut objectives and goals about how to go about it. Tourism promotion was considered an information service like information on any other aspect of a country i.e. trade, economy, etc. Nothing more.

12

Travel Agency and Tourism

To most government officials involved in tourism promotion in the early fifties, international tourism meant that some affluent people from rich countries with a lot of money and some curiosity (especially from the US) were willing to travel to foreign lands. It was recognised that the first preference of such people in North America would be Europe which they considered the cradle of Western civilisation. However, the retired and more affluent among them could be persuaded to take round-theworld trips either by ship or by air which sometimes included India. That was the India’s target group in the fifties and sixties. In North America, or for that matter in the entire Western world, India, if known at all, at that time had the image primarily of an exotic country — hot and humid, poor and backward, a land of snake charmers and rope walkers — an image which the British authors like Kipling had built up over the decades. The British rulers projected this image as they had to stand the heat of long summers in India to administer the country. Their families retired to the hills with cooks, bearers, nannies and gardeners and there was little attempt at meeting the people of India and understanding their rich culture. In the early fifties, the government decided that India should have overseas offices to project a new image of the country as a tourist destination. The markets chosen were the USA, the UK followed by West Germany, France and Australia. These offices were essentially information offices whose job was to distribute and disseminate tourist information through brochures printed in India. In an effort to do everything in India, they forgot that their publicity material exported out of India was not attractive enough and of the best quality. Although these offices were useful in projecting the new image of an independent India, some of the offices were perhaps opened a little too soon. For instance, an India tourist office was opened in Germany in 1957 at a time when the Germans had just undertaken travelling outside their country. They were not

Introduction

13

ready for India. It took them a decade before they began taking long distance holiday trips to countries like India and that too only when holidays to India became relatively inexpensive due to the introduction of charters and the cheaper inclusive group fares on scheduled carriers. Similarly, India opened a tourist office in Japan in 1964, when Japan first liberalised its foreign exchange restrictions and allowed the Japanese to take only three hundred dollars for travel overseas. But traffic from Japan to India remained static for five years as the Japanese did not think beyond the USA and Europe as their preferred holiday or business destinations. In Australia also, the story was more or less repeated as Australians started taking India holidays or stopovers on the way to Europe only in the early seventies. However, these tourist offices were useful in paving the way for tourism from these markets in later decades. Modest advertising campaigns were launched by the tourist offices overseas within their limited resources. It was generally a well thought out activity undertaken on the advice of the professional advertising agencies hired by each tourist office locally to improve the image of India as a land of Ajanta-Ellora, the Taj Mahal, the Himalayas and Mahabalipuram. Cultural tourism relating to monuments and an ancient civilisation was the initial thrust of promotion as people in the Western world could more readily identify India with such an image. The frequency and the size of advertisements was inadequate. Advertisements were released mostly in black and white as colour advertising was considered too expensive. At the same time, tourist offices, however, established contacts with the touroperators and travel agents to persuade them to send their clients to India.

MARKET PLANNING Market planning in the fifties and the sixties was not really feasible because the base of Indian tourism was narrow. The resources for promotion were even more limited and, tourism

14

Travel Agency and Tourism

being a new industry, personnel were not well-trained. For preparing any successful marketing plan, we deal with four variables, popularly known in the marketing jargon as the four Ps. Product: It means attractions or tourist resources that a country can offer — beautiful monuments, scenic beauty, beach and mountain resorts, transportation services, good hotel accommodation, polite and friendly people, etc. Price: It implies the optimal rates at which the tourism product (holiday) can be sold. Place: Most suitable distribution channels. In other words, the markets where the product should be sold and the network through which it is sold. Promotion: It implies the communication process, public relations, advertising, promotion, etc. To begin with, the Indian tourist ‘product’ had several drawbacks. The major shortcoming was the image. India did not enjoy the image of a holiday destination. Indians were often shocked to see the results of surveys conducted by organisations like PATA showing India in a terribly bad light. Despite the shock the fact remained that India had an image problem about its tourist product everywhere, especially in the USA. The picture in Western Europe was not very different. In 1961, the London Observer questioned its readers where they were planning to spend their holidays in 1962. India was not even mentioned among the first twelve popular destinations. A member of the Indian Parliament on return from England in 1966 quoted a placard shown in London which read: Positive news came from Germany. In a survey carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany, the respondents were asked in the early sixties: ‘If you could do as you liked, where would you go and what would you like to see and do most of

Introduction

15

all’? They were given the choice of twenty two places and activities; for example: The Egyptian Pyramids The ruins of ancient Greece The skyscrapers of New York The Kremlin in Moscow The Hollywood film studios A journey across the ocean in a sailing ship To watch a nuclear explosion The Isle of Capri Paris St. Peter’s in Rome Tour to India Surprisingly, India was the most popular country outside the European continent. The image problem was further complicated by the inadequacy of transport and hotel accommodation, both in quality and quantity. In 1967, the Director of the Government of India tourist office in San Francisco called on a major travel agency and the following conversation took place with the President of the company, with the President doing the most of the talking. “Sir you have beautiful, colourful literature on India. I must compliment you on its production.” “Thank you very much. How is the business?” “You have a great country with varied tourist attractions.” “Thank you again for saying that.” “You have a very nicely located office in a central place in San Francisco. Your staff is polite and efficient.”

16

Travel Agency and Tourism “Well you are making my day....” “But, Sir, why don’t you close down your office?”

“Now, tell me, why do you say that after paying me all these compliments this morning?” “Better buy some planes for Indian Airlines for tourists. I cannot get confirmation on Indian Airlines for my clients for months. How can I sell India?” he asked. “Presently, what you need is capacity on Indian Airlines and not promotion. Close your shop and go back home,” he advised. This was duly reported to the Government of India, but the government had its own priorities. It was a time when Indian Airlines had not bought its Boeings and Airbuses, and the capacity on most routes was limited. No amount of marketing and promotion could help India with these constraints. The Indian Airlines’ capacity was increased in December 1970 when Boeing 737s were bought; later their fleet was augmented by the addition of more such planes and in 1988 and after by the purchase of 19 Airbuses. Despite these purchases, Indian Airlines’ capacity did not catch up with the increasing demand. The situation is a little better today though popular tourist routes are still overcrowded during the season. By 1997, the Indian Airlines had more planes than pilots, and Indian Airlines fleet was underutilised— the other extreme. The introduction of a Hotel Loan Development Fund in 1968 eased the accommodation situation somewhat. While marketing India’s tourist product, price too was an important factor to be taken into consideration. Although India’s tourist facilities were relatively inexpensive, the high airfares were a negative factor in the major tourist markets of the world. The majority of tourists to India come by air from long distances — an expensive way of travelling compared to road or rail travel as in Europe.

Introduction

17

It would be seen that India’s share in world tourism cannot be very large till there is a significant inter-regional movement. If the experience of other countries provides a clue, large-scale tourism cannot originate from long-distance markets. European countries and Canada, Mexico and the Carribbean receive a majority of their tourists from the neighbouring areas. East Asia— Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia — receives a sizeable number of visitors from neighbouring countries. Till such time as India develops largescale inter-regional traffic, it cannot have “mass tourism” or even tourism on a large-scale. Tense political relations and economic weaknesses of India’s neighbours preclude any such possibility in the coming years. Keeping in mind these factors, Indian advertising strategy in the sixties was essentially to tell American travellers they could break their journey in India on round-the-world tours, and to the Europeans that India was a home of a great civilisation, culture and architectural wonders. A market study conducted in the United States through the Stanford Research Institute in the early sixties revealed that Americans having an annual income of US $ 10,000 to 15,000 per year alone could afford to travel to India and in addition, only those who had a lot of intellectual curiosity. Indian advertising was, therefore, targeted to the people in this income bracket and among them also to those who had already travelled to Europe. (Now, the target group is with annual income of US$ 50,000) The headline of an advertisement released by the Government of India Tourist Office in New York in the mid-sixties read:

HOW

TO

COMMUNICATE?

The text of one advertisement told the readers about the great attractions of Europe but advised them to see India if they had already seen Europe and wanted to see something more interesting and different. Till the end of the sixties, India’s tourism promotional campaign was in response to the existing market

18

Travel Agency and Tourism

conditions — a low profile approach to the rich and educated segment of the population.

PLANNING STRUCTURE It was only in 1967 that a separate Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation was created under a cabinet minister. Tourism, Civil Aviation and the various corporations relating to these activities came under the charge of this ministry. The results were amazing, and for the first time an integrated marketing plan was developed. Air India joined hands with the Department of Tourism in active promotion of India as a tourist destination. A new scheme called “Operation Europe” was launched in 1968 in Europe to, market Indian tourism. Air India not only made financial contributions to the promotional budget of the tourist offices, but also allotted targets to their field offices in Europe to sell Indian tourism. More tourist offices were opened in Europe as a result of this scheme. The tourist officers became “market oriented” and they started travelling extensively to meet tour-operators selling India in major markets. The scheme was considered successful and was later extended to all parts of the world. Indian Airlines, which had not actively advertised overseas, also joined by allocating a modest budget for overseas promotion through travel trade press. The new advertising strategy had an element of aggressive selling. Price became an important element in the advertising text to draw customers to India. The idea was to dispel the misgiving that the prices of Indian tours must be high and not within the reach of most people. An attempt was made to project India as a destination by itself and affordable too. Given below are some of the headlines of the advertisements released in 1967 and after: The Taj Mahal is in India it is not India : The objective was to inform people about many attractions of India other than

Introduction

19

the Taj in the great subcontinent of India. A similar approach was directed towards trade advertising. An advertisement in 1968 said: Ten Wonders of India Check the ones your Clients have Missed : The text described the ten wonders of India as AjantaEllora, the Shaking Minarets of Ahmedabad, Khajuraho, Gir Lion Sanctuary, Tiger Shikar (it was not banned at that time), Sun Temple of Konarak, Kashmir, Cochin, Darjeeling and Goa. Price, as mentioned earlier, became an important factor in Indian advertising from 1969 onwards. Special excursion and group fares had been introduced from USA and Europe which made Indian tourist packages attractive and competitive. For instance, India could offer package tours from Japan to India cheaper than the European and US tour packages. In Europe, India started marketing inexpensive tours at almost the price of charter tours. In 1969, an advertisement in the USA proclaimed: India Give-Away 17 Days $ 799 The Text Ran : “If you thought a holiday in India was an expensive affair, we would like to give you a surprise.” A year later, India was publicising tours ranging from $ 654 for seventeen days to $ 1,757 for twenty-five days including Nepal and Sikkim. The above theme was adopted to meet the changing requirements of the new class of visitors—the budget conscious travellers. Tourist offices kept a list of tours marketed by various tour-operators abroad with departure dates. These lists were mailed to people who wrote to tourist offices for information. The idea was to support the marketing efforts of tour operators and to enable the potential tourist to make a quick decision in the choice of his holiday. A favourable climate for India was developing as far as tourism was concerned. However, the old theme was not forgotten Expo’70 was held in Tokyo in 1970. To take advantage of the flow of traffic to Japan because of this trade fair, the India tourist office ran the following advertisement in the USA:

20

Travel Agency and Tourism

After Expo’70 and before Europe see India : The Government of India tourist office in Tokyo followed up this theme by opening a tourist information booth in the Indian pavilion at Expo’70 and distributed millions of pieces of tourism literature in Japanese and other languages. India carried out a market survey in 1961-62, 1964-65 followed by 1972-73 on the behavioural pattern of foreign tourist traffic. The survey revealed that destination traffic to India had risen from 43.2 per cent in 1961 to 73.6 per cent in 1972-73 and the indications were that more people would come to India for a destinational holiday if right conditions were created. The market planners in India re-oriented their thinking on promotion towards developing the Indian tourist product with a new focus on beach and mountain resorts, supported by cultural tourism which is in abundance all over India. Air India helped by establishing promotional air fares through IATA from several tourist generating markets taking multi-stopover requirements into account. Europe/India GIT had relatively a low discount of thirty four per cent, but this was because high proration was involved on domestic sectors. For instance, the GIT fare for routing ParisMumbai-Delhi-Srinagar-Varanasi-Kathmandu-Patna-CalcuttaMadras-Trivandrum-Cochin-Bangalore-Hyderabad-MumbaiParis cost F.Fr. 4,670 in 1976 of which the international carrier was eventually left with F.Fr. 2,447 for the Paris-Bombay-Paris sector. Simultaneously, separate promotional fares were established allowing higher discount of fifty seven per cent on point-to-point journey for Europe-India GIT, since the proration was nil. In 1983, there was a free for all battle of airfares in European countries. In order to corner a larger share of the market, most airlines offered discounted fares. So the tourist traffic to India did not decline from Europe in spite of the overall recession. Europeans preferred India at that time over destinations like Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

Introduction

21

Taking advantage of stopover facilities under long distance IATA fares, the Government of India tourist office in Tokyo ran an advertisement all over East Asia with those headlines. India’s Nine Cities are Included Free in your Ticket to Europe/USA : The text told the travellers that they could easily break journey in India as no extra fare was involved and that land arrangements could be made for ten to twenty five dollars a day depending upon one’s requirements. The advertisement was so effective that a number of foreign carriers complained to the India tourist office that their workload had increased as making tickets with too many stopovers was not only a complicated job but also a risky one for them, as they could lose their clients to a competing airline. With a little more confidence in selling India, the tourist offices settled down to diversify their product by spreading more extensive knowledge of India’s tourist attractions. The theme changed to the variety that was India. A concerted drive was made to move traffic from the traditional golden triangle of DelhiAgra-Jaipur to Kashmir in the North, and Southern and Eastern India. A study conducted in the USA in 1974 through the Opinion Research Corporation of USA regarding the new profile of the visitor to India summed up the profile of the potential American travellers to India in the following words: Historically, travellers to India have come mainly from an elite group — people of wealth, with time for extensive travel, and often from the older age brackets or retired. A further distinguishing characteristic of this traditional, “quality” source of visitors has been relatively high frequency of foreign travel. Quite logically, frequent travellers are good prospects for India because they have been to a number of countries and are ready to see another one. This research confirmed the importance of the frequent traveller as good potential for India. There is every reason to continue to woo him/her through travel agents, advertising and other appropriate means.

22

Travel Agency and Tourism

Indian research identified another important group, perhaps not too well recognised hitherto — young travellers (18-29 years age group). While continuing to market Indian travel aggressively to the older market of frequent travellers, Indian tourism may well wish to direct additional marketing effort to the young potential group. The newer potential group — young travellers — are a large group of prospects, relatively affluent, interested in India, and compatible in their thinking with the things India offers and requires of its visitors. To broad base the market on the basis of identification of potential American travellers, the Indian tourist office in the USA, ran the diary of a traveller to India who tells his experience in the form of a series of advertisements. A new slogan was coined:

GLOBAL ANGLE India was now being offered as a complete tourist product and experience, and not as a stopover point or part of a total tourist product. The Diary of a Traveller to India describes Kerala, Mysore, Madras, Kashmir, Khajuraho, Konark, Bhubaneshwar, Calcutta, etc. The readers of leading magazines were told in an Indian advertisements in 1974: When you Visit Our Land, do not Rush about it take it Slowly—Let India Happen to You : In 1975, advertisements were released to project a composite image of modern and ancient India. An advertisement proclaimed: India is not for you if you Want our Past but not our Future : Similarly, travel agents were advised in trade magazines. When you are Selling our Past Centuries do not Forget the Twentieth : Here, the ‘copy’ tells readers about facilities in India for golfing, skiing, modern hotels, bird watching, adventure, etc.

Introduction

23

Promotional approach has to vary from market to market. UK citizens have a little better knowledge of India than the Americans. The Government of India tourist office in London conducted a survey to know what constituted potential market for tourism to India in that country. The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. (E.I.U.), London, which carried out the study, gave the following conclusion in 1974: The Indian tourist product, though heavy in parts, is not unsaleable, but is not being actively and effectively sold by the travel trade. Marketing and promotional activities can counter any image problems by creating the picture of India as a fashionable place to spend a holiday, thereby stimulating IT (Inclusive Tour) holiday demand to India. The most appropriate form of promotion likely to influence the short-term potential traveller is direct, face-to-face contact. For the long-term potential traveller an information and advertising programme through the mass media is likely to have more impact. It’s currently available to India to fulfil market requirements, but there exist opportunities for tourists to be sold on: A. A theme basis like special interests. B. On itineraries taking in Kashmir, the South and the beach resorts of Goa and Kovalam. To follow up on the study, the tourist office in USA ran educational advertisements with headlines like: Wherever You go in India You will Find our People are all the Same : This colour advertisement carried a dozen photographs of the people of India from different regions in different costumes providing an interesting contrast. Another one had the headline: Any Traveller to India Always Comes Back Richer : The text tells the people about India’s spiritual heritage. Other

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Travel Agency and Tourism

advertisements focused on beach resorts, mountain holidays, trekking and outdoor activities. Arab countries—especially the Gulf States—had become potential tourist markets for India. At that time, the Arabs were mainly interested in Mumbai for shopping or for an interesting city life. India’s market planners wanted to send them to areas beyond Mumbai. Advertisements were designed to bring forth new themes in the eighties. Some of these were North of Bombay. Taj Mahal is Only one of India’s Thousand Wonders South of Bombay Fresh New Excitement Awaits You : This advertisement referred to the tourist attractions of South India. A third one sold Kashmir in winter. India projected “Unbelievable India” theme in North America, focusing also on Gandhi’s India taking advantage of the better awareness of this country created through the film Gandhi. For Business Travellers : In the nineties, the Department of Tourism in India realised the importance of business travel, especially from areas from where new investments were coming. An interesting advertising campaign was launched by the Government of India Tourist Office, Singapore, to attract business travellers and to tempt them with other opportunities for holiday/ vacation during their business trips. Some of the headlines. Favourable Tourism Climate at Home : The plan of integrated promotion included creation of a climate favourable to tourism at home. Since 1967, the Department of Tourism ran educational advertisements in the national press, both in English and in Indian languages, with slogans like: Tourism is the world’s biggest industry. What are we doing about it? Tourism is Everybody’s Business : Both advertisements conveyed the message to the Indian readers that tourism was a major economic activity and that people should be courteous and nice to tourists and send them back happy and satisfied. A slogan was coined which went with all advertisements in the

Introduction

25

series: This was also part of a message given by the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Welcome a Visitor - Send Back a Friend : The Department of Tourism advertising also laid emphasis on courtesy, cleanliness, helpfulness, etc., as tourist attractions. Example: Joint Promotions with Industry : All these promotional efforts had the support of the travel industry. Hoteliers and travel agents joined hands in carrying the message of the government advertisements to Indian readers. To support India’s marketing effort, the PATA (India) chapter was set up in 1969 as an Indian branch of the Pacific Asia Travel Association. It consists of PATA members from India who are active in the travel industry. The Department of Tourism, India Tourism Development Corporation, Air India, Indian Airlines and other international carriers, major hotel chains and leading hotels are members of this organisation and make financial contributions for promotional work. During the last 30 years, the chapter has sponsored the visit of several travel industry teams overseas for holding promotional seminars. The chapter has a Publicity and Promotion Committee which determines the promotional themes to be projected in a different market before such travel industry teams take off. Another helpful factor in India’s tourist marketing was the emergence of major chains of Indian hotels like Oberoi’s, the Taj Group, Welcomgroup and the Ashok Group, etc. Most of them have competent promotional managers who have been marketing their products with outstanding audio-visual presentations. Leading travel agencies like TCI, SITA, Mercury, Trade Wings, etc., have also produced films and audio-visual presentations. India has benefited from such worldwide promotions undertaken by these organisations. They have worked closely with the Government of India tourist offices and Air India offices overseas. The climate has improved further by training programmes conducted by the Department of Tourism for guides, tourism personnel, etc. PATA (India) chapter also started Tourism

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Travel Agency and Tourism

Research and Awareness Programme to create a favourable climate for tourism within the country stressing its significance and economic importance to influence the opinion makers in the country — members of Parliament, ministers, politicians and administrators. Unfortunately, the programme has since been forgotten— at least for the time being. A hopeful sign about Indian tourism is that those involved in it have a pride in their ‘product’ and have a sense of involvement with their profession. This has been, perhaps, the one reason for the success of India’s tourism marketing efforts —’ in spite of heavy odds. ‘ Indian tourism has grown reasonably well during the last four decades in line with the normal growth in world tourism. No extraordinary spurt has taken place in Indian tourism because of various factors. The 1996 arrivals at 2.3 million — an average stay of 28 nights and an average expenditure of Rs. 35,000 per visitor—earned India US $ 2.5 billion. Indian tourism, like other countries, suffers from seasonality factor — more visitors coming during cooler months of October to March and a lot less coming during summer months. During busy months, hotel rooms are in short supply while in the offseason, hotels are half empty. The gap has been reduced to some extent by the influx of business travellers coming due to a favourable business climate as a result of the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the nineties. India cannot be a mass tourist destination due to its distance from principal tourist markets of Europe, USA, Japan and Australia. Airfares, therefore, are high. The influx of tourists from the neighbouring SAARC region is negligible as the economy of these countries is not doing well. It is not fair to compare Indian tourism to countries like Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of numbers with that of India. The average stay of visitors to these countries is very small compared to India’s — 28 days. However, it is not to suggest that India

Introduction

27

cannot improve its tourism profile. The government is trying to attract more visitors by upgrading the infrastructure and improving facilities to international levels. A target of 5 million arrivals was set for the year 1997, the last year of the Eighth Five Year Plan and earnings of US $ 5 billion in a year. The targets were too high and unachievable as has been proved. India was the first country of Asia to set up Government Tourist Offices in London and New York as early as 1952, but the Government did not have a clear concept of matching promotion with the availability of good hotel accommodation and domestic and international air capacity. Since the opening of promotional tourist offices overseas, the domestic and international air transportation as well as hotel accommodation has not kept pace with the arrivals. Indian tourism has therefore, suffered from chronic shortages. However, the overseas tourist offices of India took tourism promotion seriously and tried to take advantage of opportunities that the market offered. First, it was to woo the round-the-world travellers who were persuaded to stop briefly in India on their round-the-world trips followed by appeal to those Americans who had been to Europe several times to discover India. In the seventies, the market planners focused on holiday tourism as facilities were available for a beach holiday at Goa, Kovalam, Mahabalipuram and a mountain holiday in the Himalayas. Integrated marketing commenced with the establishment of a separate Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation in 1968. Air India and the Department of Tourism were persuaded to join hands in promoting tourism all over the world. The travel industry, through PATA (India) chapter, has been regularly sponsoring travel industry missions to several parts of the world to spread the good word about India. Now, in the nineties, the focus is on the business traveller, telling him that India is good for business as well as all other forms of holiday. The new approach is yielding results.

2 FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS A travel agency plays a vital role in the entire process of developing and promoting tourism. It plans and organises tours for various areas or tourist spots of a country. This country can be different from its own country in which, it is based. Combinations of various travel agencies are not uncommon nowadays. That is because all the travel agencies cannot provide all-inclusive packages to their clients in all the parts of the world. Thus, these agencies sign tie-up agreements with those of the other nations so that the latter are able to cater to the needs of their clients as and when they arrive in those countries. Travel agencies plan package tours and sell these to tourists. Package tours are very economical and convenient for tourists as they help them locate tourist spots, hotels and modes of conveyance with ease and at the opportune moments. Thus, a travel agency has to: (a) attract customers so that they could use its tourism services; (b) prepare their plans for specific tours; and (c) coordinate with their affiliates in other parts of the region

30

Travel Agency and Tourism or world so that these tours could be completed by the clients with flying colours.

We shall study the vital aspects related to the origin, structure and operations of travel agencies in this chapter.

TRAVEL

AND

PLEASURE TRIPS

Man has been on the move since tunes immemorial. But professional travel activities were not in his mind while he was exploring this planet. Scientists have discovered bodies of primitive men in or around the Arctic and Antarctica regions., These findings prove that man had tried to explore the most hostile terrain of the world despite the fact that he had limited resources. Only things he had got with him were primitive tools, water, food (which was available en route) and above all, will power. Today, he needs not only the will power, but also the financial resources, adequate travel gear and legal permissions to travel to lands that are unknown to him. He is bound by procedures and the limitations of time. The system of travel has become complicated and he must conform to certain norms, which are followed universally. Travel’s Historic Development : During the Paleolithic Age (30000 BC to 10000 BC), the travel activity had only one motive survival. Slowly, man started developing primitive tools and made shelters for himself. He had to travel to new hunting grounds to arrange food. During the Neolithic the (10000 BC), man settled in permanent settlements. Agricultural communities were formed and humans started depending upon farms or fields for survival. In this Age, sailing vessels were developed in Egypt (in 4000 BC). In 3500 BC, the Sumerians developed the wheel (in Mesopotamia). They also used the concept of money (mohurs) to indulge in trade and business activities. In ancient Babylonia (the present region of Iraq), rulers made roads and provided rest houses along their sides so that travellers could stay in them for short time periods.

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31

India and China were also the popular destinations of ancient travellers. Spices of India were the coveted items of the Europeans. When Ashoka sent his religious emissaries to Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and Cambodia, the people of those nations suddenly found themselves to be in love with his land. Thus, Fa Hien and Huen T’sang visited India on religious tours. Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, Ibn Batuta, Al Beruni and many other travellers came to India and explored her length and breadth. Even before their visits, traders were arriving on the eastern and western coasts of India from far-off places. The historic Silk Route was treated by thousands of people. China and India were engaged in trading and barter activities. This had necessitated the need to travel. The roads were primitive and facilities on the roadside were anything but satisfactory. Incidents of dacoity and arson were common. The Indian travellers had quite often faced the wrath of Pindaris, a specialised gang of looters. This gang was decimated by the British later. In Rome, luxury bathrooms (in city centres) and places of pleasure (prostitution) were flourishing. Rome was cruel towards slaves. Hence, the rulers would make the prisoners accused of treason face the lions or professional warriors. These prisoners were termed Gladiators, whose only destination used to be death (after their gruesome fights with multiple numbers of State warriors). People used to flock to the grand theatre at Rome to watch the gory ends of those prisoners. Thus, they used to travel from far-off places to have witness the game of death that went on in the middle of the stadium. The famous silk route had a total length of 12,000 km. It started from the Mediterranian Sea and ended at Pacific Ocean. It linked China, India, Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Trade was the chief activity carried out by the travellers along this route. Resting places, palaces, temples, caravan sarais and towns were built along this route. This route still exists, though it is not used for trade and travel nowadays.

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The Romans were curious travellers. They used to visit Pyramids of Egypt and temples in the Mediterranean region. They also used to travel during the course of Olympic Games. Medicinal baths, seaside resorts and health spas were developed during the primacy period of the Roman empire. Entertainment, pleasure and health were their objectives while they travelled to far-off places. The Roman empire fell between 400 AD and 500 AD. The activities of travel were subdued in Asia Minor, the erstwhile Roman empire and Europe. During the dark ages, only stout and adventurous people used to undertake long trips to far-off places. Further, the fall of Rome led to reduction in the activities related to trade and commerce. This phenomenon led to a decline in the number of travellers. The concept of luxury travel come into being after the decline of this empire. Christianity spread in Europe and America. Constantan, the ruler of Rome and his mother, Helen, were responsible for the spread of this religion in Europe. Helen travelled to Jerusalem and tried to locate the Cross of Jesus Christ that was used to execute Him. Buddhism spread in Thailand, China, Cambodia, Korea, Sri Lanka and Japan. Travellers undertaking religious tours used to travel on horsebacks and by foot. There were no roads to travel on. There was also no security of life during the course of religious travel. Travellers used to travel during the day and take rest during the night. Roadside inns used to accommodate these travellers at nominal prices. Some inns used to cater to people only of a particular nationality. By fourteenth century AD, religious tourism had become a mass phenomenon. Travel during Middle Age : Religious tours were the dominant activities during this period. Although spiritualism was at its peak during this epoch, yet most of the nations of the world were engaged in wars and battles. India saw the invasion of many a warrior from the central Asian region; they came here to loot the valuable of the country. Some of them like Babur

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33

settled here forever. But some others like Ghauri, Abdali, Timur the Lame (Timur Lang) and Ghaznavi plundered the country and went back with large booties. In 1100 AD, the facilities for travel and comfort were almost non-existing. The new rulers of Rome did not promote travel and excursions. In 1552 AD, an Act was passed in England during the rule of Edward VI for keeping holidays and fasting days. So, the public and semi-public offices of that country used to be closed on certain religious days of the year. Religious tours were replaced by the curiosity for education, exploration, learning and sightseeing. This age was called Renaissance Age. It was witnessed in Europe, especially in Italy. It was marked by travel to distant places for the purpose of learning, getting new sets of knowledge, exploring the unknown and honing skills in various fields of arts and sciences. Thus this age led to another turning point in the history of travel. Italy was the economic and cultural leader of Europe during the Renaissance Age. But wars were fought in the Italian soil during this era. These wars played an important role in the spread of the Renaissance thought. This thought ultimately led to the concept of the Grand Tour. The elite and rich people of north-western Europe sent their children to France and Italy, so that they could learn new concepts of arts. Progress in sciences was also one of the reasons for such tours. But only the rich few could afford to take up education of this kind. The Romans visited Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. The English visited Italy from sixteenth century onwards. The Grand Tourist had a closer look at the antiquities, knowledge sets and social structures of the Old World. The Eighteenth century (1763 Ad to 1793 AD) proved to be the golden era of the Grand Tour. The British had gained many colonies around the world. They were rich and curious to know more about the world. So, many British authors and intellectuals visited Italy during this period. The Grand Tour was no longer

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Travel Agency and Tourism

the exclusive right of the rich few. The bourgeouis had also started traveling to Italy. The grand tourist of those times was more keen to learn the arts and crafts of the Old World. This trend created a platform for tourist activities for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Europeans also introduced the concept of annual holiday. Under this concept, they took at least nine days off their schedules and visited places that were unknown to them. This period was usually from December 24 up to January 1 every year. They used to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with fervour during these days. This concept had started taking firm roots during the eighteenth century. Thus, the Europeans had ample time to explore the world, thanks to this new trend. Earlier, the concept of holiday was derived from Holy Day, which refers to the period from December 25 to January 31; Jesus Christ was born on December 25 and the world was created by God in seven days. But today, these holidays are not taken as religious days in the strict sense of the word. People travel to far-off places for celebrating Christmas. They also attend Mass in churches on the Christmas day. Later, they enjoy in the environs of a tourist spot or at their homes. With passage of time, these holidays assumed the status of paid holidays and employers started sponsoring the trips and excursions of their employees. This practice is prevalent in Europe and the USA even in the present era. Note that the concept of annual paid holiday is the outcome of the industrial revolution of England. It had a religious hue during the beginning, as already stated. But later, it developed as a chief tool to satisfy or appease the employees of the State or the firm (engaged in industrial production). Alexander, Christopher Columbus, Selucus, Ferdinand Magellan and many other explorers and warriors discovered new parts of the world, including India, Sri Lanka and the USA, which is called the New World. However, we Indians must be

Fundamental Elements

35

proud of the fact that India was the source of all fascinations and myths during the historic tunes due to her diversity, resources and spiritual finesse. When Alexander arrived in India, he found well-maintained roads in the country that were lined with shady trees. Along the royal highway, which had a length of 1,920 m and breadth of 19 m, he found people travelling on chariots, horses, camels, elephants, palanquins and bullock carts. The State was responsible for the upkeep of these roads. Marco Polo left Venice in 1271. He travelled to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet. He visited the palace of Kublai Khan and lived in China for more than 20 years. When he set out for home, he visited India, Java, Sumatra, Ceylone (now Sri Lanka). Benjamin of Tudela was the first traveller of the medieval times to travel to the Orient. He traveeled to Europe , India and Persia for 13 years. Further, Ibn Batuta left his home (Morocco) in 1325 AD. He visited the countries of west Asia and Africa. He crossed the river Indus in 1333 AD. He covered a distance of more than 17,000 miles and also visited China and Indonesia; out of this distance, he covered 13,000 miles in India, Ceylone (now Sri Lanka) and Maldives. Vasco da Gama visited the coast of Malabar in 1492 AD. He wanted to indulge in trading with the local Indians. He was keen to take spices and other delicacies and specialty items of India along with him. By 1526, India had a small network of roads. Sher Shah Suri had built the Grand Trunk Road; it still exists. The Mughals also developed roads and kuccha roads to facilitate trade and travel activities. However, travel was not a pleasure game during those times because of the lack of facilities, ill-constructed roads and threats of hooligans en route the destinations. Haridwar, Puri, Dwarka, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Harimandir Sahib, Durgyana Mandir, Jwala Ji, Chintpurni, Vaishno Devi, Red Fort, Qutab Minar, Shirdi, Dargah of Sheikh Salim Chishti, Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin, Balaji,

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Chiragh Dilli, Church of Bom Jesus and other destinations were visited by the masses even during the medieval age. But the transport modes were primitive and people were not safe while they travelled to these places. The rulers of those times did not take pains to develop the infrastructure simply because the country was divided into several kingdoms or states. Note that the mediaeval age was marked by violence and invasions from the north-western frontiers of the country. That is why, people were not very much keen to travel during those times. Thus, the trend of the Renaissance Age of Europe was not observed in India. Sub voce : People have been travelling to religious destinations in search of spiritual solace. They travel to Mecca, Madina, Karbala, Puri, Dwarka, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Shirdi, the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, the wailing wall of Jerusalem, the Harimandir Sahib at Amritsar and the Cathedrals and churches of Rome, London and Paris. Religious travel was dominant during the medieval age but the modern age did emphasise upon the lighter aspects of life. This shift was witnessed during the early sixties of the last century when the Europeans adopted a policy of “eat, drink and go merry.” This policy continues to have its strong footholds in all the parts of the world. True, it is beneficial for the tourism industry. But people are moving away from religion. It is not that they do not undertake religious tours. They do but out of compulsion in many cases. Many of them are forced by their elders to undertake such tours while some others (especially, the elders) do so willingly. The youth do not undertake religious tours, their age being the decisive factor in making their pleasure-oriented tour plans. Executives do not have time to undertake tours. Ladies, especially those in their early forties and fifties, undertake religious tours. However, some young preachers and nomads do undertake religious tours.

Fundamental Elements

REVOLUTION

37

IN INDUSTRY

By the year 1865 AD, major seaside resorts were developed in Britain, France and some other nations of Europe. The industrial revolution had changed the face of Europe. Western Europe and North America were the beneficiaries of the machine-based production units. The incomes of people were rising and thus, their spending power was also increasing. They had time to spare and money to spend. Thus, they used to undertake small trips. The industrial society of the West promoted such activities as could increase the trade with other nations in terms of volume and currency. Thus, travel became essential for a modern industrialist of that era. This represented a shift from the trend prevalent in the Roman society; in Rome, only the rich could indulge in trade and travel but in the West, every industrialist was free to travel and engage in trading activities to enhance his business operations. During the nineteenth century, many resorts were developed in central Europe, namely, French Riviera, Cannes and Monte Carlo. Until the twenties of the nineteenth century, the Riviera was deemed a winter health resort as the Europeans shunned heat. By the end of the late twenties of the same century, Cannes became a popular resort. The Italian Riviera gained importance later and became popular among the English and French. By the early twentieth century, the Americans arrived at the Riviera; they were bowled by the beauty of Europe. The First World War took place from 1914 to 1918. It took away the sheen from the world of tourism and travel. Then came the Second World War (1939-45). During these wars, tourism activities were at their abysmal levels. Tourist spots were abandoned and most of them were destroyed, except the beaches that were able to face the wrath of those times. The Second War ended and the Americans took a lead in developing their nation as the most coveted tourist destination of the world. Europe followed Uncle Sam in this process.

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GROWTH

Travel Agency and Tourism OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Passengers were carried by rail for the first time in 1830 in England. Organised travel by rail was started in 1841 in England, thanks to Thomas Cook. In India, trains started plying from 1853 onwards. During 1870s, GW Pullman developed and built first class railway coaches. By 1872, 700 railway cars were plying across the Big Apple and covering 30,000 miles. Nearly 150 companies were in contract with Pullman Company during those times. The arrival of rail transport systems changed the face of America, which was a large country by any norm. In 1950s, Henry Ford developed the car. He was the second in line to develop it, after Carl Benz (Germany). Cars were manufactured on a professional basis. People used to take these cars on long distance tours across the continent. These cars used to guzzle petrol in large quantities. But petrol was cheap; Texas was full of this natural resource and the times were good in economic terms. In 1930s, the Germans developed motorways; so did the British. In America, the economy was given a fillip during the early thirties due to the development of motor-worthy roads and highways. As the number of cars increased in Canada and the United States, so did the number of nicely-laid road tracks and intra-city passages. Buses also started plying within major cities. In India, the scenario was slightly different, though. Railways were spreading their wings (tracks) but at a slow pace. The British were not very keen to spread this network throughout India due to commercial considerations. Moreover, they had realised that they would have to leave India, sooner or later. Thus, they stopped laying emphasis on rail tracks and developed some road belts. These road belts were connected only to major cities, especially to Delhi. Thus, road network in India had its modest beginning during the days of the British Raj. Commercial air travel started only after the Second War. After the First War, some companies tried to make commercial

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ventures in the field of air travel. Thus, the process had started at the end of the First War itself. But air travel started after the Second War. In 1952, two-class travel was started. The larger capacities of new aircraft led to reduction in airfares. Package holiday concepts were sold after 1952. The Americans were keen to try such tours. They also travelled to Europe through such packages. Within Europe, the resorts of the Mediterranean are were developed and visited by people from Europe and the Big Apple. In 1958, jet aircraft was developed. From 1960 onwards, the jet revolution wrote a new history of civil aviation in the skies of the world. But in 1973, due to rise in prices of oil, this revolution received a setback. Several types of fares were offered to woo the tourists of those times, namely, Excursion fare (1948), Coach Fare (1952), Family Fare (1955), Economy Class Fare (1958), Affinity Group Fare (1963), Group Inclusive Tour fare (1967), Youth Fare (1972) and Apex Fare (1975). As a consequence, airfare per seat mile declined from 1963 to 1975. Concorde, Tupolov, Lockheed, Airbus Industrie, Boeing,. McDonnell Douglas and Rolls Royce made wide-bodied aircraft for the travellers and tourists of that era. The sky train concept reduced the fares across the Atlantic. In 1960, the British railways electrified the London Manchester service. Trains started moving at a speed of 160 km per hour on this route. In 1970, France started its turbine train service in her northern territory. In 1971, Germany started inter-city services. These trains had modern amenities like telephone, stock quotations, dining car and secretarial services. The tourist was no longer bound by the environs of the train to communicate and complete his important tasks, which he would have otherwise completed had he not been aboard the train. The credit of developing luxury railway systems goes to Europe and Japan. During the early seventies, Amtrak was developed in the United States.

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Steam ships were in vogue during the eighteenth century. These were used to carry passengers and cargo. During the nineteenth century, people travelled to Europe and Asia by steamships. By the beginning of the twentieth century, ships and ferries started using diesel as the fuel. The Titanic sank in 1912 and this gave a blow to luxury travel by sea. But times changed after the Second War. Cruise lines came into being during the late seventies. Today, cruise lines are being used only for the purpose of luxury travel. These are the major USPs of many travel agencies of the world. Star Cruises is the leader in the field of luxury travel by sea routes.

TRAVEL AGENCY’S RISE The origin of professional travel started in 1841. Thomas Cook was the first man who worked on the idea of organising and selling travel-and services related to it. A Baptist preacher of Derbyshire wanted to hire a train to take his friends of the Temperance Society from Leicester to Loughborough and bring them back. Thomas Cook accepted the challenge. A few weeks later, 570 passengers were transported by the Midland Countries Railway. The propaganda caused a sensation and a second trip had to be arranged. In 1843, Cook took 3000 children from Leicester to Derby. The Liverpool-Canterbury trip of 1845 was a grand success. Cook thought of all the possibilities regarding fixed accommodation and basic amenities that could be provided to passengers during their journey. He made a preliminary survey of accommodation and facilities and published a handbook of the trip to Liverpool. From 1948 to 1963, Cook conducted circular tours of Scotland with 5,000 tourists a season. By the midnineteenth century, it became customary for a larger social group to spend holidays away from home. In 1851, he was offered a great opportunity of conducting excursion trains to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cook transported 16,500 people to and from the Crystal Palace. In 1856, he organised a great

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“ground circular tour of the continent.” The tour was so successful that he had to repeat it after six weeks. In 1862, Paris Excursions were the first package tour of Cook in which, transport and accommodation were arranged before hand. In 1863, Cook visited Switzerland where his ideas were welcomed by hotels and railway authorities. After that, he visited Italy and surveyed the tourist attractions and facilities available there. In 1860, Cook introduced a coupon system to acquire railway and hotel facilities. By the 1890s, 1,200 hotels throughout the world accepted his coupons In 1865, he established his first office by the name of Thomas Cook and Son in London., Later, his son took the charge of the London office. In the year 1880, John Mason Cook came to India and established his office in Bombay (now Mumbai) and then, in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Taking advantage of nineteenth century advances in transport technology and hotel business, Thomas Cook and Sons brought about a revolution in the arena of travel and tourism. It was now an industry. Equipped with Cook’s hotel and rail coupons, the tourist could enjoy uniform prices and standards of food and accommodation. The tourist was made comfortable for the first time through a professionally managed organisation. This was new trend!. Earlier, travellers used to decide their tour programmes and suffer. But Cook had taken the burden of planning their trips and executed these plans with an amazing finesse. In 1898, the management of the company passed on to three sons of John Mason Cook. Three aspects of travel were involved in the business of the Cooks at the time of John Mason Cook’s death. These were selling tours, travel and shifting. After the Second World War, the British government took over the company. In 1972, the company was sold to Midland Bank Consortium by the British government. The company has 700 offices around the world at present.

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Thus, we can conclude that Thomas Cook was the father of modern travel agency.

GROWTH

OF

TRAVEL AGENCIES

Two largest travel agencies, Thomas Cook and Son and the American Express Company started in the same year, 1841. Thomas Cook first persuaded a railway company to carry a train load of passengers while Henry Wells started his freight business in the USA at the same time. Initially, Henry Wells started his business as a shifter; later on, he established the well-known company of America known as Wells Fargo. Besides selling tours, the company dealt in banking. It deals in traveller’s cheques and international currency transactions. It also purchases and sells foreign currencies. The company is also dealing in credit cards (popularly called AMEX). These cards are used all over the world and the CC holder can buy international air tickets, pay hotel bills and buy other things that are of interest to him. The company also gives life insurance and general insurance facilities to its clients. Scope of the Modern Travel Agency : The scope of the activities of the modern travel agency involves the following : (a) To give advice to the potential tourist an the merits of alternative destination. (b) To make necessary arrangements for a chosen package, which involves the booking of accommodation, transport modes, transfers to and from airports, sight-seeing and half-day or full-day excursions in the cities visited by the tourist. A travel agent can be considered to be a useful intermediary (retailer) as he has accumulated knowledge, expertise and contacts with providers of services (wholesalers). The functions of travel agency depend upon the scope of activities it is involved in and also, its size and location.

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Travel Agency : Varied Function : Some of the major functions of a travel agency are as follows. Marketing and Promotion of Tour Packages : In order to succeed in the highly competitive markets of today, travel agencies promote themselves through the following methods : (a) Advertisements in local and regional newspapers, which are read by the prospective clients. (b) Advertisements in magazines related to the travel trade, namely, Trav talk, Go Now, Where, Travel & Tourism, etc. (c) Supply of printed material like leaflets and small brochures through newspapers to clients. (d) Despatch of E-mail messages to the E-mail accounts of clients. (e) Despatch of SMS and MMS messages to the cellular phones and palm-top notebooks of clients through the Net. (f) Letters (with specific offers) to those clients who have already availed the services of the travel agency in the past. (g) Telephonic marketing activities; for such activities, a nice looking well-dressed lady is told to call prospective clients from the office of the agency. If the client is interested, he is called to the office of the travel agency and the tour package is sold to him by a senior marketing executive. (h) Personal selling efforts; these are undertaken by large travel agencies of the metropolises to sell tour packages to corporate clients, rich businessmen and MNCs. (i) Participation in fairs related to the travel and tourism industry. (j) PbP material that is on display in the racks placed at the reception of the office of the travel agency.

44

Travel Agency and Tourism Prospective clients (and even the existing ones) come to the office, pick the leaflets (which describe various tour packages) and decide after they discuss the modalities with the marketing executive of the travel agency.

Informative Function of Travel Agency : When the client or prospective client arrives in the office of the travel agency, he seeks information that would help him undertake the tour. Travel agencies provide necessary information about travel to their clients. This job is performed at a convenient location like an office where the tourist could get information. The travel agent has knowledge of various travel plans. He must be in a position to give up-to-date and accurate information about travel and tour programmes. The travel agent can also employ a marketing executive for this purpose who knows all the details about the travel trade. The travel agent must be aware of the needs and interests of the tourist and travellers. The knowledge of foreign languages is a must but a marketing executive or sales executive should communicate with the customer in the language of the latter. In order to achieve good results, the communication must be accurate, effective and forceful. Travel Agents as Service Providers : Travel agents promise to provide services to customers and also, sell these to customers by taking money in lieu of the services provided. They do so on the behalf of service providers because they are not involved in the process of delivering such services. So, the process requires efficient coordination between the travel agent who promises and the service provider who actually provides the promised services. There must be legal contracts between them so that a travel agency may be able to sell the services without any confusion and chaos during the execution stage. Such service providers include transport companies, hotel proprietors, providers of

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surface transport like taxis or coaches for transfers to and from hotels and firms involved in sightseeing. In a large travel agency with a worldwide presence, the liaison work involves a great deal of coordination with the service providers. Tours’s Planning and Costing : Before planning a tour for his prospective customer, a travel agent must answer the following questions : (a) Who are the potential buyers and where do they live? (b) What are their likes and dislikes? (c) What are their travel purposes and interests? (d) Where do they prefer to buy? (e) What are their transport preferences? (f) What are their entertainment preferences? (g) Whether they would mix business with excursion? (h) What are their budgets? (i) What are their special preferences if they are travelling along with their families, elders, children with disabilities, etc.? (j) Would they be regular clients of the agency? (k) When would they like to start their itineraries? (l) When they would like to end such itineraries? The present-day buyer is whimsical and fussy. A travel agency plans his tour after understanding his needs and budget. According to his needs, a travel agent or executive of the travel agency coordinates with tour operators, transporters, airlines, hotel owners, etc. Then, he makes a plan and performs the costing exercise for the tour. He tries to provide him best facilities at least costs. If the tour to be planned is a foreign tour, the duties of a travel agent are tough. He arranges airline tickets, gets passport stamped for visas, purchases foreign currency on the behalf of his customer and prepares the comprehensive

46

Travel Agency and Tourism

(and an exact) tour itinerary. Therefore, the tour arranged by the travel agency must be well-planned and cost-effective. Plans must be made in such a manner as to deliver the best possible levels of comfort and economy to the traveller. The executive of the travel agency notes the details of tour on an order booking form. The format of this form has been given carlier. It lists all the details of the tour programme. Finally, the itinerary is defined and the costs of each part of the tour are calculated. A reasonable service charge is added for each one of the services provided. Travel agencies are entitled to a commission of 8 per cent on the air ticket; this percentage may vary from airline to airline. They also get commission from tourist resorts and hotels. These are predefined terms and the prices of tour packages are inclusive of their commissions. In addition, the tourist may ask the travel agency to get his passport stamped for visas. The travel agency charges Rs 100 to 200 for getting each visa from the embassy or high commission. The final tour cost does not include these sundry costs. The tourist can himself go to the embassy or high commission and get his passport stamped for visa. But that is a tedious process; and he may also be too busy to carry out this task. Concurrence of Tour Programme : This is the most important part of the operations of the travel agency. It may have to send an executive to the office of the client. It may invite him to come to its office and finalise the tour programme. The client would naturally alter or modify the tentative tour programme made by the agency (and discussed quite often over the telephone). But when the travel agency’s executive and the client sit across the table, all the clarifications are obtained from the client in respect of his tour programme. The experienced executive of the travel agency also modifies the tour programme according to the practical problems that the tourist is likely to face during the course of his tour. Some tourists may oppose

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these suggestions but they should know that the executives of travel agencies are more experienced. So, it is better to accept the pragmatic suggestions given by the executive. The final package is decided and the client pays some advance amount. Some clarifications may have to be made on a later date. The client is also required to submit his passport so that the same could be got stamped for visas. The dates of departure from the station of origin, stay at destination spots/ hotels and return from the tour are decided. The number of days of stay in hotels of various cities is decided according to the special needs (and financial resources) of the client. Once this is done, the client gives a green signal to the executive of the travel agency to take necessary actions.

PURCHASING TICKETS The first action to be taken to execute the tour programme is the purchase of tickets. These could be air tickets, railway tickets, sea cruise tickets or tickets of coaches. Note that the passport of the client cannot be stamped for the grant of visas until and unless he has purchased tickets for travel foreign travel usually involves travel by air. Thus, it is important to purchase air tickets from an IATA approved travel agent or airline. The travel agency performs this function alternatively. If the tourist is experienced, he can purchase air tickets from the airline or travel agency of his choice. A travel agent must have thorough knowledge of schedules of various modes of transport. Sometimes, two or modes of travel may have to be combined. For this purpose, the tour itinerary would have to be checked and tickets booked accordingly. Ticketing is not an easy job as the range and diversity of international airfares are very complex. Changes in international and local flight schedules are very common. Knowledge of roadways, railways, airlines, steamship companies and taxis is essential in this context.

48

Travel Agency and Tourism

The Computerised Reservation System (CRS) has lessened the load on travel agents in context of airline ticketing. This system comprises a computer network that can be used by the travel agent to reserve an air ticket as also accommodation in a hotel. Through a worldwide network, confirmation of ticket and hotel reservations can be got done in a matter of seconds. For this purpose, professionally-trained executives of the travel agency help the client. They interact through the CRS and get all the bookings done. Coordination with Hotels : The travel agency also coordinates with hotels, tourist spots and other places of temporary stay, namely, manors, forts, chateaux, havelis, heritage hotels, etc, in the destination cities/countries. It gets reservations done for their clients for such places. If possible, it also arranges tickets for museums, these parks, zoos and other such places in which the tourist might be interested. In some cases, advance bookings can be done but in many others, on-the-spot bookings are in vogue. If the travel agency cannot get tickets for these important places due to constraints imposed by rules, then it arranges a person (normally, a tour guide or a local assistant) who gets such tickets for the tourist when he actually arrives at the spot. The reservation procedures and planning processes take a lot of time. Thus, the tourist should start the procedure of getting bookings at least two months prior to the date of his departure from the station of his origin. Stamping of passports takes long time nowadays. Arrangements for Foreign Commences : It is also an important activity carried out by the travel agency. It arranges foreign currencies for travellers. Some agencies deal exclusively in the provision of foreign currencies, traveller’s cheques etc. This is an important facility to its customers as it saves a lot of time and energy of the customer. Once the traveller has taken foreign currency from one travel agency, it cannot take foreign

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currency from another agency for the same tour. The guidelines of the Reserve bank of India are strict in this context. Further, a travel agency can issue foreign currency equivalent to US $ 10,000 to a traveller who intends to undertake a foreign tour. If he spends only a part of this amount during the tour, he can return it to the travel agency and get back its Rupee equivalent from it. He should preferably go to the same travel agency (for this conversion) from which, he had taken this foreign exchange. The format of the application through which, the tourist is able to get foreign exchange, has been shown earlier. The authorised money exchanger comes to the office or residence of the client and gives him the exchange in lieu of Indian currency. Alternatively, the client can go to the office of the money exchanger and get the foreign exchange according to his travel needs. Arrangement for Insurance : The travel agency also makes arrangement for the insurance of the traveller. Insurance companies make insurance for both personal accident risks and theft/damage of baggage. It is also the duty of a travel agent to provide proper guidance regarding insurance. In any case, it would have to sign tie-ups with the leading travel insurance firms to provide such services. The travel agency itself cannot provide insurance. Preparation of Tour Itinerary : The tour itinerary is prepared by a senior executive of the travel agency. Normally, he or she is a person with lots of experience of eight to ten years in the field of travel agency operations. There are two objectives of preparing this important document, as follows : (a) The tourist should know about his departure and arrival schedules from the origin as well as from various places, which he is going to visit. He should also know what types of service

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Travel Agency and Tourism

Application for Availing Foreign Exchange Under Basic Travel Quota ABC Pvt. Ltd. A-1/402, Sector-6 Janakpuri Delhi Dear Sir, Release of Foreign Exchange Under Basic Travel Quota for the Year......... I/We intend to travel abroad and wish to avail foreign exchange under B.TD for you. My/Our particular are given below : Passport No./Date of Issue

:

Place of Issue

:

Nationality

:

Country(ies) to be visited

:

Currency & Amount

:

Atm Already Availed In The Current (Year)

:

In settlement, I/We hereby tender cash by Rs.............. / Personal / Banker cheque for Rs.................. I further declare that I have not / have availed US$........................ under BT during the current year and the total amount including the amount now requested does not exceed US$ 5000. I/We further declare that all the statements are true and correct and the transaction will not involve any contravention or evasion of the provision of the Foreign Exchange Act, 1999 or any rule, regulation, notification, direction or order issued thereunder. Thanking you Your faithfully (............................. ..................)

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Applicants Signature Name Address Ticket No. Date of Travel Applicant’s Contact No. which are called Service Vouchers. These vouchers are also given to the client along with the itinerary. Some of these vouchers are prepaid while some others are not. (1) Complete tour itinerary with dates of departure, arrival, stay in hotels, breakfast provisions, airport-hotel-airport transfers, etc. (2) Passport with stamped visas. (3) Hotel vouchers or service vouchers. (4) Air tickets. (5) Carry bags or any other free gifts given by the travel agency or by the airline. (6) Identification labels or marks, which a tourist must carry, or stick to his dress so that he could be identified at the destination airport. (7) Foreign exchange demanded by the tourist for which, he has to apply on a prescribed form and get such exchange from a money exchanger (authorised by the Reserve Banks of India). Normally, a travel agency is the money exchanger. But the travel agency through which, the tourist is travelling, may not be the money exchanger authorised by the Reserve Bank of India. Note that foreign exchange has to be procured only from an RBI-authorised money exchanger. We would suggest that a tourist do not procure this exchange from unauthorised persons or spurious travel agents.

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The format of a tour itinerary has been given in elsewhere in this volume. The same is not being repeated here. The format of a service voucher has also been shown. Holidays Incentives Travel Consortium 23, Community Center, Rohini, New Delhi-85 Phone : 64219227/8/9, 6484384/5, Fax: 6225217 Service Voucher No.: 80;0 Favouring : Mr. Arvind Kumar X 01 Drawn On: Mr Michael / GTM /0065 - 67324477 Date : 31st Oct ’02 File No.: OBD/Nov/02 Kindly provide the following services against this Service Voucher: -02 nights & 03 days hotel accommodation on Single Occupancy -Daily Breakfast -Arrival & departure transfers -Half-day City tour -Nice Coach ticket for Sin -Kul on 8th Nov at 1400 Hrs.

Room: One single

-All hotel taxes & service charges. Singapore: Tropical 6th Nov to 8th Nov ’02 Confirmed by: Ms Megha / GTM / Confirmation No. 3603 Billing Instruction : pre-paid at Delhi Office for Incentives Holidays Authorised Signatory

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Coordination while Tour : When the tourist leaves the station of origin, the travel agency coordinates with the travel agents of the destination station or its own employees at such a station. It informs these executives that the tourist is on his way to execute the tour. E-mail messages are sent to these executives so that they could receive the tourist at the destination stations. Telephonic conversations may also be resorted to in this context. Once the tourist has arrived at the destination station, the executives (of another travel agency with whom the travel agency of the station of origin has tie-ups or its own employees) receive the tourist and take him to the hotel. They also collect Transfer Vouchers from him. Finally, they also tell him to make payments as and when he arrives at the destination airport, if this is a term mentioned in the tour itinerary. Once the tourist is in safe hands, the travel agency of the station of origin can relax. The tour programme would be executed according to the previouslydefined schedule. It is already mentioned that how the format of a service slip is issued to the representative of the travel agency at the destination airport, coach station or seaport. On the basis of this service slip, the coach driver is able to identify the guest at the destination port. The guest is also told to bear a sign of the travel agency on his person (at the front side of his suit) so that the coach driver or representative of the travel agency could identify him in the departure hall of the airport, coach station or seaport. This identification is important because the tourist and the representative/ driver are not known to each other: The representative or driver receives the tourist and takes him to the hotel where the arrival of the tourist has been preplanned. The service slip mentions the flight details and the name of the hotel where he would be taken by the driver or representative. Note that the tourist has to sign the service slip

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after he has arrived at the designated hotel. The original travel agency (of the station of origin) is not involved in this stage. The representatives of this travel agency or its associates perform the tasks related to the itinerary as the travel agency of the station of origin cannot perform these in any case. Naturally, these personnel are responsible for the execution of the tour of the tourist. The system has to be very smooth and efficient. When the guest has to be taken out on a half-day sight-seeing tour, then another service slip is made that mentions the name of the guest, his passport number, station of origin and other relevant details. The travel agency picks up guests from various hotels and takes there around the city. A tour guide accompanies them so that they are able to know more about the history, polity, buildings and popular spots of that city. These sets of information are collected from transfer vouchers of tourists. E-mail messages are sent in advance so that there may be no confusion during the execution stage. If need be, telephonic conversations an be done to confirm the bookings. E-mail is exchanged frequently. Organisation Travel Agency : Structure : We can divide travel agencies into two parts—large and small. A small travel agency depends upon other large travel agencies to prepare and execute tour itineraries of its clients. A large travel agency has its own executives stationed at important tourist spots, which are visited by its clients quite often. A small travel agency can have tie-ups with other small and large travel agencies whereas a large travel agency has its own dedicated staff in major cities of the world. But both the types of travel agencies depend upon producers (like owners/managers of hotels, bars, resorts, beach resorts, forts, palaces, wildlife sanctuaries, etc.) to deliver the entire product and service package to the tourist.

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Welcome to Singapore Arrival Name : Hotel

:

Date

:

Departure Please be informed that your departure transfer pick-up schedule is: DATE: ————FLIGHT————PICK-UP TIME:————— Tours

Date

•

City Tour

•

Night Bird Park

•

Jurong Bird Park

•

Sentosa Tour

•

Johor Bharu

•

Batam Day Tour

Pick Up Time

• •

Note: *

Please be on time at the hotel lobby for your transfer:

*

Re-confirmation of pick-up time is not necessary.

*

Hotel’s check-out time 12:00 noon. ————————— Name of Representative Tel: 6444 797 (24 Hrs Emergency) Signature of Guest

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Service Slip of the Representative of a Travel Agency at the Destination Airport : The organisation structure of a small travel agency is also mentioned above. It is a private limited company in most of the cases. A small travel agency can become a large travel agency with the passage of time. The organisation structure of a large travel agency is also mentioned above. It is a public limited company or an MNC in most of the cases. A large travel agency may become a producer of tourism services with the passage of time. In that case, it may acquire hotels, motels, resorts, cruise lines, etc. Then, it operates as a producer-cum-distributor. Tour Package’s Marketing : Like all other industries, the tourist industry also faces the problem of formulating and refining the marketing mix. A marketing mix is the formulation of a recipe with marketing elements (sub-mixes) for marketing tourism services in the targeted market niches. The different sub-mixes are (a) product mix; (b) promotion mix; (c) price mix; and (d) physical distribution mix. These have been explained in the text that follows. Concept of Product Mix : The tourism product is intangible, well a large part of it really is. The tourist cannot feel, taste, see or try a package tour. The formulation of a product mix is very important task for marketing the tourism services. The product mix for the tourism industry includes the following elements : (a) Accommodation : Hotels (five-star deluxe, five-star, fourstar, three-star, two-star, one-star, heritage and nongraded, according to the classification made by the Government of India).

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(b) Recreation : Theatre, pubs, theme parks, children’s parks, joy rides, musical shows, meetings, get-together, etc. (c) Restaurant: Western, Chinese, Continental, American and Indian cuisine. (d) Attraction : Natural spots, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, historical monuments, man-made spots, sociocultural heritage of India, zoological parks, lakes, natural and artificial resorts. (e) Transportation : Airways, railways, roadways, seaways, local subways and cable cars. (f) Shopping : Books, handicrafts, handloom items, apparel, gold and jewellery, antique items and figurines, sandalwood items, woollen garments, etc. Tourists belong to diverse cultural backgrounds. Their needs and requirements are different as they hail from different social and economic strata. The services provided by the tourism business depend considerably upon the extent to which, the marketer is able to understand the precise needs of these customers and deliver products and services according to such needs. As already stated in this volume, the tourism industry cannot cater to the precise needs of each and every customer because of several limitations. But these clients can be segregated into well-defined market niches so that they could be served with efficiency. Concept of Promotion Mix : The following are various components of the promotion mix. Advertisements : These are an important component of the promotion mix. Through glossy and creative advertisements, the travel agency can promote and sell tour offers and packages to prospective customers. It can promote the package, with the help of creative slogans and swashbuckling USPs, to its clients. The media blitzkrieg helps the targeted audience prepare in mental and psychological terms for undertaking tours. In the

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tourism industry, product includes such elements as recreation, accommodation, attraction, transportation, etc., as already stated in Section 6.7.1. Advertising industry uses three modes to disseminate information related to tourism products and/or services. These are print media (magazines of the trade, general magazines, newspapers, journals of the trade, journals of general interest, etc.), audio-visual media (TV and cable TV advertisements, conferences and seminars, cinema slides, coverage of spots in movies, etc.) and visual media (hoardings etc) and audio media (radio advertisements). We have arrived at the conclusion that travel agencies tend to spend more on the trade-related magazines and newspapers so far as their promotional efforts are concerned. These agencies do not use TV advertisements, cinema advertisements, hoardings and other modes of advertising to attract clients. Further, personal selling matters in the field of tourism advertising; so do personal relations between the travel agency and its clients. Example : A travel agency can advertise its tour package in a magazine (like Trav Talk or Go Now) by showing main attractions, recreation spots and hotel rooms. It can also give the package costs in a nutshell and inform the prospective clients about the various options within a tour package. The client can enquire about the tour package of his choice. Tour packages of 3 Day/4 Nights (also called 3D/4N for the sake of convenience in the advertisement) are popular among economyclass tourists. So, the travel agency advertises these package costs quite often. If other attractions like hotel rooms or important tourist spots are also shown in four-colour photographs along with their chief USPs and prices, then the customer is easily hooked on to the deal. Further, many travel agents describe the details related to transport, airport taxes, transfers to and from airports, etc. The prospective client gets a quick idea of what he would have to spend on a particular tour package. Some advertisements

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are so attractive that the client calls the travel agency over telephone as soon as he comes across the advertisement in the newspaper. Many prospective tourists cannot read magazines or newspapers but most of them watch TV regularly. Thus, this most sensitive but inexpensive communication mode can help travel agencies promote their businesses. We have not seen any advertisements of reputed travel agencies on cable TV, however.

PUBLICITY

OF

NEAT NATURE

This is an another dimension of the promotion mix. Publicity plays a positive role in attracting tourists and promoting the businesses of travel agencies. A neatly-defined publicity programme includes the following : (a) Regular publicity stories and photographs in newspapers, travelogues, contact with magazines on stories. It helps in projecting the positive image of tourist organisations since the prospects trust on the news items publicised by the media people. Its main purpose is to inform the people about the activities and vision of a travel agency. (b) Participation in programmes, seminars and conferences related to travel and tourism also helps. The travel agency has to get a stall booked for this purpose. The prospective clients as well as professionals related to the field of tourism and travel throng the stall in large numbers. They inadvertently disseminate information about the travel agency in question. The senior executive or director of the travel agency may also give lectures related to the travel trade. These activities help the firm build an image in the markets. (c) Word-of-mouth publicity is the best weapon in the hands of an executive of a travel agency. A satisfied client would bring ten more clients. Thus, it is important to

60

Travel Agency and Tourism satisfy the existing set of clients and solve the problems of those clients who are on tour.

Sales Promotion : Sales Promotion refers to the promotion of products at the points of sale. Same sales promotion techniques are as follows : (a) Directed at Employees : The travel agency gives incentives to its employees. Companies pay commission to their employees on the total sales made by them. (b) Directed at Dealers or Retailers : In case the products are sold through dealers or retailers, a travel agency offers gifts to these dealers or retailers such as flight bags, wallets for tickets, pens and stationery items, ashtrays, diaries, paper weights, calendars, participation in trade exhibitions and joint promotion exercises, etc. (c) Directed at Consumers : For ultimate consumers (tourists), the pull strategy is used. The travel company offers gifts of various types to its customers such as flight bags, passport covers, wallets for tickets, free airport-hotel transfers etc. The hotels offers a number of facilities like shoe shine, welcome drinks, first aid kit, caps and toys for children, free bakery products, soaps and shampoos. The travel agency passes these benefits on to the consumers. Thus, the travel agency also stands to gain if the hotel gives such sundry items to the tourist.

INDIVIDUAL SALE Personal selling is a very important component of the promotion mix. It is based on the personal selling skill of an individual. The travel and hotel business depends considerably upon personal selling skills of the top-notch marketing and sales executives. Only well-educated and trained personnel can help the agency develop stable sets of clients. In the tourism industry, personal selling is required to influence the decisions of travellers or tourists. The personnel who attend tourists must be responsible

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and honest towards their duties. The staff with the tourists come in contact includes travel counselor, marketing executive, sales executive, etc. The hotel manager, hotel waiters, bar staff, porters, hotel cleaners, coach drivers or airline cabin crew also play vital roles in ensuring that their products satisfy tourists. But they are not doing personal selling jobs in the strict sense of the word; they are just doing their jobs and not selling their products or services to clients. Sales personnel are required to be polite, friendly, empathising and above all, result oriented. We have observed that most of the efficient sales professionals eventually start their own travel agencies. Concept of Price Mix : As the tourism industry has a multisegment characteristic, the pricing decisions are crucial. The total cost of a tour includes the expenses incurred on transportation, accommodation, intra-city travel, food, wine/liquor, visits to forts/palaces and other activities of entertainment/ excursion. Pricing decisions must be consistent with the policy of the travel agency and the needs of the client. Thus, like all other organisations, travel agencies are also required to take pricing decisions carefully. A rational pricing policy is must in the tourism industry. The government has allowed the firms in the travel trade to operate under some norms. Within those norms, they can charge fees according to the impact of the market forces. Recession, terrorist attacks, surge in economic activities, closure of tourist spots, political developments, wars, other natural calamities (like the impact of SARS pneumonia on China, Singapore and Hong Kong) and above all, weather affect tourist arrivals into a country. If the number of tourists flying through an airline falls, it has to reduce its fares to keep itself afloat. The American Airways has filed an application for bankruptcy in an American court because it has not been able to cross the red line after the recent events of 9-11 attacks on the WTC towers and the Iraq-US war. Thus,

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global polity also affects the travel and tourism business. The price mix has to be varied quite often in the context of international travel and tourism. Further, five-star hotels charge high prices from their guests. So, the number of guests remains low if recession strikes the country. But the price mix of a luxury tour remains the same because a reduction in the price component create a feeling in the mind of the tourist that he would not get the five-star luxury at lower prices. The standards ought to be maintained even if there are less clients for these package tours. We have observed that fivestar hotels have also slashed their prices in the wake of rising number of vacant rooms per day of 24 hours in their hotels. But this offer was withdrawn later and these hotels have now started charging normal fees from their guests. In other categories of tours, such trends are not being observed. Package tours attract discounts if the number of tourists is large. A single tourist may not get hefty discounts. He may get some other facilities like free airport-hotel-airport transfers, to quote an example in the context of operations of the modern travel agencies. Naturally, the client has to pay all the costs before he boards the aircraft at the city of origin, except those that he has to pay when he arrives at the destination station. Concept of Physical Distribution Mix : In the tourism industry, various services, namely, guided tour, transportation, attractions, accommodation etc, are the parts of a tour package. The product/service package also includes other facilities like catering, amusement, skiing, roller skating, shopping, etc. These services reach the ultimate users through tour operators (wholesalers) and travel agents (retailers). The method through which, the services reach the client at the destination station is known as Channel of Distribution in context of tourism administration. These middlemen are the link of the tourism industry. Tour operators and transport operators buy services like hotel rooms, seats in aircraft, railway tickets, chartered flights and tickets to resorts, palaces, forts, museums and wildlife

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sanctuaries. They sell the same to travel agencies or directly to tourists. The former are known as Middlemen. Tour operators are also called Middlemen. Thus, the middleman are engaged in the process of distributing the services/products of tour operators. These middlemen can also sell the services/ products of producers who are hotel owners, resort owners, transporters, airlines, fort/ palace managers (working on behalf of the government) and theme park owners. Note that the client may not buy tickets for such places; he may like to decide as and when he arrives at such tourist spot. The travel agency can give him leeway in this context and give him information regarding that place so that the client may be able to decide at the spot. Example : A travel agency may include the airfare, hotel stay and airport-hotel-airport transfers while making the tour programme of a client to Kathmandu (Nepal). It may also include the airfare to Pokhra. But it may exclude the trip to Chitwan simply because the client may like to be on his own at Chitwan. Such types of variations are common and the choice of the client is deemed supreme, though the travel agency can give suggestions to make his tour comfortable. Sources of Income of a Travel Agency : Travel agencies generally do not charge anything from their clients (tourists). They earn by providing various services of producers and tour operators. We have observed that each travel agency is commercially associated with a few tour operators, travel agencies and producers. Until or unless the tourist has specific preferences, the travel agency contacts the tour operators and producers with whom it has been dealing with for the past 5 to 10 years. The sources of income of a travel agency are as follows : (a) Commission from Modes of Transport : Travel agencies get commission from various operators of transport services such as airlines, air-conditioned coaches, cruise

64

Travel Agency and Tourism lines, ships, etc. These transport companies give commission on as certain percentages to the agency that books the packages for its clients. Normally, this percentage varies from 2 per cent to 20 Per cent. (b) Commission from Hotels and Tourist Resorts : Travel agencies book hotels on behalf of their clients. This way, they market and sell the hotel services and get commission in return. Thus, they get certain fixed percentage on sales effected by them.

(c ) Commission from Tour Operators : Travel agencies approaches a tour operator for its services on the behalf of its client. It sells the services of a tour operator as a middleman between the tourist and the tour operator. It gets a commission, which is also a part of its income. (d) Services Charges : Travel agencies normally take some service charges when they provide services like visa stamping, traveller’s cheques, etc. from their customers (tourists). Such charges are very nominal and vary from Rs 100 to Rs 250 per task. Different firms charge different prices; we have mentioned the real life figures here, which were charged from clients for tours to the Orient. (e) Profit from Sale of Own Tours : Some travel agencies operate as tour operators in limited areas of tourist interest, called Sectors. Thus, they earn profits from the sales of their own tours. We have already stated that some travel agencies graduate themselves to tour operators after some time. It is quite natural if their operations expand in the domestic and international markets. (f) Incentives : Travel agencies also receive incentives from tour operators. If they are able to sell a fixed number of tour packages in a fiscal year, the tour operator gives them turnover incentives. The amounts of such incentives are mutually decided.

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3 SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAVEL AGENCY Tourism in its present form, which makes millions of people move from their homes in search of a holiday, began by a mere coincidence. It was 1841. Thomas Cook, a very intelligent and active member of a Temperance Society of England, organised a trip by a train for five hundred and seventy members of his Society, to a distance of twenty-two miles. He was the first agent to buy tickets in bulk to sell them back to other people. The experiment was successful and everybody was happy. The cost of the return trip was only one shilling each. Mr. Cook had done this job on a no-profit basis. But, it gave him new ideas. Could he turn it into a business, he wondered. In 1845, Thomas Cook set up a full-time excursion agency to organise excursions. The Railway Company gave him a five per cent commission on sale of tickets which was not adequate to meet all his overheads. So, he decided to diversify. He started operating package tours which included transport, hotel accommodation, sightseeing, guide-services and meals at the other end of the journey.

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Thomas Cook must have been a genius, because he introduced some new businesses which are still in vogue. For instance, he invented the system of travellers’ cheques and hotel vouchers which eliminated payment in cash. Tourists prepaid the cost of their trip and in return got the hotel vouchers, which took care of all the services provided by the hotel, including meals. Hotels, in turn, gave him the commission for bringing in the business. Similarly, the travellers took Cook’s travellers cheques—at that time called circular notes—which were honoured at many establishments and could also be encashed at Thomas Cook offices or banks in the local currency. These were gradually upgraded and have stood the test of time—these have now become the inseparable part of travel and holiday. Now, travellers’ cheques worth billions of dollars are bought and sold everyday all over the world. Travellers’ cheques are a unique phenomenon—only a nominal charge is made for the service but the banks can use the money collected by them and earn interest or make short-term investments. After all, travellers’ cheques are not used immediately. Travellers’ cheques are also insured against loss. The traveller, therefore, does not have to worry about the safe-keeping of his money. Almost at the same time, other travel companies like American Express, were set up in the USA. American Express is now a household name because of its banking and travel activities in almost every country of the world. In credit cards, American Express was the pioneer and still a market leader. While Thomas Cook was the first travel agent and tour operator in the world, several others followed him. They opened their offices in major cities of Europe and America. In India also, we had a few travel agencies in the late nineteenth century, including the offices of the Thomas Cook. In 1878, Thomas Cook brought the first group of rich British tourists to India by the P & O Steamship Company. The group landed in Mumbai, travelled to Agra by train to see the Taj Mahal and also visited the valley of Kashmir.

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In his old age, Thomas Cook became blind and the business passed on to his only son, John. John Cook expanded the business further, and when he died in 1898, Cooks had diversified into selling package tours, banking and shipping. Today, Thomas Cook has a thousand offices in one hundred and forty-five countries of the world. They move about ten million people annually. This is how tourism operates in the world. Across the Atlantic from London, the American Express Company (AMEXO) is perhaps the world’s largest travel company with an international banking network, selling American Express Travellers’ cheques and related banking facilities like the American Express credit cards to tourists and businessmen. This company pioneered the credit card system. The American Express card is perhaps the world’s most cherished and popular card. A credit card entitles the holder to buy anything (up to a given limit) against the card, without having to pay cash. The shops and establishments accepting a credit card, are immediately paid cash by the credit card company’s local office, after deducting a three per cent commission. The company then raises a bill against the credit card holder. The bill has to be paid in ninety days. If the money is not paid within ninety days, interest is charged. Credit cards are issued after due scrutiny of the credit-worthiness of an applicant. People with low credit ratings are not issued such cards. Since the Indian rupee is not a convertible currency as yet, our banks do not issue international credit cards. But some international banking companies now issue credit cards valid all over the world, including foreign currency payments. Most Indian hotels, leading restaurants and many shops dealing with foreign tourists, accept international credit cards like American Express, Visa, Bank of America, Diners’ Club, etc. The travellers can pay for their air-tickets, hotel accommodation, meals and shopping with these credit cards and need not bring any cash. You can appreciate how convenient it is to carry an

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international credit card and international travellers’ cheques. No worry, no fear of falling short of cash or of losing it. The lost card is immediately replaced by any office of the issuing agency. So long as travel was limited to steamships or the railways, the companies did not need travel agents to sell their tickets. They could sell their rail tickets at the stations and steamship tickets at their offices or at the pier. But the advent of aeroplanes changed the travel scene. In the thirties, PAN AM—which subsequently became America’s number one international carrier (it closed its shop in 1991)— was so small that they could not afford to rent an office to sell their tickets. They approached Cooks to let them open a counter in their travel offices and, in return, agreed to give them ten per cent commission on the sale of their tickets, instead of the usual five per cent given to other agents. This is how most airlines discovered travel agents as their marketing arms. Now, some seventy per cent of international and sixty per cent of domestic airlines tickets are sold and issued by travel agents all over the world. Internet has, however, reduced the travel agent’s share. World War II disrupted holiday travel and it was only after the war ended in 1945, that travel and tourism for fun and pleasure restarted. The advent of commercial planes set a new trend because the cost of air travel which was very high in the initial stages, tumbled down with the introduction of larger aircrafts. The three hundred and seventy-five-seater Boeing747 in the seventies brought about a price revolution in travel. Holiday travel by air became cheaper than by sea. The shipping companies started folding up. The railways were replaced, to a great extent, in the USA and Canada by personal cars, and to a lesser extent in Europe. Air travel came within the reach of an average middle class and salaried classes. To fill up the seats in their wide-bodied planes, the airlines needed sales outlets. While in the early fifties there were three thousand travel agency offices worldwide, the number exceeded sixty thousand

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by 1998. About twenty-five thousand of these travel agency offices are in the USA alone. Scheduled airlines flew more than two billion passengers—twenty-five hundred million to be exact— in the year 2000. One can imagine the scale of travel. Nonscheduled or chartered airlines fly another five hundred million people annually.

WHAT

ARE

TRAVEL AGENCIES?

Among travel agents, there are the Wholesalers and Retailers. The wholesalers develop package tours to many a destination and sell them either directly to travellers, or through retail travel agents— small travel agencies operating in each country. Retailers get a ten per cent commission from wholesalers for every package tour sold. The retailers need not make any arrangement for their customers themselves—that is the responsibility of the wholesalers who are in touch with hotels and travel agencies overseas, if it is an overseas package, or within the country if it is a domestic package, for making what in travel agents’ terminology is called ‘ground arrangements’. The tour operators who receive guests and handle arrangements in the host country are called ‘Inbound tour operators’. They service the inbound travellers from foreign countries. Those who promote tours to foreign destinations are called ‘Outbound tour operators’, while those who operate tours only within their own country, are called ‘Domestic tour operators’. Several of them combine both types of businesses. Tour operation is a complicated business—wheels within wheels, each doing its job to make travel trouble-free for the tourists. There is a thin line between the different kinds of travel agencies—big travel agencies often combine all the functions including retail selling. They have several branches in a country. Sometimes they act as wholesalers and permit other travel agencies also to retail their tour packages. Whole-selling is a popular business in countries like the USA where one company may move as many as half a million people in a year. In India,

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it is not so common as yet. Often, wholesalers have their retail outlets as well. With the taking over of large Indian companies like Sita World Travel by Kuonis, a multinational travel company, Whole-selling will be a big business in future. Basically, there are two types of travel agencies: the general travel agency and the specialised travel agency. The general travel agency is a small organisation (two to ten employees) that deals with almost all types of travel and offers nearly every type of travel-related service. The specialised travel agency is a fairly large operation and may specialise in one form of travel, or travel service to a group or a community. In India, most travel agencies belong to the category of general travel agencies. The specialised travel agencies—not very common in India— may specialise in corporate and commercial accounts, exclusively dealing with business travel, organising air tickets, arranging hotel accommodation, car rentals, etc., for corporate executives. The other areas of specialisation are ship or cruise travel, outbound travel, specially in packaging and marketing overseas holidays, organising and promoting conferences and conventions, and creating and catering to an incentive travel market, etc. Some travel agencies confine their business to developing and marketing domestic tours only. This is an excellent business in developed countries and is now becoming profitable in India too.

RELATED ORGANISATIONS Surprisingly, most travel agencies do not charge anything from their clients for their professional services. They survive on commission given by their principals, i.e., airlines, hotels, motels, railways, car rental companies, bus and insurance companies, etc. Where they do not get commissions, they may make a service charge. For instance, the Indian Railways do not give commissions to travel agents. So, a travel agency will add its service charge if a client wants them to buy rail-ticket. However, Indian Railways makes an exception. They permit ten

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per cent commission to travel agents selling Indrail Passes to foreign visitors against foreign currency. They also offer the same commission on sale of Palace on Wheels’ tickets. Commissions to travel agents vary from country to country, depending on the competitive situation. For instance, commissions go up to fifteen per cent and more in the USA where the international airlines are free to offer any commission to make a sale. There is virtually no ceiling on payment of commission due to the policy of deregulation followed by the US Government. But now the airlines are getting wiser and some of them have put a ceiling or ‘Caps’ as they call it. It has made travel agencies less profitable. The scene is changing due to tight economic situation of airlines. In India, we follow the IATA norms—seven per cent commission on international tickets. Till recently, Indian Airlines followed their own rules. They had the monopoly and paid a low four per cent commission. With the entry of private airlines, Indian Airlines now pays five per cent commission—the same as the private airlines. Now, the Government has added its ten per cent tax on the total value of the domestic air ticket, which a travel agent is required to collect. No commission is paid to him by the Government for this service. Tax goes to the Government coffers. Membership of IATA : Although one may find all travel shops calling themselves travel agencies, a dependable travel agency is one displaying the logo of IATA (International Air Transport Association) appointed agent—their symbol is reproduced below. An IATA appointed travel agency is reliable, because such a company has been approved by this international organisation, after due scrutiny of their professional competence and financial reliability. Such agencies have given financial guarantees to the airlines against default. The agencies which are not IATA members, may not be trustworthy because they buy tickets from

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other approved IATA agents, or the general sales agents of airlines and resell these to their clients, sharing a part of the commission with their clients. Their margin is so small that they cannot give good service. Until a travel agency is approved by IATA, it cannot get commissions directly from an international airline. IATA approval does not automatically make an agency eligible for commission from Indian Airlines or private domestic airlines. The IATA approval helps. Airlines, however, have their own rules, regulations and yardsticks for approval.

ASSOCIATIONS

IN INDIA

Most IATA approved travel agents in India, are also members of a national organisation called Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI). Its membership is further proof of their reliability. The TAAI logo displayed in such travel agencies is like an ISI mark, indicating professionalism and reliability. TAAI makes a close scrutiny before accepting new members and expects all its members to follow a code of conduct. The TAAI, has its headquarters in Mumbai and the organisation has seven chapters or branches in major cities of India. The objectives of TAAI are to protect the genuine, and legitimate interests of the professional travel agency members. TAAI membership includes not only travel agencies but also domestic and international airlines, hotels, motels, resorts, etc. At the annual conference of TAAI, called the Indian Travel Congress, they discuss their common problems. TAAI was established in 1950 by a group of eight travel agents led by late Nari. J. Katgara. Membership exceeds two hundred. Indian Federation of Travel Agents : Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), is yet another organisation of India, claiming to represent travel agents. Headquartered in Mumbai, it started as TAAI had very stringent rules for membership. It is now fairly large and both the organisation—TAAI and TAFI— try to work together to protect the interests of travel agents and tour operators.

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Association of Indian Tour Operators : Delhi-based IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators) is the representative organisation of tour operators handling inbound tourism. It is a young and active organisation and has among its members, all those involved in tourism industry, including hotels, transporters, state tourism department and airlines. It holds annual conventions to deliberate over its problems.

ASSOCIATIONS WORLDWIDE At the world level, there is the Universal Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA). Travel Agents Associations of more than one hundred and twenty-one countries, including India’s Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), are members of UFTAA. Travel agency membership exceeds forty-eight thousand. The world body represents the interests and viewpoints of travel agents all over the world, vis-a-vis organisations like IATA and IHRA (International Hotels and Restaurant Association). UFTAA also provides training opportunities to travel agents who are members of this organisation. There are about one thousand five hundred IATA-appointed agencies in India. A few of them have a dozen or more offices all over the country and provide employment to a large number of educated young people. A travel agent tries to give full service to his clients—prepares their itineraries, issues tickets after necessary reservations, arranges passports and visas for international travellers, books hotels at the place or places to be visited by his clients, sells travel insurance and if requested, arranges cars on arrival at the destination. In fact, there is hardly anything which a travel agent cannot do for his client at the other end of the journey, provided the client is in the hands of an experienced travel agency. ASTA : ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) is another major international travel organisation of travel agents. Due to the global nature of travel business, ASTA’s agenda is more

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international now. It permits travel agents from all countries of the world to become its members. While the American members are active members, others are called allied members. Its annual conventions—called World Travel Congress—are attended by seven thousand to eight thousand travel agents every year. It is held one year in the USA and in the alternative year in a foreign country. The participation is so large that a country like India does not have enough hotel rooms in one city, to be able to invite ASTA conference. So far, ASTA has not met in India. Setting up an Agency : For opening a new travel agency, the first important step is to select a proper location. The selection of the location can make the difference between success and failure. Careful attention must be given to the evaluation of different areas with high potential for growth and profits. While selecting the location, the agency owner must choose an area which is appealing and accessible to the types of clientele he wishes to attract. It must be an expanding area or a new suburb with possibilities of growth. It must be convenient to businessmen enroute to or returning from work. The owner must also look at the competition—preferably, there should be less competition in the type of business he wishes to attract. As for budget, the rule of thumb is that rent and utilities should not exceed ten per cent of the projected budget. A travel agency office must be well-designed, neat and attractive. Outdoor signs and window displays are essential features of a good travel agency. Telex, fax and photocopying machines have become an essential part of office equipment. Computer terminals from airlines will have to be rented once business starts growing. More successful travel agencies have back-room computerisation too—for accounting, billing and to follow-up on outstanding payments.

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A new agency is not immediately approved by IATA. It has to function successfully for one year, giving business to airlines. During the first year, the agency does not get the commission, but as soon as it is approved, the commission earned in the past year is paid back. Promotion : Since travel agency business is highly competitive, the management of the agency must have a comprehensive marketing plan to facilitate sale of its services. Under the broad term ‘marketing’, promotion means all the activities undertaken to promote a business and its products and services. It includes the projection of a proper image of the agency and creation of demands for the services of the travel agency. It can be done by personal contacts, through a sales force and advertising. A travel agent sells his services. Sometimes, there may be some malfunctioning somewhere in the long chain of travel, not necessarily due to the fault of the agent. It may be the fault of an airline which did not operate a service on time, or of the hotel which did not honour a reservation due to overbooking. But, the travel agent gets the blame from his clients. It is a business full of tensions. There is an interesting story of a travel agent who died and was face to face with St. Peter. He was trembling and expecting to be confined to hell because he never had time to pray in his lifetime. St. Peter asked, “What was your profession on earth?” “A travel agent, sir.” St. Peter gave a benevolent smile and ordered, “Let him go to heaven. The poor fellow had enough of hell on earth at the hands of his clients.” Role in International Tourism : Travel agencies play a key role in promoting international tourism. In India, only twenty-five per cent of incoming business is handled by established travel

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agencies—mostly groups. Other visitors make independent arrangements. But they should have a larger share and should be helped by the Government to handle more inbound business. The travel agents of India have a good reputation overseas and are known for their efficiency, reliability and hospitality. The National Committee on Tourism set up by the Government of India, underlined the importance of travel agencies in marketing Indian tourism overseas. The Committee said: Considering that the travel trade industry is an important link in the total tourism chain, we recommend that the industry should be extended suitable incentives to help improve its performance. We believe that the activities of the travel trade are in the nature of export services, earning foreign exchange as they do. As such, the industry needs to be given selected fiscal and monetary incentives which are already available to the export industry. Some concessions were extended to travel agents earning foreign exchange in the budget presented by Dr. Manmohan Singh, for the year 1992 - 93. More concessions have been added by the Finance Minister in 1997 and subsequently in 2000. The Committee suggested that travel agents should get the same concessions for earning foreign exchange as the hotel industry. The plants and machinery of the travel agents are cars, coaches, camping, sports and skiing equipment...low customs duty on such equipment should be levied as for project imports. According to an American Express Travel Agency Survey in India, corporate business for travel agents in India is increasing at the rate of ten per cent annually (American Express Survey, 1996). No wonder, therefore, the rate of IATA approved travel agencies folding up in India is one of the lowest, in fact, negligible.

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NEW TRENDS The travel agency scene in the world, specially in the developed countries, is fast changing. Deregulation of civil aviation in the USA, followed by several other countries, brought in a plethora of reduced airfares and tempting commission structures. Lower airfares resulted in expanded business and higher commissions for travel agents. Business has never been so good. In the USA, membership of IATA is no longer necessary to claim commission from IATA or other scheduled carriers. America has set up its own Air Transport Association (ATA) which works closely with IATA. Agent members of ATC—a division of ATA of America— are as good as IATA agents and IATA has endorsed them. Many Governments including those of the USA, UK, Japan and Singapore, have enacted legislation regulating the working of travel agencies to protect the consumers. The regulations insist that new travel agencies will have trained staff, minimum capitalisation and consumer protection insurance, etc. There have been instances of large travel agencies declaring bankruptcies, while hundreds of their clients were travelling in many countries—leaving them high and dry as airlines refused to honour their tickets. In India, there is no legislation regulating travel agencies or protecting travellers. The newly set-up of Consumers Forums can, however, take note of complaints against travel agents. Attracted by new opportunities in expanding travel business, the number of IATA-approved travel agencies has doubled in ten years, from thirty thousand in 1980 to over sixty thousand in 2000, according to an IATA report. Statistics pertaining to the travel agency business in the USA are mind-boggling. In 1995, travel agencies in the USA wrote a record US$45 billion in airlines ticketing—commission payments amounted to US$4 billion. In India, statistics pertaining to legal payment in the form of commissions are seldom

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available— airlines are secretive about it as part of it is often paid under the table. The Indian Airlines which has no reason to be secretive about commission is also reluctant to part with this information in an attempt to expand their area of direct sales at the cost of travel agents. Overall, approved Indian travel agents sell more than sixty per cent of domestic and seventy-five per cent of international tickets. The rest of the selling is done either directly by the Airlines or through their General Sales Agents (GSAs), which have mushroomed everywhere. GSAs are normally appointed by an airline at a place where there are no IATA agents. A GSA sells tickets of only one airline which he represents and operates his office as the Airlines’ own office, entitling him to a higher commission. Over the years, GSAs in India have become an outlet for price-cutting by airlines to beat the competition. They have become experts in cross-border selling—selling across the area of their jurisdiction. Air India, the national carrier, has its GSA in New Delhi where there are more than a score of IATA agents, not setting a very good example for foreign carriers. IATA agents are often hostile to the institution of GSAs because they know that this is a way of taking away their legitimate business from them, by their own principals—the international airlines. Suppliers and Travel Agents : An idea of the suppliers dependence on travel agents can be had from the following table. USA: Estimated percentage of business booked by travel agents-wholesalers Airlines Hotels

60 70 25 75

per per per per

cent cent cent cent

(Domestic) (International) (Domestic) (International)

Significance of Travel Agency Bus Rail30 per cent Rental Car Packaged Tours

79 10 per cent 50 per cent 90 per cent

Source: Travel Industry World Year Book. In India, the suppliers’ dependence on travel agents is a little less. Recent Developments : Deregulation of airlines in the USA in the eighties, enabled airlines to offer any fare to travel agents or consumers. It has led to two new developments in the travel agency distribution system. One is the emergence of Consolidators—business organisations which buy airlines and cruise tickets in bulk at special rates from the principals and offer these at discounted prices to travel agents. The other is Consortium or Co-ops. A Consortium is composed of affiliated travel agencies whose purpose is to enhance the volume sales’ profits of independently-owned travel agencies. This is done by means of group advertising, production of promotional material, educational opportunities, consulting resources, suppliers’ discounts and other aids. This development has occurred to meet the challenge of mega-travel agencies which have a greater bargaining power with the suppliers. A recent example of this development is an arrangement arrived at between North-Western Airlines, Thomas Cook, a mega-travel agency, and Ford Motors whereby Ford personnel are expected to travel by North-Western through Thomas Cook only. North-Western in turn gives a better price to Ford travellers and a higher commission to Thomas Cook. The consortium concept seeks to achieve the same bargaining position for small travel agencies. These concepts have also seeped down to other countries during the first decade of the new millennium.

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In India, Thomas Cook has introduced their bid or buy.com site which offers last minute bargain sales of international tickets as well as holidays—both domestic and international. Many products are on sale. Outbound travellers from India touched four million mark during 2000—up from only 1.9 million in 1991. Till the mid eighties, Indians—particularly the leisure travellers—were discouraged to go abroad and foreign exchange was not released in their favour, if they declared their purpose as leisure. Foreign exchange was only released to travellers declaring their mission as business promotion, official or occasionally medical treatment abroad. The bureaucrats and politicians used the release of foreign exchange as patronage. At one time, Indian travellers could take only US$20 with them if they were on any mission other than business or official. How did they manage with this paltry sum in countries where even the taxi fare from airport to city costs more? Well, either they were sponsored by their friends or relatives abroad or they cheated—collecting US dollars from an intermediate point where they had parked their dollar accounts secretly, or buying it in black market paying more rupees. It was a peculiar philosophy of the Government to save foreign exchange. They encouraged their citizens to cheat. Overseas, Indian travellers were not respected as they acted like beggars. The scene changed a little when in the late seventies, the Government of India allowed US$300 for leisure travellers, later raised to US$500 in three years and some travel agents in India started marketing tours with this amount on shoestring budgets. It became possible as air ticket could be bought in Indian rupees and for sightseeing purposes, buses and trains were used abroad which were relatively less expensive. However, India decided to liberalise its economy in early 1990s. The country achieved an average growth rate of 4.5 per cent annually during this decade, with an accelerated growth

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in the later part of the decade. Allied to a strong economic growth, demand for international travel increased Until 1996, basic travel quota allowed by the Government—(BTQ) remained at US$500. It was increased to US$2000 per year per person in June 2000 and later, further enhanced to US$3000 a year. Now, it is US$5000 a year per person. For business travellers and for those attending conferences or those going for medical treatment, the foreign exchange quota was enhanced to US$25,000—up from US$15,000. The system was further simplified as the release of foreign exchange was administered by designated commercial banks, as a matter of routine and the people did not have to get prior clearance from the Reserve Bank of India or the Government, for foreign exchange quota to travel overseas. It acted as a major stimulus for overseas travel.

WORLD ECONOMY The liberalisation of economy has resulted in greater exposure to the international business community and increased travel among the middle classes, who could afford to travel. There were other factors too—popularity of colour TV in India— with almost every other household having one or two colour TVs at their homes in urban areas. Indian films were shot in far-off foreign destinations like New Zealand, Switzerland and other European countries thereby twelve creating interest in these foreign destinations. The market is now big enough to attract twelve foreign government Tourist Boards to open representative offices in India, to lure Indian citizens to their respective destinations including Great Britain and Australia. The departures from India in the year 2000 were 3,996600—small for the size of a country like India but growing at a fast rate—specially in the leisure segment. The outbound travellers were 3.5 million in 1995 and 3.8 million in 1998. And, about 4 million in 2000.

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PATA Report : The increase in outbound travellers, especially the leisure travellers from India, made Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) sit up and take note. They asked Travel Research International, a research organisation based in UK, to conduct a survey of India’s outbound market for its members. This hundred-page study is a comprehensive survey of the current spread of outbound travel from India and its future potential. The first of its kind, it is an attempt on the part of an international organisation to do such a research on its own. The report, a priced publication, was published in January 2001 and examines India’s present status as an international outbound market, its potential for the future and reasons that deter its faster growth. So far, the focus of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has always been on inbound tourism which earned for the country foreign exchange and India annually spends some US$75 million dollars to lure foreign travellers to this country—not very successfully. In less than a decade, outbound market has left the inbound far behind with the number of foreign inbound travellers pegged at less than 2.6 million in 2000 and outbound touching four million. India’s balance of trade in tourism is now in the red. Indian travellers abroad are respected as their average spending is more than that of citizens of affluent countries. According to official statistics of Singapore, the average Indian spending in that country exceeds that of the US visitors. Famous Foreign Destinations : PATA Report estimates that out of the four million outbound travellers, thirty-five per cent were leisure travellers which includes a sizeable chunk who fall in the category of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR). And among the VFRs, the USA and UK have the largest share. Other popular destinations are nearer home—Singapore, Thailand, UAE, Nepal and Hong Kong, in that order. One reason for Indians opting for foreign destinations nearer home is perhaps

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the high price tag of air tickets for domestic air travel. The Government of India, for reasons of its own, keeps the price of air tickets for travel in India high to an extent that it is now cheaper for Indian citizens to travel to Singapore or Bangkok from Delhi, than from Delhi to Cochin or Chennai. Naturally, they prefer foreign destinations. Tickets to these destinations are cheaper because of intense competition among foreign carriers.

PURPOSE

OF

TOUR

Pure outbound leisure tourism in India is still in its infancy but it has grown out of all recognition compared with ten years ago and continuing to increase at a rate of fifteen to twenty per cent annually. According to an International Passenger Survey done on behalf of the Government of India in 1996 - 97, thirty per cent of the outbound tourists were travelling for businessrelated purposes, twenty per cent were visiting friends and relatives, thirteen per cent were joining their families, thirteen per cent went for employment and only thirteen per cent declared their purpose as pure leisure. India being a vast country, purpose also varies from region to region depending on the nature of the people. Most leisure travellers came from metro cities but the share of smaller towns was not insignificant. The impact of liberalisation of the economy is spread all over the country. PATA report estimates that at present some twenty-five million Indians are affluent enough to be able to afford overseas holidays. With only four million Indians travelling abroad, the potential is six times more and it is rising with levels of incomes going up in the country. Within the broad spectrum of outbound travel, the composition of the outbound market has changed radically in recent years. Business travel has changed from being a market composed primarily of businessmen and entrepreneurs pursuing business opportunities within the region, to encompass incentive

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and conference travel, as well as long-haul trips for increasing number of Indian companies with offices overseas on the one hand and multinational companies based in India on the other. Indian as well as multinational companies sponsor incentive travel holidays for their good workers or salesmen, or hold seminars and training programmes for their staff abroad. Travel Corporation of India (TCI), one of the largest travel outfits in India, reported sending eight thousand Indians in one year, representing white goods manufacturers—automobile and pharmaceutical sectors. Air India reported that such groups could vary from two hundred to UK, to five hundred to Singapore. American Express has estimated that business travel out of India is worth more than US$1 billion a year. Existence and Survival : Only eight years ago, travel agency industry worldwide was in a state of euphoria as profits were soaring, business was up, commissions were high and airlines wooed the travel agents as their main source for higher sales. The number of travel agency outlets all over the world was increasing at a fast rate. Almost at the same time, an internet Guru, Dr. Nicholas Nagarpente, predicted at the annual convention of PATA in Auckland, that three years from now people will be able to make direct bookings of all their travel plans by moving one finger on the mouse of their personal computers. Since then, the business of internet has increased at a fast pace leaving everyone amazed. Travel is an information-based industry, already exposed to computers for twenty years and the impact of internet on this business is most marked. A downhill trend in travel agency business worldwide is already evident. Many travel agents have taken advantage of the challenge posed by internet and started their own websites, reaching a much larger audience. ASTA conducted a research study of the member travel agents and discovered that sixty-seven per cent of their members were now charging fees for their services as

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commission income was not adequate, thus making up the loss due to capping of travel agency commissions. Again, the travel business worldwide has grown from an average of three to five per cent annually. According to the Travel Industry of America (TIA) survey, the business conducted on the Net in 1997 was US$900 million while the total travel business in the country was estimated to be US$500 billion. By 2002, TIA estimated the business on the Net will soar to US$9 billion but the overall travel business in the USA may well be nearer to 800 billion US$. The business on the Net will thus be only 1.2 per cent of the total travel business, leaving the rest to travel agency players—enough for everyone to have his share of the cake. Role and Significance of Internet : In today’s marketplace, it is necessary to talk about internet as a channel of distribution. It makes direct selling from suppliers to the consumers easy and hassle-free. The internet is an evolving communications tool with greater potential than any of its predecessors. Information technology is beneficial to every major principles like airlines, hotel chains who can market their products worldwide on their websites; the tour operators can market their destinations. National Tourist Organisations can have their websites to expose tourist attractions of their countries; individual travel agents can showcase their products—fair chance to all the players. But it is only the travel agent who can add value and pleasure to the product. We were, therefore, not surprised to read a research paper which revealed that for every person ecstatic about booking on the Net, there were many more who were frustrated by the vast data and bewildering information which their head could not digest. Another IATA research further tells us that of the five passengers who book globally, four come through travel agents—not very different than what was happening thirty years ago. Again, only one in five explores the surf for information—but only one in ten actually books.

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E-commerce is coming of age; in fact, it is doubling every three months. Creating this growth are supplier’ websites and internet booking services such as Microsoft Expedia, Sabre’s Travelocity, Internet Travel Network, Preview Travel, American Express and Travel Web, etc. These are full service mega sites doing business in millions. Most airlines too have mega sites but they only give their schedules and prices. They do not give comparative prices. This difficulty is overcome by sites like, www.travelocity.com, which gives comparative prices as well as airline schedules. There are several other websites offering similar services. Although the impact of internet on travel agency business is going to affect it adversely in the long run, the travel agent will not be out of business. European budget hotels are some of the best beneficiaries of the internet revolution— receiving bookings from all over the world from travellers wanting economical accommodation. According to Cyrus Gazdar, former President of the Travel Agents Association of India and a leading expert on new technology, by 2005 the revenue of travel agents from travel agency commissions will come down by fifty per cent. Scene in India : India is one country where IATA discipline still holds. Though the price war has left no standard tariffs— all airlines are offering major discounts to sell their seats including those with excellent reputation as dependable carriers. Another innovation in the Indian market is the emergence of consolidators, appointed by airlines to offer cut-throat prices. Consolidators are bulk-buyers of airlines seat who then retail it to individuals as well as travel agents, keeping a small margin for themselves. Another new institution to reappear in India will be travel agent Co-ops or Consortia as in USA. It may be in the offing as the industry reshapes. The number of IATA-affiliated travel agencies in India has not declined, in fact it has increased from one thousand two hundred two years ago to about one thousand five hundred at

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present. Travel business in India is increasing at a good rate— five per cent annually. Outbound business is even better, the shortage of airlines seats make travel agents kind of indispensable. Adi Katgara, Director TCI, expressed his anguish at airlines policy to introduce consolidators, throwing away their seats to beat each other in preference to regular IATA travel agents who worked for them for small commissions. Now, they end up paying higher commissions unprecedented in the history of Indian travel industry. Another development in Indian travel industry is the merger or amalgamation of large Indian travel outfits with much larger multinationals. The trend was started by Airfreight Ltd. with Carlson, followed by Sita Travels joining the Kuonis. This is an indication of the shape of things to come and we can predict more mergers, but it is good for the travel industry of India. Both our inbound and outbound tourism will grow. An Analysis TCI of India : The Travel Corporation of India with its headquarters in Mumbai, is India’s largest travel agency in terms of financial turnover, offices in India and abroad, and the staff employed. July 1961 was a watershed year for the travel trade in India. It marked the merger of three leading Indian travel agencies, Jeena & Co., Lee & Muirhead (India) Pvt. Ltd. and N. Jamnadas & Co., to form the Travel Corporation (India) Ltd. Since then, TCI has pioneered new areas in tourism and helped thousands of tourists to discover India and other parts of the world. Along the way, they have earned on behalf of the Indian exchequer, millions of dollars in foreign exchange, collected many prestigious tourism awards and secured a global reputation as successful travel agents. It has won the Government of India’s National Tourism Award around fourteen times.

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Complete Travel Shop : TCIs services range from international and domestic ticketing to travel documentation and hotel reservations. Their exclusive “Speedotel” service assures instant room reservations at over seventy hotels all over India. TCI has its own fleet of the latest air-conditioned and non-airconditioned deluxe coaches and limousines. TCI are agents for India’s extensive rail network, Indrail passes. They are also special representatives of Eurail, Japan Rail, Amtrak, Greyhound and Cosmos in India. TCI has an annual turnover of Rs 2500 million. It has over a thousand professionals in its twenty-seven offices in India and twelve sales offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, New York, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto and Beunos Aires. TCI has achieved international recognition and is a member of almost all major international travel trade associations. It represents more than a thousand international tour operators. TCI has achieved distinction through its innovative efforts. It was often first with new travel ideas, like exploring and developing new areas for tourism like Sikkim, Bhutan, Lakshadweep Islands, Andaman Islands and Ladakh, promoting India as a conference destination and pioneering cruises in the Indian Ocean; introducing air charters and developing incentive and special interest tours to India. TCI was the first to offer scuba-diving facilities in India at its Andaman Beach Resort, achieving the position of an undisputed leader in its field. Due to their large volume of business with hotels and airlines, TCI is in a position to get better rates for their clients.

INBOUND SALE

AND

PURCHASE

In promoting inbound business, TCI has been very innovative. For instance, they were one of the first agencies to introduce special interest tours. A fantastic variety of special interest tours is offered. Among these are:

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Anthropology

Yoga

Archaeology

Angling

Architecture

Biking

Astrology

Desert Safari

Buddhism

Golf

Cuisines

Hang Gliding

Fairs and Festivals

Heli-skiing

Horticulture

Rock Climbing

India by Rail

Scuba Diving

Museums

Skiing

Ornithology

Trekking and Mountaineering

Palaces

Water Sports

Photography

White-water-rafting

Gems and Jewellery

Wild-life

Shopping

INCENTIVES

FOR

TRAVELLING

Another area of their specialisation is incentive travel to India. Incentive travel tours are luxurious travel programmes offered by major international companies as rewards to their best workers. TCI designs their programme in India with great care and imagination, adding special touches like the flowers and sandalwood welcome, elephant and camel rides, mock Indian weddings, folk and classical dances, palmistry, magic shows, juggling and other folk entertainment. Lavish banquets and theme parties are organised in chandelier-lit ballrooms of Maharajas’ palaces and royal gardens. Sometimes, desert camps are organised for guests. Hospitality for each group is different. Bazaars and fashion shows are also organised. Special souvenirs, video films and photo albums pertaining to their visit are gifted to clients.

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GLOBAL CONVENTIONS International conferences are also an area where TCI has done a good job. They have set up a special conference management cell to undertake the handling of international and national conferences with precision. Their services include selection of conference venues, hotel and airline reservations, local transportation, sightseeing, pre-and post-conference tours and all the supporting services required for the smooth operation of an international or national conference. Air Charters and Cruise Ships : TCI has pioneered the development of tourist air charters to India. With the liberalisation of the Government of India’s regulations on charter movement, TCI is now handling tourist charters from UK, Germany and Scandinavia. Similarly, TCI handles ground arrangements for many luxury liners calling on Indian ports, looking after their tour and travel arrangements while these ships berth in Mumbai, Chennai Goa or Cochin ports. Searching New Spots : Discovering new areas for tourism has been a tradition with TCI. They were the first agency to discover the potential of both Andaman as well as the Lakshadweep Islands. TCI built the Andaman Beach Resort, the first deluxe resort in Port Blair in 1978, opening up the area for international tourism. It was the first to introduce cruises in the Indian Ocean in 1974. They have ambitious plans to develop more cruises to South-East Asia, Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Ladakh was yet another area which TCI promoted and brought on the international tourist map. India Outbound : TCI is a major promoter of overseas holidays, tailored for Indians and is one of the largest outbound tour operators of the country. TCI’s “Funtours” are carefully planned and include accommodation at first class hotels, offering Indian vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals, transportation by deluxe coaches and sightseeing with knowledgeable local guides.

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Every tour is accompanied by a trained and experienced TCI tour escort. Destinations include Europe, UK, USA, South-East Asia, South-East Africa, Mauritius, Maldives, Nepal, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Dubai and Australia. Every year thousands of Indians make use of their services for overseas holidays.

TOURISM

IN

INDIA

TCI is also active in domestic tourism, though it is not their strongest area. Specially designed for the Indian holiday market, the TCI’s “24 Carat Indian Holidays” are flexible and economical packages to popular holiday destinations like Goa, Shimla, Kulu-Manali, Darjeeling, Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Kerala, Andaman Islands, Lakshadweep Islands, Mahabalipuram and Delhi-Agra-Jaipur. During the four decades of its existence, TCI has grown from strength to strength mainly due to its creative marketing approach to tourism. In promoting international tourism to India, TCI has several firsts to its credit. It was the first Indian travel agency to open offices overseas. It responded to the needs of the market and wherever it found potential, it opened an office. For instance, it opened its office in Tokyo immediately after the Japanese started travelling overseas in the mid-sixties. Now, it has opened an office in Beuros Aires to tap the tourist potential from South America. TCI is also one of the first to introduce automation in its operations and put up its website: www.tcindia.com to market tourism services worldwide. The success of any modern travel agency depends upon its ability to respond to the needs of customers—TCI seems to follow that golden rule. To summarise most leisure travel business today revolves around travel agents and tour operators. They promote and sell all kinds of travel and travel-related services to the public. The travel agency business is not very old. The first travel agency was set up by Thomas Cook in the year 1845, as he

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discovered accidentally that packaging of travel services could be a profitable business. He also introduced travellers’ cheques and hotel vouchers, eliminating the need of cash in travel. Today, there are over sixty thousand travel agencies appointed by IATA and perhaps the same number which do not have the official approval. In India, there are only one thousand five hundred IATA-appointed travel agencies, but several of them have more than one office. Travel agencies are of two kinds: one, the general services travel agency which undertakes all kinds of travel and travelrelated business and two, specialised travel agencies specialising in business travel, conventions and conferences, incentive travel, outbound or inbound travel. Travel agencies can be further subdivided into wholesalers and retailers, but several of them combine both functions. Among the services provided by travel agencies are airlines, rail and cruise reservations, booking of hotels and rent-a-car vehicles at the other end of the journey, developing and marketing overseas and domestic package holidays, organising conferences/conventions, entertainments/ sports, developing incentive tours, insurance, etc. Their main source of profits is from the commissions earned from their principals like airlines, hotels, steamship companies, car rental companies and railways. To open a new travel agency, it is important to select a location, which is easily accessible to the type of customers whom it wishes to attract. To make it profitable, the owner has to get IATA and other licences in the first year of its operation. Only then is an agency entitled to get commissions from international airlines. New technologies like the computerised Central Reservation System (CRS) has made the task of travel agencies easier and more profitable. With a touch of a few buttons, they can hand over the entire itinerary to a client duly printed. But a newer technology-communications through internet opens new

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horizons. It may help travel agents further but it also threatens their very existence. Any person owning a personal computer can access any travel information through internet, make reservations and is already in a position to pay by fibre cash. There are at present five million internet connections in India but within the next few years there may be several million. Payment through internet may take time to reach India but Lufthansa Guman Airlines has announced that a potential traveller could do any travel transaction with the help of their ‘Smart Card’ through internet on all their flights as well as the flights of seven hundred other airlines through their Reservation System. Other airlines are not far behind. Due to recent liberalisation of the Indian economy, and relaxation of foreign exchange restrictions, Indians are travelling overseas in large numbers. The outbound business today is more than inbound—four million against 2.6 million inbound. The balance of trade in tourism is no longer in India’s favour. It helps Indian trade, industry, exports and expands educational horizons. Several foreign government have opened their tourist offices in India to lure Indians to travel to their lands—a healthy competition. We should welcome that. PATA has done a survey on India’s outbound tourism. According to its estimates, twenty-five million Indians are today in a position to afford foreign travel. Only four million are travelling, leaving a vast potential untapped.

TRAVEL AGENT’S ROLE Consumer is the ultimate tourist who buys the package tour as offered by the wholesaler through the retailer. Retailer is one who is in actual contact with the consumer. There are two types of retailers: (a) Captive retailers who belong to the wholesale agent and will sell only his tour programmes, (b) Independent retailers who will sell tour programmes of various wholesalers. These retailers display brochures of tour

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programmes and sell such programmes through limited advertising, direct mail (which means sending letters and brochures to identified prospective consumers) and through personal selling. These retailers receive commissions from the wholesaler of 10-20% of the total cost of the programme. Wholesaler is often referred to as Tour Operator. The wholesaler puts together a tour programme after negotiating prices with principals like the airlines for airlines seats, hotels for rooms and meals and surface transporters who operate taxi and tourist coach facilities from airport to hotel and back and travel to other destinations in the city and outside. He may approach these principals either directly or through travel agents. He invests money in printing and distributing brochures to various destinations and undertakes trade or consumer advertising. He may sell tour programmes through his own retail outlets or through independent outlets. The risk in his business is high, but returns of success are phenomenal. Travel Agent : The travel agent operates in the local market and possesses necessary licences to represent the important domestic carriers such as airlines, railways, steamship and road transport. He may be the official ground handling agent at a destination for the wholesaler who appoints him to negotiate prices on his behalf with principals such as hotels, domestic airlines and surface transporters. The travel agent earns his revenue through commissions received from the principals and a mark-up on prices quoted to the wholesaler. Most travel agents act as wholesalers in the domestic market for outbound tours. They are also in cargo business. Principals : These are institutions in the tourism infrastructure which own independent businesses. Principals are international airlines, hotels, domestic airlines and surface transporters. Surface transporters could be taxi/tourist coach agencies, railways and shippers. Principals give commissions to travel agents who get them business.

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Duties of Travel Agent 1. Receive requests from wholesale operators to plan itineraries both for groups and individuals in his country/ region. 2. Negotiate with surface transporters to provide taxis/ coaches for transport from airport to hotel, sightseeing tours or inter-city transportation. 3. Negotiate with hotels for reasonable room and meal package price plus other services if required. 4. Negotiate with domestic airlines and railways for cheap rates of inter-citytransportation by the most economical route. 5. Negotiate with art centres for cultural entertainment. 6. Coordinate with various tourist centres for sightseeing tours. 7. Cost all points 2 to 6 above and offer a package price to a wholesaler. Travel agents also advise on baggage insurance, the best season for travel, clothing required, local foreign exchange rules and help in preparing travel documents like visas, health, passport, etc. In the role of a wholesaler to the local domestic market, they will deal with all principals in creating attractive tour packages domestically and abroad for identified segments in the market. They take the responsibility to promote these tour packages through advertisements, direct mail or personal selling. To ensure that clients receive satisfactory standards, travel agents have also gone into transportation which makes them part principals in their own right. Travel agents undertake on a day-to-day basis to book/ make reservation on behalf of clients’ seats on airlines, railways, steamship and taxis/coaches on a commission basis.

4 MOTIVATION

FOR

TRAVELLING

Human behaviour can be understood by determining the motives, drives, or concerns which are being satisfied by the action, and secondly by the attitudes and information that the person uses to decide what response he should make in a given situation. A motive can be defined as a person’s basic predisposition to reach for or strive towards a particular goal or combination of goals. Attitude, on the other hand, is a more restricted or a confined concept. It can generally be conceived of as an inner factor predisposing one to react positively or negatively towards particular objects, acts or institutions. A person’s disposition or attitude towards an object is likely to be depend upon the basic motives with which the object is associated and the degree to which the object is perceived as instrumental in satisfying or blocking these motives. The question of motivation is basically the question of ‘why’. Why does Mr. X go to a temple every day? Why does his brother go on a strike and parade in the picket line four hours a day? Why does Mr X’s aunt religiously observe all the cultural taboos? Why has his cousin complained against him to his employers?

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The answers to all the above questions are usually given in terms of individual motivations. These are because Mr. X seeks social approval, his brother seeks more benefits from his employer, his aunt seeks status and security and his cousin seeks to express his open resistance against the family of Mr. X. Besides some kind of an active driving force, in any account of the behaviours of people, has an important role. The individual needs, the individual wants, the individual fears, these play a commanding role in deciding individual motivations. The study of the relationships between these two variables, the driving force and the object or condition towards which that driving force is directed, is the study of the dynamics of behaviour and motivation. The basic principles or dynamics accounting for the behaviour of going to a temple, joining a particular association, seeking status and security etc., are the same, no matter how simple or how complex the activity. In order to make accurate predictions of individual behaviour and in increasing our understanding of social phenomenon, certain questions need to be answered. The questions such as what induces these driving forces of wanting, seeking, fearing in the individuals? What determines for different individuals the specific nature of the objects or conditions towards which these driving forces are directed? What happen, for instance, when an individual, no matter how strong the driving force, fails to achieve his goal? To know the answer to these questions, certain other important questions arise. Does each individual have similar wants, needs and fears? Can an individual’s wants, needs and fears be altered or changed? Can one goal be substituted for another goal to satisfy the same want? How can individual conflicting demands be resolved? The answers to all these questions’ involve basic principles of perception, thinking and learning as well as that of motivation.

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TRAVELLING MOTIVATORS Before analysing various travel motivators, it is necessary to recapitulate as to how the evolution of demand for tourism came into being. Tourism and holiday making are only a part of the much wider field of leisure. Increased leisure, however, is an important factor in the growth and development of tourism and is likely to stimulate tourist demand. The implications of the growth of leisure in the twentieth century are manifold. Prior to the industrial revolution, it was only the aristocratic class who were able to afford leisure and had virtually a monopoly of it. The leisure activities of the artisan class were, however, confined to their homes and within the limits of the town. Longer holidays for them were not known. Gradually, as time passed and the working conditions improved, the workers were able to get more leisure time and managed to arrange short holidays. The first significant change, however, came in England in the year 1871 when Sir John Lubbock’s Bank Holiday Act came into force. The Bank Holiday Act introduced the “August Bank Holiday” break to give four recognised annual public holidays to the workers. As the tempo of industrialisation grew, so did the workers’ demand for more leisure time. Holidays gradually became an essential part of amenities for the working classes. Various acts were passed by which it became obligatory on the part of the management to grant holidays to its employees. However, it was a gradual introduction of the system of ‘holidays with pay’ which heralded the era of what is today known as “mass tourism”. Increased leisure alone is not sufficient in the evolution of the demand for tourism. There are, in fact, many socio-economic factors which are important. These factors include: (a) Income; (b) Mobility; (c) Age; (d) Education; (e) Sex; (f) Travel cost. Income is, therefore, the second important factor in the evolution of demand, after leisure. Level of income forms an

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important factor in influencing tourism as well as participation in recreational pursuits. The more affluent members of the society are the ones who travel most. Mobility is the third important factor in the evolution of demand. With the advancement of modes of transport, the mobility has increased greatly. People are no longer restricted to a particular holiday centre as they tended to be when they mostly travelled by train. The communication systems have advanced tremendously. With the building of the new and fast roadway networks, the mobility has certainly increased manifold. There are also great advances made in air travel, more particularly for overseas holiday-making. Tourists now can reach far off holiday areas in a matter of hours. Age and sex also affect demand. More and more younger people are taking holidays now. Younger groups participate more in travel because of more income. Education is yet another important socio-economic factor which influences the demand for travel. Broadly speaking, the better educated members of the population have higher propensity to travel. Besides, those with better education, travel more often. Cost is another crucial factor which influences the demand for travel. Holidaying abroad is particularly influenced by it. The price levels for various tourist services are specially significant. Countries receiving tourists should be able to compete with the costs of holidays in the generating countries. In Europe, a large number of tourists are attracted to Spain, Italy and France. In fact, these three countries receive the maximum number of tourists. One of the reasons for this is the low cost of Spanish and Italian holidays. Germany and Holland, on the other hand, do not receive as many tourists because of the high cost of food and accommodation. In South-east Asia, Singapore and Bangkok offer low-cost holidays and, therefore, are very popular among tourists.

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS Socio-economic factors like income, mobility, age, education and cost are thus crucial in the evolution of demand. Together with leisure, these are responsible for determining the growth of international tourism. The most comprehensive list of factors influencing the growth of tourism, however, comes from Louis Erdi of the Swiss Federal University. The list includes: (i) Greater affluence and more leisure for an increasing number of people, particularly in the developed countries. (ii) The emancipation of the young, and the relatively higher wages they possess (when they have no family responsibilities), enabling them to travel. (iii) Transport facilities, especially air, very much better and cheaper, and there is a high rate of car ownership. (iv) An enormous growth in international business, necessitating travel. (v) Package tours allow people, not used to making their own arrangements, to travel with an easy mind, and are good value because of bulk buying of transport and hotel accommodation. (vi) Relief from adverse climatic conditions in the home country may be found abroad. (vii) Travel has become a status symbol. (viii) Conferences and business meetings are proliferating. (ix) Better education has interested a large section of the public in-cultural tourism. (x) World exhibitions and trade fairs have become very popular. (xi) Publicity has become more and more aggressive, whetting the appetite of even those most unwilling to travel.

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(xii) Ideological pressure groups (Political, Cultural, Scientific, etc.) organise more and more annual conventions and conferences etc.

MOTIVATION OBJECTIVES Without people’s motivation to travel, there would be no tourist industry. The prospective traveller’s selection of a destination is sometimes likened to a trip to a travel supermarket, where the shopper walks in and selects the destination from any one of the thousands of choices. Although there are hundreds of thousands of possible destinations, the perspective of the traveller is usually circumscribed by a number of factors. These include time, attitude, family responsibilities, finance, education, physical health and well-being. The basic question of motivation as applicable in different fields can similarly be applied to travel. Why do some people travel and not others? Why one particular member in a family takes to travel while others do not? Why in a particular country or a region, more people engage in tourism activity than in another? The answers to all these questions have been explained in the preceding paragraphs. Several Studies concerning psychology and motivation for tourism have shown that individuals normally travel for more than one reason. Tourism is the outcome of a combination of motives or motivators. Travel motivators can be defined as those factors that create a person’s desire to travel. Motivators are the internal psychological influences affecting individuals choices. Motivations operate on individuals travel purchase choices within the framework already set by the determinants of demand. Several attempts have been made to study as to why people wish to travel or become tourists. McIntosh has stated that basic travel motivators may be grouped into the following three broad categories. Physical Motivators : These are related to physical

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relaxation and rest, sporting activities and specific medical treatment. All the above are concerned with the individual’s bodily health and well-being. Interpersonal Motivators : These are related to a desire to visit and meet relatives, friends or forge new friendships, or simply to escape from the routine of everyday life. Status and Prestige Motivators : These are identified with the needs of personal esteem and personal development. These motivators also relate to travel for business or professional interests, for the purpose of education or pursuit of hobbies. Motivations for travel cover a broad range of human behaviour and experiences. Breaking down and elaborating these will give reasons as to why more and more people engage in tourism. The breakdown of broad categories would include the following sub categories :

SOMETHING

TO BE

DONE

Getting away from the routine of every day life is perhaps the most important motive of all in recent times. The individuals desire and need for pure pleasure is very strong. An individual likes to have fun excitement and a good time whenever possible. The significance of the pleasure factor is widely utilized by travel agents and tour operators who are astute psychologists when it comes to selling tours. Various brochures and folders particularly emphasise the pleasure aspect of holidays and travel. Relaxation, Rest and Recreation : Industrialisation and urbanisation has created great pressures on modern living. The stress and strain of modern city life has made it more necessary than ever before for people to get away from all this and relax in an atmosphere which is more peaceful and healthy. Relaxation is very essential to keep the body and mind healthy. There may be various forms of relaxation and rest. To some it is secured by a change in the environment. Others seek relaxation in seeing new places, meeting strangers and seeking new experiences.

.

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Health : The development of spas during the Roman Empire was the result of people’s desire to seek good health. The subsequent establishment of many sanatoria in Switzerland was the result of an awareness of the various benefits of good health. These sanatoria laid the foundations for future resort developments. Many travel to spas-and clinics for curative baths and medical treatment. In some countries like Italy, Austria and Germany in Europe, great importance is given to spa treatment. In the Russian rederation along the Black Sea coast and in the foothills of the Caucasus, there are numerous world-famous sanatoria where every year millions of Russian citizens and international tourists come and avail of the facilities. Participation in Sports : There has been an increasing participation in a wide variety of sporting activities such as mountaineering, walking, skiing, sailing, fishing, sunbathing, trekking, surf-riding, etc. More and more people these days are taking holidays involving physical activities. In recent years there has been a big increase in sporting holidays. The visitors go to places primarily to indulge in a sporting activity to which all their energies are directed. Curiosity and Culture : An increasing number of people are visiting different lands, especially those places having important historical or cultural associations with the ancient past or those places holding special art festivals, music festivals, theatre and other cultural events of importance. Curiosity has been one of the major reasons for tourism. There has always been curiosity in man about foreign lands, people and places. In the present day world, technological developments in the area of mass media have made it possible for people to read, see and hear about different places. The increasing interest shown by many in architecture, art, music, literature, folklore, dance, paintings and sports, in other people’s culture or in archaeological and historical remains and monuments, is but another aspect of man’s curiosity to seek

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more knowledge. This curiosity has been stimulated by more education. International events like Olympic Games, Asian Games, national celebrations, exhibitions, special festivals, etc. attract thousands of tourists. Ethnic and Family : This includes visiting one’s relatives and friends, meeting new people and seeking new friendships. A large number of people make travel for interpersonal reasons. There is considerable travel by people wanting to visit friends and relatives. A large number of Americans visit European countries in order to see their families or because they feel they are visiting their homeland. Every year thousands of people visit India for ethnic reasons. Many friendships have been made as a result of holiday acquaintances. Spiritual and Religious : Travel for spiritual reasons has been taking place since a long time. Visiting religious places has been one of the earliest motivators of travel. A large number of people have been making pilgrimages to religious or holy places. This practice is widespread in many parts of the world. In the Christian world, for instance, a visit to Jerusalem or the Vatican is considered to be very auspicious. In the Arab-Muslim world, the pilgrimage to Mecca or some other holy centres is considered to be a great act of faith. In India there are many pilgrimage centres and holy places of all the major religions of the world where every year a large number of pilgrims from all over the world congregate. Status and Prestige : This relates to ego needs and personal development. Many people undertake travel with a view to talk about it to their relatives and friends. They like to impress them by relating their experiences in the various places visited. They also travel because they think it is fashionable to do so and, perhaps, show that they can afford to do it. ‘Foreign tour’ is a magic word and people like to mention it to their friends and other acquaintances.

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Professional or Business : Attending conventions and conferences related to the professions, industry or commerce or to some organisation to which the individual belongs has become very popular. The ‘convention travel’ has made great strides in recent times. Many countries, in order to attract more tourists, have established grand convention complexes where all kinds of modern facilities are provided for business meetings, seminars and conventions. Large hotels also provide facilities for conventions as a large number of people travel for business and professional reasons. Conventions and conferences associated with education, commerce, industry, politics and various professions are increasingly being held in various parts of the world. Although some people travel strictly for business purposes, the majority link business travel with pleasure. Professor Krapf cites in his summary to the history of tourism a series of motivations which he considers as the determining impulses of tourism in the past and present. As the first motivating factor, Krapf mentions the exploration of the close and distant neighbourhood. If we proceed from the fact that foreign lands and people were originally looked upon as dangerous and even hostile, it is obvious that considerable personal courage was required to visit or confront them. Only a strong man with initiative could dare to forsake the security of the family or the clan and travel to nearby or distant places. The second motivation advanced by Krapf is divine service. Originally this also implied an exceptional social position for it was a prerogative reserved for priests to visit places considered as abodes of the deities and it was only gradually that the worldly high-ranking persons were able to approach them. The same held true for the third motivation which is participation in events of religious or secular authority. Such participation was again reserved for the selected few, i.e., those of higher social positions. The utilisation of natural medical

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cures or journeys to watering-places, as the fourth motivating factor, is again characterised by being restricted to particular social classes, at first the nobility and later the well-to-do bourgeoisie. Here the restriction flowed from the fact of long distances and the related high costs of travel and sojourn. The final motive force mentioned by Krapf is the enjoyment of nature which must however be regarded as of relatively late validity at a time when men began to take pleasure in nature and did not look upon it as something to be taken for granted or even, to some extent, dangerous. It was the intellectual call for a “return to Nature” which first exercised the spell and made trips into what is now considered as “magnificent Nature”, a favourite social practice. But here again the high costs resulted in this practice being restricted to the well-off, that is the higher social classes. Thus we see that there is no ground for modifying the argument that the spread of the need to travel outside one’s habitual place has its roots in the striving for social influence and that the expansion of tourism or the satisfaction of this need is the logical consequence of social progress. The democratisation of travel, this being formerly a sign of distinction, developed through holiday stays, the travel flow which we encounter at present. Consequently, we must enlarge the test of motivations drawn up by Professor Krapf with a tourist motivation, namely, the enjoyment of travel. It is not the fact of sojourning but of motion, not the destination but the journey, the innumerably multifarious, though often momentary impressions, which account for a part of modern tourism. It is the joy in motion, especially motorised motion, which has become a major motivating force while the landscape which is traversed has become a side-scene. Some of the motivations cited in respect of modern tourism are enumerated as follows: (a) The exploration of the close and distant neighbourhood, knowing other countries, regions or people, and also travel for studies and cultural ends.

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(b) Divine service as a travel motivating force subsists in journeys to sacred religious places and in pilgrimages. (c) Participation in events of religious or secular authority manifests itself today in the form of travel to political meetings and ceremonies. (d) The utilisation of natural medical cures comprises in the widest sense all travel undertaken with the object of rest and relaxation, medical care or treatment of diseases. (e) Travel for the enjoyment of the beauties of the landscape has undergone modifications both in the conception of what is beautiful and in the expression of sentiment. (f) A further motive force of tourism is constituted by sports travel. This includes travel for the sake of travelling, the joy in motion. In fact, this is only one sports activity projected on the travel scene in addition to the numerous other motive forces connected with sports for which landscape and nature provide the setting for the best possible practice and exercise of sports. Several reasons as to why people wish to become tourists have been considered. In considering the reasons we are thus dealing with the motivations. After examining the motivations two broad distinguishable groups of travellers emerge. The first group consists of those who have to visit a particular place and includes businessmen and some elements of those who may be described as common interest travellers such as those visiting relatives and friends. The decision to travel, when and where to go, how much to spend, etc., is to a greater or lesser extent outside the control of this group of travellers. They are also less influenced by price or distance factor. Particularly business travel is relatively priceinelastic and is not susceptible to price inducements. The second group consists of tourists in the pure sense who have a freedom of choice. This group decides for themselves whether they should apply a part of their income and a part of their leisure

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time to participate in tourism. They also decide for themselves where and when to go. The demand for travel for this group as compared to the demand for the former group is highly priceelastic, that is susceptible to price inducements. The reasons for travel away from home in the case of businessmen and others in the first group are self-evident. Each may, indeed, be marginally influenced by those considerations which affect the second group, the pleasure travellers. This may be reflected in the frequency of visits or the consideration of alternatives as, for example, in the choice of venues for conventions and conferences. In pleasure or holiday travel on the other hand, the reasons are varied and not always clearly evident or easily identifiable. The prime motive to engage in tourism is to be ‘elsewhere’ and to escape, however temporarily, from the routine and stress and strains of everyday life. From this prime motivation two principal and distinct motivations may be stipulated as dominant. These have been described by Professor Gray as: 1. Wanderlust; 2. Sunlust. Wanderlust describes the desire to exchange the known for the unknown or familiar with the unfamiliar, to leave things familiar and to go and see different places, people and cultures or architecture of the past, in places famous for their historical monuments and also past associations. This also involves seeing current fashions. Sunlust on the other hand generates a type of travel which depends on the existence elsewhere of better amenities and facilities for a specific purpose than are available in the home country of the traveller. It is prominent with particular activities such as sports and with the search for sunshine. Wanderlust calls for facilities geared to short-stay visitors and for means of movement at the destinations. Sunlust on the other hand requires facilities for a longer stay and for recreation.

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Tracing the history of travel over the centuries, it is quite evident that the main motives for travel have not changed much. These have remained the same in form. Only the scope and the intensity have changed. The principal motives continue to be the same. While wanderlust in ancient times manifested itself in the exploration and search of the unknown, today it has the same purpose with a different angle. Similarly Sunlust in the past was associated with pleasure travel of the Romans, today it manifests itself in exotic holidays around the beaches and the holiday villages.

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5 TICKETING PROCESS THE PRODUCERS They are the airlines, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, coach operators, taxis, ferries, resorts, museums, forts, palaces, heritage hotels, zoos, wildlife parks, bird sanctuaries etc that are the attractions for tourists. Because of a fascination for these, the tourist undertakes tours. These producers give products and services of various kinds to the tourist. But most of these are services. Items placed in the shops of shopping malls (of a tourist spot) are products. Food items, liquor, wines and water and also products. Attraction, research, exploration, social reasons (like marriages and meetings with friends) could be the reasons to undertake tours. Producer of these products and services sign tie-up agreements with channels of distribution so that they could sell their (products and services). They cannot go to the targeted marketers every now and then. They call use high-end magazines and newspapers to build nice images in the minds of prospective customers. But they normally depend upon the wholesalers (tour operators) and retailers (travel agencies) to actually sell these products and services. Airlines (producers

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of transport services) also sell their tickets directly to customers. Instance. Jagson Airlines. Most of the airlines have the accreditation of the IATA.; in fact, tourists do not go to such airlines as do not have such types of accreditation.

THE WHOLESALERS They buy various services of producers, or get reservations done for these services. They buy in bulk (allow prices) and that is why, they earn a lot (because they sell these services at much higher prices). They are normally called Tour Operators. They remain in touch with airlines, hotels, resort owners, discotheques, private spot owners and people involved in special sports (like parasailing, bungee jumping, kayaking, paragliding etc). They also buy tickets for State-operated tourist spots or sites. In this context, tickets for forts, museums, rope way transport systems, palaces and other ancient monuments can be considered. But if the government does not sell these tickets in advance, the executives of tour operators, buy these tickets for travel agents at such spots. Customers do not have to pay for these tickets because they have already paid for the same while buying their tour packages. Tour operators seldom deal with customers; they interact with travel agents most of the times. One tour operator can have many travel agents in its fold. These travel agents are not owned by the tour operator and their business dealings with the tour operator are based on commission percentages. In many countries, specialty chancellors buy the services of producers in bulk and sell them to other wholesalers, who operate at much lower levels.

THE RETAILERS They are the travel agents that buy services from wholesalers (tour operators). One travel agent may be associated with many tour operators simply because different tour operators may be catering to different tourism sectors. Travel agencies interact with customers on a day-to-day basis. They also send their

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executives to the homes and offices of clients or prospective clients. These executives undertake the real selling jobs, unlike the executives of tour operators who sell only to travel agencies. Services form a major part of any tourism package. Customers are free to buy products’ when they are on tour. Some of the products (like breakfast, welcome drinks, dinner, complementary lunch etc.) are included in tour packages. Some travel agents are known for their excellent services. Thus, they grow because of their brand names. Some travel agencies also buy the services of producers in bulk. Thus, at times, they also act as tour operators (wholesalers). Not all travel agencies try to become tour operators because the risk involved in buying services (from producers). The physical distribution channel in tourism is somewhat similar to the one in conventional marketing. However, actual goods and services are not provided to customers in their offices, homes, or at the retail stores (as is the case in conventional marketing). The tourist buys the services from travel agents that plan the entire programme for him. The bookings for airlines, hotels, resorts, fun parks, zoos, lakes, wildlife parks etc., are done in advance. The tourist also pays for these in advance. Then, on the stipulated day, he leaves his home (station of origin). He arrives at the destination station according to the terms mentioned in the tour itinerary. The agents of the travel agency or tour operator help him arrive at the hotel or spot where he is supposed to arrive. The tour itinerary is strictly followed (by the agents of the travel agency or tour operator). The producers of various goods and services provide these goods and services according to the itinerary. Such arrangements (bookings) are made even before the tourist leaves the station of origin. He can move from one destination station to another but according to the itinerary. He has no choice of changing the itinerary once he has finalised it (in most of the cases). At the

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end of the itinerary, the tourist is taken back to the station of origin according to the details mentioned in the itinerary. Further, note that some tourists may not like to come back to the station of origin. Foreigners quite often plan their tours in this manner. They buy one-way tickets and move to the destination station. From the destination station, they can be on their own or associated with another travel agency. Such tour combinations are clearly planned and made known to all the staff members of the concerned travel agencies or tour operators. Finally, producers of tourism services are not liable to provide any other service that is beyond the gamut of their operations. Examples: A hotel would not take a tourist to a tourist spot within the city because it is not the duty of the hotel staff to do so. The travel agency must appoint a man (guide or coach driver) to take the tourist to that spot (according to the itinerary). Hotels are also not responsible for half-day sight seeing tours; such tours are the exclusive responsibilities of travel agencies that are running the entire show. Travel agencies also buy tickets for zoos, forts, lakes, palaces, historical monuments for their clients (tourists). If this is not possible, then the tourist is informed (at the station of origin) that he would be required to buy such tickets from his own pocket. Emanation of Marketing Environment : The concept of marketing environment emanates from the broader concept of business environment.

EXTENSIVE ENVIRONMENT Marketing environment of a firm consists of the external factors and forces that affect the company’s ability to develop and maintain successful transactions and relationships with its target markets. This definition was given by Phillip Kotler in his famous book Marketing Management: Analysis, Implementation and Control, 6th Ed, 1989, Prentice Hall. There are two parts

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of this environment, according to Kotler-internal environment and external environment. Micro-environment : The microenvironment of the firm comprises the following. The Firm: It is a part of the microenvironment. Its human resource, plant, machines, offices, retail outlets and equipment are a part of its microenvironment; so are its procedures, policies and strategies. Suppliers: These are vendors who supply goods, services and professional advice to the firm in the context of its operations. Marketing Intermediaries: These include middlemen, physical distribution channels and financial intermediaries. Customers: These are the most important component of the microenvironment. The firm earns profits by selling its products and services to them. Consumer Behaviour has been discussed in detail in this section. Competitors: There are 4 types of competitors-Desire Competitors (based on the desire to be satisfied), Generic competitors (depending upon the product the clients would like to consume), Form Competitors (depending upon the form or format of the product offered) and Brand competitors (depending upon the preference of clients for particular brands). Public: A public is a group that has an actual or potential interest or impact on the ability of a firm to achieve its objectives. There are many types of public, namely, financial publics (like banks, investment houses and financial institutions), media public (like newspapers and TV channels), government publics (like government departments, commissions and ministries), citizen action publics (like NGOs, environmental action groups and minority associations), local publics (like neighbourhood associations), internal publics (like blue collar workers, white collar managers, the top brass and managers) of the firm and general public (people at large in a society or nation).

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CONSUMER’S BEHAVIOUR Before we delve deeply into the realms of buying behavioural let us study consumer characteristics.

CONSUMER FEATURES The following characteristics are associated with consumers of all categories.

GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS Geographic Situation and Terrain : Geographic data can often provide clues for an effective segmentation strategy. The geographical terrain of a market segment would decide the type of products or services to be sold in that area. Problems related to logistics would also have to be sorted out before the firm starts its marathon run in a market. Hills and mountains are a pretty tough terrain for all types of marketers. Snow--clad mountains and regions also need many products and services like liquor, woolens, shoes, trekking gear, radio paging systems, medicines, high-calorie foods etc. Deserts need different kind of treatment; so do marshes, plains of the rivers and plateaus of the world. The marketer has to collect the geographical data of the targeted region first. Then, he must find out how this data affects the buying habits and motives of the targeted (or prospective) clients living in that very region. And he must remember that Mother Nature can be very harsh at some places. Mountains and an uneven terrain may not be the cup of tea of many a tourist. Size of Country : This is also a vital factor in determining the associated with buyers. Size of City : Large city sizes would force consumers to buy more items of necessity. Luxury needs would also increase in terms of quantity and quality. Determination of Products by Climate and Weather : It is obvious that weather and climate would also determine the

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types of products that would be demanded by customers. Rainfall, snowfall, heat etc., would determine he types of products that the customers may ask for.

POPULATION DENSITY A higher population density would warrant the consumption of more products of a particular category. Climate would also play an important part in this context.

NATURAL DEVASTATION Natural calamities like deluge, draught, thunderstorm, typhoon, excessive snowfall etc., would lead to the demand of such products as would help people survive during the tenures of those calamities.

POPULATION FACTOR Age : A very basic but useful demographic feature of man is age. Classification of Customers by Age Stage in Age Group Life Demand

Tourism

Infancy

0-5 years

Nil

Childhood

8-12 years

Local

Adolescence

13-17 years

Local; regional

Adulthood

18-40 years

regional; national; international

Middle Age

41-50 years

National; international

Old Age

51-70 years

National; international

Veteran

71-100 years Nil

Vintage

>100 years

Nil

The senior citizen market is growing around the world and a host of their needs and wants are not being fulfilled by existing

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products and services. These grey markets need special attention, products, services. In the West, these people are the privileged ones. But they are not looked after in countries like India where their population is on the rise. Another important market niche is that of young adults. They are the most eligible candidates for undertaking activities related to tourism. They are not keen to undertake religious tours. Nowadays, they are more keen to undertake foreign tours, albeit only for a few days. Little children and infants are the candidates for diapers, toys, chocolates and all things entertaining and glossy. But their parents take decisions at many occasions. Instance : They may refuse to buy chocolates and potato chips for their 7-year-old daughter who needs it badly while the family is on a tour. So, the marketer may have to target his advertising campaigns and pricing strategies towards the parents (decision makers) and not children (ultimate consumers). That is because the former may be taking most of the purchase decisions on behalf of the latter. Veterans are keen to undertake religious tours. They may also show interest in archeological sites, forts, palaces, museums and ancient excavation sites. The youth may not show keen interest in the rich historical relics of the tourist spot being visited by them. Income : Another useful demographic criterion is income. The table below gives the latest data on income classes of the world. It is obvious that people in the higher income brackets would be tempted to undertake tours of foreign countries. People of lower income brackets would like to travel within the regions of their residence. They may take extra pains’ to undertake religious tours to far off places, however. Instance: A resident of Jammu may take his parents to Puri and let them visit jagannath temple. His parents may have requested their son to help them complete the journey of char dhamas (Puri, Dwarka, Badrinath and

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Rameshwaram). People of middle income groups use trains to travel while rich people prefer aircraft and their own four-wheelers. Local taxis and auto-rickshaws are used by all the categories’ of people because they are not well versed with the environs of the place visited. They do not mind Paying for this luxury because: (a) they know that they are not going to visit that spot time and again and thus, spending on taxis and autorickshaws is justified at least at the tourist spot/city; and (b) they are more keen to ensure the comfort of the family members who may be travelling along with them. Instance: A tourist family from Gujarat may visit Goa and see the important churches, beaches and temples. It may use the services of a taxi/van so that it could complete the tour in time. Foreign tourists prefer coaches and taxis to move about in a city. They can afford the high costs of travel; moreover, they are dependent upon tour operators and travel agencies in respect of local sightseeing tours and excursions to wildlife sanctuaries. Gender : There are two types of customer, if gender is the sole criterion of segregation-male and female. Ladies and girls may have special requirements like privacy, pleasant behaviour, respect, special clothes, medicines, escort, security in the hotel, company of kith and kin etc. Men and boys, on the other hand, are independent, ego-stricken, go-getters, explorers, willing and able to take risks; ready to take risks and above all, rough and tough. But in the new millennium, the differentiating line between men and women has been erased to a great extent. Instance: Women, like men, like bungee jumping. We have found many men avoiding this sport but women have willing volunteered to undertake the fall! SD, the modern-day woman must not be taken lightly, especially when she is on a tour.

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Occupation : The type of occupation creates a distinct psyche in the mind of the customer. His decisions are moulded according to, the job he is doing. Example: An executive would buy the finest of perfumes but a labourer may never show interest in them. Customers Classified by Income Economic Status

Average Annual

Business Strategy Income (US $)

Impoverished

Below 1,000

Sell survival goods and services, Shelter, Medicines, draught relief measures, support of the UNO, the Red Cross, UNHCR etc., to them; Buy their physical labour and semi-technical skills

Poor

1000-5,000

Sell survival goods and services, medicines, education, shelter and migration to safer lands to them; Buy their physical labour, semi-skilled services and products (from their small shops)

Lower Middle

5,000-7,000

Sell basic amenities, health, clean water, education for senior members of the family and children, technical training, jobs, migration to cities, big families, two wheelers, social and emotional-security to them: Buy their technical skills, physical labour, products from their (middle-sized) shops, knowledge about their areas or regions ‘and information about local markets

Middle

7,000-15,000

Sell careers of senior members and children, cars, foreign travel, higher education for self and children, government jobs, entrepreneurship, money, status, emulation of the next higher economic group, social values, ego problem and music to them; Buy their specialised skills, products, professional

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Contd... Economic Status

Average Annual

Business Strategy Income (US $) services, memoirs, experiences of foreign travel and consultancy services in their respective trades

Upper Middle 15,000-40,000 Sell methods for avoiding ego clashes, physical duels with people from lower strata of society, cars, fun and entertainment, foreign travel, music high quality clothes, discotheques and medicines to them; Buy their specialised skills, expertise, experiences, manuscripts, poetry, theatrical or artistic abilities and music Upper

40,000-80,000 Sell methods for avoiding ego clashes, luxury cars, fun and entertainment, foreign travel, music, high-quality clothes, discotheques, drugs income tax problems, business growth, international trading, new manufacturing plants products (manufactured by their national firms) expansion moves, troubles at home due to spoiled children to them; Buy their products, services, political connections, financial services, experiences of foreign travels and guidelines related to lavish life-style

Upper-Upper 80,000-1,50,000 Sell luxury cars, fun, entertainment, foreign travel, music high-quality clothes, discotheques, liquor, solutions of income tax problems, business growth, international trading new manufacturing plants expansion moves, troubles at home due to spoiled children, shimsical attitudes, recognition, stress, health and peace of mind to them; Buy their products and specialised services, political finesse, products (manufactured by their

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Contd.. Economic Status

Average Annual

Business Strategy Income (US $) multinational firms), business acumen, political references, financial services and memories from them

Creme de

1,51,000

Sell methods and finances for business growth, problems la creme Onwards with the government and the bureacracy, completion, awards, stress, health, peace of mind, .ability to stay at the top and methods of recognition to them; Buy their memoirs, manuscripts, political references, financial services, expertise and products (manufactured by their multinational-firms)

Educated People : Highly educated people are demanding and quality conscious. Illiterate people may not give consideration to quality and hence, are eligible to be given cheap low-quality products and services. People of Different Religion : The religion of a person bars him from consuming some products and forces him to follow a unique life-style. The buyer would act according to his religious influences in the Third World countries, especially India. People of Different Race : People of different races have different orientations toward products and services. Their attitudes may have been gelled by their religious thoughts as well. Life Cycle of Family : The stage in the Family life cycle would persuade the customer to buy different products and services. Size of Family : The number of persons living in a family (on a permanent basis) would affect the buying patterns of the family as a whole. People of Different Nations : People of different nations would prefer different types of products and services.

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PSYCHOGRAPHIC FEATURES There are 5 major characteristics in this category, as follows.

CULTURAL ASPECTS Factors deeply associated with culture are vital when multinational firms attempt to develop a segmentation strategy with the world as large market. Differences among cultures can affect important processes such as product acceptance and post-purchase behaviour. Example: Tourists cannot eat pork in a Muslim country like Malaysia, the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In Europe, it is customary to attend a burial in black clothes (which signify death and mourning) and not white ones (which signify peace and prosperity). Style of Living : A person’s interests, opinions and activities combine to represent his or her life-style. Knowledge of lifestyles of the targeted customers can provide vital data about a person or group of persons. It can indicate whether the person is keen to take part in outdoor sports, shopping, theatre or parasailing. It can also include information concerning attitudes and personality traits of the person being studied. Life-style affects the buying behavior of the person in the sense that the person in question wants to have at least the same level of comfort as he had been enjoying in the past. He may long for higher levels of comfort and luxury. But he would certainly not like to do away with his existing set of gadgets, luxury goods, clothes and habits. This is a good clue for all the tourism marketers. A direct outcome of this analysis is-give your customer what he already has (or prefers) but do not forget to show him what he doesn’t have (or may prefer).

WHIMS

AND

FANCIES: ELEMENTS

Here we are! We know that these are the most important indicators of buyers’ motives. Some women hate red socks but some others keep on wearing them even in the bed! Man is a strange creature. His behaviour is unpredictable at many

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moments. If the marketer can somehow understand how he would behave at particular occasions, he can give the products and services of the finest quality to him. And in this process, he would satisfy the most hidden desires of man, thus earning for himself fortunes beyond imagination. But judging the whims of humans is very difficult process. Many firms have failed in the past in this task. This brings us to a vital question-how can hotel staff learn about the whims and fancies of a guest who has just checked in ? In such cases, when it is not possible to judge the preferences of the guest or customer, it is imperative to get an idea from that customer as soon as he arrives at the scene. The hotel staff can talk to the customer when he checks in. His preferences for vegetarian and non--vegetarian food can be noted. His tour programme can also be jotted down so that the staff is aware when he would check out of the hotel. If the guest prefers blue colour, then, the staff can provide him a bed with a blue bedspread. This has to be done despite the fact that all the hotels use white linen in their rooms. If the guest is given sops like these, he feels important as his whims are satiated. And he is ready to pay for these extras.

VERSATILE PERSONALITY Different types of personality would lead to different types of behaviours. The person could be an autocrat, gregarious, ambition or compulsive. Accordingly, his motivations for purchasing goods and/or services would defined.

VARIOUS SOCIAL CLASSES People belonging to the lower-lower class would demand different products than those belonging to the upper-upper class. Class conflict would also play a major role while the customer buys products or services. Instance: A tourists belonging to the upper crust would travel by luxury class in an aircraft but a person of the middle income class would prefer the economy class.

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Characteristics of Behavioural Consumer : This category of consumer characteristics is more closely associated with the purchasing process itself. The following characteristics are noteworthy.

USAGE RATE A powerful segmentation variable is the usage rate of product or service. The marketer must find out who are the heavy users of his products or services and who are the light users of the same. The most interesting of all the targeted customers are the non-users. The challenge is to get them to try the product and ultimately, make them heavy users. Table below Gives the profile of all the types of users according to the degree of usage of a product or service. The marketing manager must address at least two problems in this context : (A) Development of such programs as attract members of targeted groups, or niches to try the product for the first time. (B) Develop products or services that this group would like to buy regularly. (C) Motivate non-users to trap in his marketing net. (D) Try to pluck customers from the trees of customers in a sophisticated decent manner so that the latter do not cry ‘foul.’ (E) Convert light users into medium users and medium users into heavy users.

LOYALTY STATUS There are 4 categories in the parlance of loyalty statusNone, Medium, Strong, Absolute. This classification was done by Phillip Kotler. The loyalty status has many iminuations, which can be explained in the context of an example from the tourism industry. Example: When a brand such as Cox & Kings is competing in a well-defined class such as package tours, it is useful to consider brand loyalty as a basis for segmentation.

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The customers of Cox & Kings can be divided into two distinct classes-those who are loyal buyers of the brand and those who are not. The disloyal buyer tends to buy several brands, selecting, for example, the least expensive or the most convenient brand at the moment of purchase. Similarly, non-users of Cox & Kings can also be divided into two classes-those, who are loyal only to particular brands and those, who buy several other brands at random. The marketer has to increase brand loyalty to his own brand by persuading brand loyalists of other brands. He has also to target the marketing campaigns to those fickle-minded customers who do not have a well-defined pattern of purchase. We have observed that tourists go to a different travel agency for purchasing air tickets. They want to find out whether rates given by the previous travel agent were correct or not. Once they find a particular travel agency that gives them the best prices, they stick to it (an example of absolute loyalty). The same is true for holiday packages as well. Once the customer is convinced about the rates, efficient planning, courtesy and picture-perfect execution of a travel agency, he goes to it for undertaking another tom. Over a period of years, brand loyalists identify themselves with these travel agencies or hotels. They stay only at those hotels with which, their experiences in the past had been pretty good. Rarely, if ever, they change their preferences, they come back to the original set of hotels, travel agents etc. The marketer has to build brand loyalty among its corporate clientele by sending them mailers and letters on a regular basis. He can tell them about special discounts that he can offer to them. He can also give them extra sops like free accommodation for children, cold drinks, liquor, welcome breakfast, gifts in lieu of the brand loyalty that he gets from such customers. Many corporate clients are being served by reputed travel agencies of India in this manner.

Light Users Medium Users Convert them into heavy users; tell them to persuade non-users; casual or medium users to increase their purchases Heavy Users

3.

4.

5.

Personal letters; free tour packages; price discounts; quantity discounts

Quantity discounts; free delivery at site; price discounts; discount coupons

Media campaigns; brand image

Keep on informing and persuading Meetings at their homes or offices; letters; them so that they remain heavy users high-value gifts; awards at the meetings of the firm, or during marketing conferences

Convert them into medium users

Convert them into light users

Casual Users

2.

Communication or Business Strategy

Persuade them to use the products Features of the product or service; price; of services at least once and become after sales service; brand image; causal users undermining competition tactfully (through tables of comparison)

Non-users

1.

S. No. Type of User Developing Strategy

Tourism Product : Their Perishable Nature

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Tourism products are perishable in nature. Customers are aware of this fact. They do not want to take risk while they select tour packages for themselves and their families. They want to get the best out of the package tour selected by them. That is because they cannot retrace their steps back to square one, once they have committed to undertake such tours. The task of the marketer is to convince the customer that the package being bought by him would give him the full value of money. It is, however, not an easy task. Customers withdraw their bookings many times, even if they have to forego some booking amount that is already with the travel agent. In our view, if the customer is an old one, he should be given the booking amount even if he does not undertake the tour due to one reason or the other. This would help the marketer get another order from him in the future. The buyer wants reliability of the marketer (travel agency or hotel) because he knows that the product is perishable. Finally, if the advance amount cannot be returned to him, as is true in the cases of foreign tours, the marketer should give the customer some additional facilities so that the customer does not feel that he has been fleeced due to a wrong decision taken by him. He can be convinced that he would do well to undertake the tour that he has planned to cancel and that he would be given additional discount in the next tour. The travel agent can help the customer book the air ticket and hold seat for him for 14 days without paying a penny. But if the customer has not been able to change the departure schedule even after this limit, the travel agent must convince him that it is better to fly on the same ticket, lest he should lose money by way of cancellation charges.

SOCIAL ATTENTIVENESS Social considerations are important when we discuss tourism as an activity for intermingling of various types of people. Every tourist in a group belongs to a different social set-up. These different social set-ups are able to create sets of beliefs in the minds of individuals. They cannot do away with these beliefs

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simply because they are visiting a foreign country. Even within a country like India, we can witness different societal forces acting at all the times on individuals. Instance: A south Indian would love to wear a dhoti even if he has checked into a hotel of Shimla. For him, wearing a dhoti is a status symbol. His social beliefs have made him think that way. But the locals may not like his habit. Instance: Some south Indians take food while sitting on the floor, without spoons and after some initial rituals like pula. But in a hotel of north India, they may seem to be out of place; it is not their native state, after all Instance: North Indians may not consume food or snacks prepared by Dallies. The tourism marketer has to understand these beliefs of the targeted markets. Then, he must understand how these beliefs can be consolidated when the guest is making use of his services or consuming his products. He must address these problems and issues that are registered by his customer from time to time. Eventually, he would arrive at a set of beliefs or habits that a particular social group follows. This would be done over a period of time, after meeting lot many customers of a particular societal niche. Thus, the marketer would evolve a set of strategies to cater to the precise needs of that group. Similarly, he would define strategies for other groups that are his frequent or regular customers. Time would teach him these vital lessons.

READY STEPS The important parameters in this category ate-unaware, Aware, Informed, Interested, Desirous and Intending to Buy. Consumer’s Attitude’s towards Product : : The important parameters in this category are—Enthusiastic, Positive, Indifferent, Negative and Hostile.

USERS’ STATUS The important parameters in this category are-Non-user, Ex-user, Potential User, First-time User and Regular User.

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SOME SPECIAL OCCASIONS The important parameters in this category are-Special Occasions and Regular Occasions.

PROFIT SOUGHT The important parameters in this category are-Quality, Image building of Self, Service, Economy, Eco-friendly Disposition and Convenience.

LEGAL ASPECTS These are the factors that govern the travel, stay, excursion, movements, purchases and other activities of a tourist in a foreign land. Even within a country, the rules of various state can differ from those of another state. The United States has 50 different Stales and each one of those has a different set of rules, though these are a part of the Big Apple. Rules related to octroi, entry and exit of foreigners, customs duties, airport taxes, rules for stay in a hotel, check out timings, rules for declaration of excess baggage, forms to be filled to declare special goods (while arriving at a new station or airport), halt at transit airports, entry into strategic places cantonments and rules for extradition of wily tourists or foreigners are different for different countries. The marketer has to understand and imbibe the basic spirit of each and every rule that is associated with tourism. Then, he must communicate these rules to the targeted clients during the course of the marketing campaign. He may also have to communicate the same when the customer is being served by him. That is because many tourists are not aware of the laws of the land and may commit mistakes during their tours. Safe hassle-free passage of the customer is the responsibility of the marketer; so, he must have a legal advisor/counsel to give him legal support. This would ensure that the customer does not face any problem during the itinerary. Legal factors are always in the back of the mind of every tourist. These control his actions and behaviour whenever he travels to a foreign land.

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6 AGENCIES

AT

WORK

Tourism in its present form, which makes millions of people move from their homes in search of a holiday, began by a mere coincidence. It was 1841. Thomas Cook, a very intelligent and active member of a Temperance Society of England, organised a trip by a train for five hundred and seventy members of his Society, to a distance of twenty-two miles. He was the first agent to buy tickets in bulk to sell them back to other people. The experiment was successful and everybody was happy. The cost of the return trip was only one shilling each. Mr Cook had done this job on a no-profit basis. But, it gave him new ideas. Could he turn it into a business, he wondered. In 1845, Thomas Cook set up a full-time excursion agency to organise excursions. The Railway Company gave him a five per cent commission on sale of tickets which was not adequate to meet all his overheads. So, he decided to diversify. He started operating package tours which included transport, hotel accommodation, sightseeing, guide-services and meals at the other end of the journey. Thomas Cook must have been a genius, because he introduced some new businesses which are still in vogue. For

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instance, he invented the system of travellers’ cheques and hotel vouchers which eliminated payment in cash. Tourists prepaid the cost of their trip and in return got the hotel vouchers, which took care of all the services provided by the hotel, including meals. Hotels, in turn, gave him the commission for bringing in the business. Similarly, the travellers took Cook’s travellers cheques—at that time called circular notes—which were honoured at many establishments and could also be encashed at Thomas Cook offices or banks in the local currency. These were gradually upgraded and have stood the test of time—these have now become the inseparable part of travel and holiday. Now, travellers’ cheques worth billions of dollars are bought and sold everyday all over the world. Travellers’ cheques are a unique phenomenon—only a nominal charge is made for the service but the banks can use the money collected by them and earn interest or make short-term investments. After all, travellers’ cheques are not used immediately. Travellers’ cheques are also insured against loss. The traveller, therefore, does not have to worry about the safe-keeping of his money. Almost at the same time, other travel companies like American Express, were set up in the USA. American Express is now a household name because of its banking and travel activities in almost every country of the world. In credit cards, American Express was the pioneer and still a market leader. While Thomas Cook was the first travel agent and tour operator in the world, several others followed him. They opened their offices in major cities of Europe and America. In India also, we had a few travel agencies in the late nineteenth century, including the offices of the Thomas Cook. In 1878, Thomas Cook brought the first group of rich British tourists to India by the P & O Steamship Company. The group landed in Mumbai, travelled to Agra by train to see the Taj Mahal and also visited the valley of Kashmir.

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In his old age, Thomas Cook became blind and the business passed on to his only son, John. John Cook expanded the business further, and when he died in 1898, Cooks had diversified into selling package tours, banking and shipping. Today, Thomas Cook has a thousand offices in one hundred and forty-five countries of the world. They move about ten million people annually. This is how tourism operates in the world. Across the Atlantic from London, the American Express Company (AMEXO) is perhaps the world’s largest travel company with an international banking network, selling American Express Travellers’ cheques and related banking facilities like the American Express credit cards to tourists and businessmen. This company pioneered the credit card system. The American Express card is perhaps the world’s most cherished and popular card. A credit card entitles the holder to buy anything (up to a given limit) against the card, without having to pay cash. The shops and establishments accepting a credit card, are immediately paid cash by the credit card company’s local office, after deducting a three per cent commission. The company then raises a bill against the credit card holder. The bill has to be paid in ninety days. If the money is not paid within ninety days, interest is charged. Credit cards are issued after due scrutiny of the credit-worthiness of an applicant. People with low credit ratings are not issued such cards. Since the Indian rupee is not a convertible currency as yet, our banks do not issue international credit cards. But some international banking companies now issue credit cards valid all over the world, including foreign currency payments. Most Indian hotels, leading restaurants and many shops dealing with foreign tourists, accept international credit cards like American Express, Visa, Bank of America, Diners’ Club, etc. The travellers can pay for their air-tickets, hotel accommodation, meals and shopping with these credit cards and need not bring any cash. You can appreciate how convenient it is to carry an

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international credit card and international travellers’ cheques. No worry, no fear of falling short of cash or of losing it. The lost card is immediately replaced by any office of the issuing agency. So long as travel was limited to steamships or the railways, the companies did not need travel agents to sell their tickets. They could sell their rail tickets at the stations and steamship tickets at their offices or at the pier. But the advent of aeroplanes changed the travel scene. In the thirties, PAN AM—which subsequently became America’s number one international carrier (it closed its shop in 1991)— was so small that they could not afford to rent an office to sell their tickets. They approached Cooks to let them open a counter in their travel offices and, in return, agreed to give them ten per cent commission on the sale of their tickets, instead of the usual five per cent given to other agents. This is how most airlines discovered travel agents as their marketing arms. Now, some seventy per cent of international and sixty per cent of domestic airlines tickets are sold and issued by travel agents all over the world. Internet has, however, reduced the travel agent’s share. World War II disrupted holiday travel and it was only after the war ended in 1945, that travel and tourism for fun and pleasure restarted. The advent of commercial planes set a new trend because the cost of air travel which was very high in the initial stages, tumbled down with the introduction of larger aircrafts. The three hundred and seventy-five-seater Boeing747 in the seventies brought about a price revolution in travel. Holiday travel by air became cheaper than by sea. The shipping companies started folding up. The railways were replaced, to a great extent, in the USA and Canada by personal cars, and to a lesser extent in Europe. Air travel came within the reach of an average middle class and salaried classes. To fill up the seats in their wide-bodied planes, the airlines needed

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sales outlets. While in the early fifties there were three thousand travel agency offices worldwide, the number exceeded sixty thousand by 1998. About twenty-five thousand of these travel agency offices are in the USA alone. Scheduled airlines flew more than two billion passengers—twenty-five hundred million to be exact—in the year 2000. One can imagine the scale of travel. Non-scheduled or chartered airlines fly another five hundred million people annually.

DIFFERENT KINDS Among travel agents, there are the Wholesalers and Retailers. The wholesalers develop package tours to many a destination and sell them either directly to travellers, or through retail travel agents— small travel agencies operating in each country. Retailers get a ten per cent commission from wholesalers for every package tour sold. The retailers need not make any arrangement for their customers themselves—that is the responsibility of the wholesalers who are in touch with hotels and travel agencies overseas, if it is an overseas package, or within the country if it is a domestic package, for making what in travel agents’ terminology is called ‘ground arrangements’. The tour operators who receive guests and handle arrangements in the host country are called ‘Inbound tour operators’. They service the inbound travellers from foreign countries. Those who promote tours to foreign destinations are called ‘Outbound tour operators’, while those who operate tours only within their own country, are called ‘Domestic tour operators’. Several of them combine both types of businesses. Tour operation is a complicated business—wheels within wheels, each doing its job to make travel trouble-free for the tourists. There is a thin line between the different kinds of travel agencies—big travel agencies often combine all the functions including retail selling. They have several branches in a country. Sometimes they act as wholesalers and permit other travel

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agencies also to retail their tour packages. Wholeselling is a popular business in countries like the USA where one company may move as many as half a million people in a year. In India, it is not so common as yet. Often, wholesalers have their retail outlets as well. With the taking over of large Indian companies like Sita World Travel by Kuonis, a multinational travel company, wholeselling will be a big business in future. Basically, there are two types of travel agencies: the general travel agency and the specialised travel agency. The general travel agency is a small organisation (two to ten employees) that deals with almost all types of travel and offers nearly every type of travel-related service. The specialised travel agency is a fairly large operation and may specialise in one form of travel, or travel service to a group or a community. In India, most travel agencies belong to the category of general travel agencies. The specialised travel agencies—not very common in India— may specialise in corporate and commercial accounts, exclusively dealing with business travel, organising air tickets, arranging hotel accommodation, car rentals, etc., for corporate executives. The other areas of specialisation are ship or cruise travel, outbound travel, specially in packaging and marketing overseas holidays, organising and promoting conferences and conventions, and creating and catering to an incentive travel market, etc. Some travel agencies confine their business to developing and marketing domestic tours only. This is an excellent business in developed countries and is now becoming profitable in India too.

THE COMMITTEES Surprisingly, most travel agencies do not charge anything from their clients for their professional services. They survive on commission given by their principals, i.e., airlines, hotels, motels, railways, car rental companies, bus and insurance companies, etc. Where they do not get commissions, they may

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make a service charge. For instance, the Indian Railways do not give commissions to travel agents. So, a travel agency will add its service charge if a client wants them to buy rail-ticket. However, Indian Railways makes an exception. They permit ten per cent commission to travel agents selling Indrail Passes to foreign visitors against foreign currency. They also offer the same commission on sale of Palace on Wheels’ tickets. Commissions to travel agents vary from country to country, depending on the competitive situation. For instance, commissions go up to fifteen per cent and more in the USA where the international airlines are free to offer any commission to make a sale. There is virtually no ceiling on payment of commission due to the policy of deregulation followed by the US Government. But now the airlines are getting wiser and some of them have put a ceiling or ‘Caps’ as they call it. It has made travel agencies less profitable. The scene is changing due to tight economic situation of airlines. In India, we follow the IATA norms—seven per cent commission on international tickets. Till recently, Indian Airlines followed their own rules. They had the monopoly and paid a low four per cent commission. With the entry of private airlines, Indian Airlines now pays five per cent commission—the same as the private airlines. Now, the Government has added its ten per cent tax on the total value of the domestic air ticket, which a travel agent is required to collect. No commission is paid to him by the Government for this service. Tax goes to the Government coffers.

MEMBERSHIP

OF

IATA

Although one may find all travel shops calling themselves travel agencies, a dependable travel agency is one displaying the logo of IATA (International Air Transport Association) appointed agent—their symbol is reproduced below.

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An IATA appointed travel agency is reliable, because such a company has been approved by this international organisation, after due scrutiny of their professional competence and financial reliability. Such agencies have given financial guarantees to the airlines against default. The agencies which are not IATA members, may not be trustworthy because they buy tickets from other approved IATA agents, or the general sales agents of airlines and resell these to their clients, sharing a part of the commission with their clients. Their margin is so small that they cannot give good service. Until a travel agency is approved by IATA, it cannot get commissions directly from an international airline. IATA approval does not automatically make an agency eligible for commission from Indian Airlines or private domestic airlines. The IATA approval helps. Airlines, however, have their own rules, regulations and yardsticks for approval.

GROUP

OF

TRAVEL AGENTS

Most IATA approved travel agents in India, are also members of a national organisation called Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI). Its membership is further proof of their reliability. The TAAI logo displayed in such travel agencies is like an ISI mark, indicating professionalism and reliability. TAAI makes a close scrutiny before accepting new members and expects all its members to follow a code of conduct. The TAAI, has its headquarters in Mumbai and the organisation has seven chapters or branches in major cities of India. The objectives of TAAI are to protect the genuine, and legitimate interests of the professional travel agency members. TAAI membership includes not only travel agencies but also domestic and international airlines, hotels, motels, resorts, etc. At the annual conference of TAAI, called the Indian Travel Congress, they discuss their common problems. TAAI was established in 1950 by a group of eight travel agents led by late Nari. J. Katgara. Membership exceeds two hundred.

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ANOTHER GROUP Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), is yet another organisation of India, claiming to represent travel agents. Headquartered in Mumbai, it started as TAAI had very stringent rules for membership. It is now fairly large and both the organisation—TAAI and TAFI—try to work together to protect the interests of travel agents and tour operators.

TOUR OPERATORS Delhi-based IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators) is the representative organisation of tour operators handling inbound tourism. It is a young and active organisation and has among its members, all those involved in tourism industry, including hotels, transporters, state tourism department and airlines. It holds annual conventions to deliberate over its problems.

WORLD TRAVEL AGENTS ASSOCIATIONS At the world level, there is the Universal Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA). Travel Agents Associations of more than one hundred and twenty-one countries, including India’s Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), are members of UFTAA. Travel agency membership exceeds forty-eight thousand. The world body represents the interests and viewpoints of travel agents all over the world, vis-a-vis organisations like IATA and IHRA (International Hotels and Restaurant Association). UFTAA also provides training opportunities to travel agents who are members of this organisation. There are about one thousand five hundred IATA-appointed agencies in India. A few of them have a dozen or more offices all over the country and provide employment to a large number of educated young people. A travel agent tries to give full service to his clients—prepares their itineraries, issues tickets after necessary reservations, arranges passports and visas for international travellers, books hotels at the place or places to

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be visited by his clients, sells travel insurance and if requested, arranges cars on arrival at the destination. In fact, there is hardly anything which a travel agent cannot do for his client at the other end of the journey, provided the client is in the hands of an experienced travel agency.

ROLE

OF

ASTA

ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) is another major international travel organisation of travel agents. Due to the global nature of travel business, ASTA’s agenda is more international now. It permits travel agents from all countries of the world to become its members. While the American members are active members, others are called allied members. Its annual conventions—called World Travel Congress—are attended by seven thousand to eight thousand travel agents every year. It is held one year in the USA and in the alternative year in a foreign country. The participation is so large that a country like India does not have enough hotel rooms in one city, to be able to invite ASTA conference. So far, ASTA has not met in India.

STARTING WORK For opening a new travel agency, the first important step is to select a proper location. The selection of the location can make the difference between success and failure. Careful attention must be given to the evaluation of different areas with high potential for growth and profits. While selecting the location, the agency owner must choose an area which is appealing and accessible to the types of clientele he wishes to attract. It must be an expanding area or a new suburb with possibilities of growth. It must be convenient to businessmen enroute to or returning from work. The owner must also look at the competition—preferably, there should be less competition in the type of business he wishes to attract.

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As for budget, the rule of thumb is that rent and utilities should not exceed ten per cent of the projected budget. A travel agency office must be well-designed, neat and attractive. Outdoor signs and window displays are essential features of a good travel agency. Telex, fax and photocopying machines have become an essential part of office equipment. Computer terminals from airlines will have to be rented once business starts growing. More successful travel agencies have back-room computerisation too—for accounting, billing and to follow-up on outstanding payments. A new agency is not immediately approved by IATA. It has to function successfully for one year, giving business to airlines. During the first year, the agency does not get the commission, but as soon as it is approved, the commission earned in the past year is paid back.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT Since travel agency business is highly competitive, the management of the agency must have a comprehensive marketing plan to facilitate sale of its services. Under the broad term ‘marketing’, promotion means all the activities undertaken to promote a business and its products and services. It includes the projection of a proper image of the agency and creation of demands for the services of the travel agency. It can be done by personal contacts, through a sales force and advertising. A travel agent sells his services. Sometimes, there may be some malfunctioning somewhere in the long chain of travel, not necessarily due to the fault of the agent. It may be the fault of an airline which did not operate a service on time, or of the hotel which did not honour a reservation due to overbooking. But, the travel agent gets the blame from his clients. It is a business full of tensions. There is an interesting story of a travel agent who died and was face to face with St. Peter. He was trembling and

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expecting to be confined to hell because he never had time to pray in his lifetime. St. Peter asked, “What was your profession on earth?” “A travel agent, sir.” St. Peter gave a benevolent smile and ordered, “Let him go to heaven. The poor fellow had enough of hell on earth at the hands of his clients.”

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM : IMPORTANCE Travel agencies play a key role in promoting international tourism. In India, only twenty-five per cent of incoming business is handled by established travel agencies—mostly groups. Other visitors make independent arrangements. But they should have a larger share and should be helped by the Government to handle more inbound business. The travel agents of India have a good reputation overseas and are known for their efficiency, reliability and hospitality. The National Committee on Tourism set up by the Government of India, underlined the importance of travel agencies in marketing Indian tourism overseas. The Committee said: Considering that the travel trade industry is an important link in the total tourism chain, we recommend that the industry should be extended suitable incentives to help improve its performance. We believe that the activities of the travel trade are in the nature of export services, earning foreign exchange as they do. As such, the industry needs to be given selected fiscal and monetary incentives which are already available to the export industry. Some concessions were extended to travel agents earning foreign exchange in the budget presented by Dr Manmohan Singh, for the year 1992 - 93. More concessions have been

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added by the Finance Minister in 1997 and subsequently in 2000. The Committee suggested that travel agents should get the same concessions for earning foreign exchange as the hotel industry. The plants and machinery of the travel agents are cars, coaches, camping, sports and skiing equipment...low customs duty on such equipment should be levied as for project imports. According to an American Express Travel Agency Survey in India, corporate business for travel agents in India is increasing at the rate of ten per cent annually (American Express Survey, 1996). No wonder, therefore, the rate of IATA approved travel agencies folding up in India is one of the lowest, in fact, negligible.

VARYING PROFILE The travel agency scene in the world, specially in the developed countries, is fast changing. Deregulation of civil aviation in the USA, followed by several other countries, brought in a plethora of reduced airfares and tempting commission structures. Lower airfares resulted in expanded business and higher commissions for travel agents. Business has never been so good. In the USA, membership of IATA is no longer necessary to claim commission from IATA or other scheduled carriers. America has set up its own Air Transport Association (ATA) which works closely with IATA. Agent members of ATC—a division of ATA of America— are as good as IATA agents and IATA has endorsed them. Many Governments including those of the USA, UK, Japan and Singapore, have enacted legislation regulating the working of travel agencies to protect the consumers. The regulations insist that new travel agencies will have trained staff, minimum capitalisation and consumer protection insurance, etc. There have been instances of large travel agencies declaring bankruptcies, while hundreds of their clients were travelling in

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many countries—leaving them high and dry as airlines refused to honour their tickets. In India, there is no legislation regulating travel agencies or protecting travellers. The newly set-up of Consumers Forums can, however, take note of complaints against travel agents. Attracted by new opportunities in expanding travel business, the number of IATA-approved travel agencies has doubled in ten years, from thirty thousand in 1980 to over sixty thousand in 2000, according to an IATA report. Statistics pertaining to the travel agency business in the USA are mind-boggling. In 1995, travel agencies in the USA wrote a record US$45 billion in airlines ticketing—commission payments amounted to US$4 billion. In India, statistics pertaining to legal payment in the form of commissions are seldom available— airlines are secretive about it as part of it is often paid under the table. The Indian Airlines which has no reason to be secretive about commission is also reluctant to part with this information in an attempt to expand their area of direct sales at the cost of travel agents. Overall, approved Indian travel agents sell more than sixty per cent of domestic and seventy-five per cent of international tickets. The rest of the selling is done either directly by the Airlines or through their General Sales Agents (GSAs), which have mushroomed everywhere. GSAs are normally appointed by an airline at a place where there are no IATA agents. A GSA sells tickets of only one airline which he represents and operates his office as the Airlines’ own office, entitling him to a higher commission. Over the years, GSAs in India have become an outlet for price-cutting by airlines to beat the competition. They have become experts in cross-border selling—selling across the area of their jurisdiction. Air India, the national carrier, has its GSA in New Delhi where there are more than a score of IATA agents, not setting a very good example for foreign carriers. IATA agents are often hostile to the institution of GSAs because

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they know that this is a way of taking away their legitimate business from them, by their own principals—the international airlines. Suppliers and Travel Agents : An idea of the suppliers dependence on travel agents can be had from the following table. USA : Estimated percentage of business booked by travel agents-wholesalers Airlines

60 per cent (Domestic) 70 per cent (International)

Hotels

25 per cent (Domestic) 75 per cent (International)

Bus

10 per cent

Rail

30 per cent

Rental Car

50 per cent

Packaged Tours

90 per cent

Source: Travel Industry World Year Book. In India, the suppliers’ dependence on travel agents is a little less.

FRESH DEVELOPMENTS Deregulation of airlines in the USA in the eighties, enabled airlines to offer any fare to travel agents or consumers. It has led to two new developments in the travel agency distribution system. One is the emergence of Consolidators—business organisations which buy airlines and cruise tickets in bulk at special rates from the principals and offer these at discounted prices to travel agents. The other is Consortium or Co-ops. A Consortium is composed of affiliated travel agencies whose purpose is to enhance the volume sales’ profits of

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independently-owned travel agencies. This is done by means of group advertising, production of promotional material, educational opportunities, consulting resources, suppliers’ discounts and other aids. This development has occurred to meet the challenge of mega-travel agencies which have a greater bargaining power with the suppliers. A recent example of this development is an arrangement arrived at between North-Western Airlines, Thomas Cook, a mega-travel agency, and Ford Motors whereby Ford personnel are expected to travel by North-Western through Thomas Cook only. North-Western in turn gives a better price to Ford travellers and a higher commission to Thomas Cook. The consortium concept seeks to achieve the same bargaining position for small travel agencies. These concepts have also seeped down to other countries during the first decade of the new millennium. In India, Thomas Cook has introduced their bid or buycom site which offers last minute bargain sales of international tickets as well as holidays— both domestic and international. Many products are on sale.

TRAVELLING ABROAD Outbound travellers from India touched four million mark during 2000—up from only 1.9 million in 1991. Till the mid eighties, Indians—particularly the leisure travellers—were discouraged to go abroad and foreign exchange was not released in their favour, if they declared their purpose as leisure. Foreign exchange was only released to travellers declaring their mission as business promotion, official or occasionally medical treatment abroad. The bureaucrats and politicians used the release of foreign exchange as patronage. At one time, Indian travellers could take only US$20 with them if they were on any mission other than business or official. How did they manage with this paltry sum in countries where even the taxi fare from airport to city costs more? Well, either they were sponsored by their friends or relatives abroad or they cheated—collecting US dollars

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from an intermediate point where they had parked their dollar accounts secretly, or buying it in black market paying more rupees. It was a peculiar philosophy of the Government to save foreign exchange. They encouraged their citizens to cheat. Overseas, Indian travellers were not respected as they acted like beggars. The scene changed a little when in the late seventies, the Government of India allowed US$300 for leisure travellers, later raised to US$500 in three years and some travel agents in India started marketing tours with this amount on shoe-string budgets. It became possible as air ticket could be bought in Indian rupees and for sightseeing purposes, buses and trains were used abroad which were relatively less expensive. However, India decided to liberalise its economy in early 1990s. The country achieved an average growth rate of 4.5 per cent annually during this decade, with an accelerated growth in the later part of the decade. Allied to a strong economic growth, demand for international travel increased Until 1996, basic travel quota allowed by the Government—(BTQ) remained at US$500. It was increased to US$2000 per year per person in June 2000 and later, further enhanced to US$3000 a year. Now, it is US$5000 a year per person. For business travellers and for those attending conferences or those going for medical treatment, the foreign exchange quota was enhanced to US$25,000—up from US$15,000. The system was further simplified as the release of foreign exchange was administered by designated commercial banks, as a matter of routine and the people did not have to get prior clearance from the Reserve Bank of India or the Government, for foreign exchange quota to travel overseas. It acted as a major stimulus for overseas travel.

INTERNATIONALISATION

OF

MONEY

The liberalisation of economy has resulted in greater exposure to the international business community and increased

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travel among the middle classes, who could afford to travel. There were other factors too—popularity of colour TV in India— with almost every other household having one or two colour TVs at their homes in urban areas. Indian films were shot in far-off foreign destinations like New Zealand, Switzerland and other European countries thereby twelve creating interest in these foreign destinations. The market is now big enough to attract twelve foreign government Tourist Boards to open representative offices in India, to lure Indian citizens to their respective destinations including Great Britain and Australia. The departures from India in the year 2000 were 3,996600—small for the size of a country like India but growing at a fast rate—specially in the leisure segment. The outbound travellers were 3.5 million in 1995 and 3.8 million in 1998. And, about 4 million in 2000. PATA Report : The increase in outbound travellers, especially the leisure travellers from India, made Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) sit up and take note. They asked Travel Research International, a research organisation based in UK, to conduct a survey of India’s outbound market for its members. This hundred-page study is a comprehensive survey of the current spread of outbound travel from India and its future potential. The first of its kind, it is an attempt on the part of an international organisation to do such a research on its own. The report, a priced publication, was published in January 2001 and examines India’s present status as an international outbound market, its potential for the future and reasons that deter its faster growth. So far, the focus of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has always been on inbound tourism which earned for the country foreign exchange and India annually spends some US$75 million dollars to lure foreign travellers to this country— not very successfully. In less than a decade, outbound market has left the inbound far behind with the number of foreign

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inbound travellers pegged at less than 2.6 million in 2000 and outbound touching four million. India’s balance of trade in tourism is now in the red. Indian travellers abroad are respected as their average spending is more than that of citizens of affluent countries. According to official statistics of Singapore, the average Indian spending in that country exceeds that of the US visitors. PATA Report estimates that out of the four million outbound travellers, thirty-five per cent were leisure travellers which includes a sizeable chunk who fall in the category of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR). And among the VFRs, the USA and UK have the largest share. Other popular destinations are nearer home— Singapore, Thailand, UAE, Nepal and Hong Kong, in that order. One reason for Indians opting for foreign destinations nearer home is perhaps the high price tag of air tickets for domestic air travel. The Government of India, for reasons of its own, keeps the price of air tickets for travel in India high to an extent that it is now cheaper for Indian citizens to travel to Singapore or Bangkok from Delhi, than from Delhi to Cochin or Chennai. Naturally, they prefer foreign destinations. Tickets to these destinations are cheaper because of intense competition among foreign carriers.

TRIP OBJECTIVES Pure outbound leisure tourism in India is still in its infancy but it has grown out of all recognition compared with ten years ago and continuing to increase at a rate of fifteen to twenty per cent annually. According to an International Passenger Survey done on behalf of the Government of India in 1996 - 97, thirty per cent of the outbound tourists were travelling for businessrelated purposes, twenty per cent were visiting friends and relatives, thirteen per cent were joining their families, thirteen per cent went for employment and only thirteen per cent declared their purpose as pure leisure. India being a vast country, purpose also varies from region to region depending on the nature of

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the people. Most leisure travellers came from metro cities but the share of smaller towns was not insignificant. The impact of liberalisation of the economy is spread all over the country. PATA report estimates that at present some twenty-five million Indians are affluent enough to be able to afford overseas holidays. With only four million Indians travelling abroad, the potential is six times more and it is rising with levels of incomes going up in the country. Within the broad spectrum of outbound travel, the composition of the outbound market has changed radically in recent years. Business travel has changed from being a market composed primarily of businessmen and entrepreneurs pursuing business opportunities within the region, to encompass incentive and conference travel, as well as long-haul trips for increasing number of Indian companies with offices overseas on the one hand and multinational companies based in India on the other. Indian as well as multinational companies sponsor incentive travel holidays for their good workers or salesmen, or hold seminars and training programmes for their staff abroad. Travel Corporation of India (TCI), one of the largest travel outfits in India, reported sending eight thousand Indians in one year, representing white goods manufacturers—automobile and pharmaceutical sectors. Air India reported that such groups could vary from two hundred to UK, to five hundred to Singapore. American Express has estimated that business travel out of India is worth more than US$1 billion a year.

SURVIVAL

OF THE INDUSTRY

Only eight years ago, travel agency industry worldwide was in a state of euphoria as profits were soaring, business was up, commissions were high and airlines wooed the travel agents as their main source for higher sales. The number of travel agency outlets all over the world was increasing at a fast rate. Almost at the same time, an internet Guru, Dr Nicholas

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Nagarpente, predicted at the annual convention of PATA in Auckland, that three years from now people will be able to make direct bookings of all their travel plans by moving one finger on the mouse of their personal computers. Since then, the business of internet has increased at a fast pace leaving everyone amazed. Travel is an information-based industry, already exposed to computers for twenty years and the impact of internet on this business is most marked. A downhill trend in travel agency business worldwide is already evident. Many travel agents have taken advantage of the challenge posed by internet and started their own websites, reaching a much larger audience. ASTA conducted a research study of the member travel agents and discovered that sixty-seven per cent of their members were now charging fees for their services as commission income was not adequate, thus making up the loss due to capping of travel agency commissions. Again, the travel business worldwide has grown from an average of three to five per cent annually. According to the Travel Industry of America (TIA) survey, the business conducted on the Net in 1997 was US$900 million while the total travel business in the country was estimated to be US$500 billion. By 2002, TIA estimated the business on the Net will soar to US$9 billion but the overall travel business in the USA may well be nearer to 800 billion US$. The business on the Net will thus be only 1.2 per cent of the total travel business, leaving the rest to travel agency players—enough for everyone to have his share of the cake.

ROLE

OF

INTERNET

In today’s marketplace, it is necessary to talk about internet as a channel of distribution. It makes direct selling from suppliers to the consumers easy and hassle-free. The internet is an evolving communications tool with greater potential than any of its predecessors. Information technology is beneficial to every major principles like airlines, hotel chains who can market their

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products worldwide on their websites; the tour operators can market their destinations. National Tourist Organisations can have their websites to expose tourist attractions of their countries; individual travel agents can showcase their products—fair chance to all the players. But it is only the travel agent who can add value and pleasure to the product. We were, therefore, not surprised to read a research paper which revealed that for every person ecstatic about booking on the Net, there were many more who were frustrated by the vast data and bewildering information which their head could not digest. Another IATA research further tells us that of the five passengers who book globally, four come through travel agents—not very different than what was happening thirty years ago. Again, only one in five explores the surf for information—but only one in ten actually books. E-commerce is coming of age; in fact, it is doubling every three months. Creating this growth are supplier’ websites and internet booking services such as Microsoft Expedia, Sabre’s Travelocity, Internet Travel Network, Preview Travel, American Express and Travel Web, etc. These are full service mega sites doing business in millions. Most airlines too have mega sites but they only give their schedules and prices. They do not give comparative prices. This difficulty is overcome by sites like, www.travelocity.com, which gives comparative prices as well as airline schedules. There are several other websites offering similar services. Although the impact of internet on travel agency business is going to affect it adversely in the long run, the travel agent will not be out of business. European budget hotels are some of the best beneficiaries of the internet revolution— receiving bookings from all over the world from travellers wanting economical accommodation. According to Cyrus Gazdar, former President of the Travel Agents Association of India and a leading expert on new

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technology, by 2005 the revenue of travel agents from travel agency commissions will come down by fifty per cent.

SCENE

IN

INDIA

India is one country where IATA discipline still holds. Though the price war has left no standard tariffs—all airlines are offering major discounts to sell their seats including those with excellent reputation as dependable carriers. Another innovation in the Indian market is the emergence of consolidators, appointed by airlines to offer cut-throat prices. Consolidators are bulk-buyers of airlines seat who then retail it to individuals as well as travel agents, keeping a small margin for themselves. Another new institution to reappear in India will be travel agent Co-ops or Consortia as in USA. It may be in the offing as the industry reshapes. The number of IATA-affiliated travel agencies in India has not declined, in fact it has increased from one thousand two hundred two years ago to about one thousand five hundred at present. Travel business in India is increasing at a good rate— five per cent annually. Outbound business is even better, the shortage of airlines seats make travel agents kind of indispensable. Adi Katgara, Director TCI, expressed his anguish at airlines policy to introduce consolidators, throwing away their seats to beat each other in preference to regular IATA travel agents who worked for them for small commissions. Now, they end up paying higher commissions unprecedented in the history of Indian travel industry. Another development in Indian travel industry is the merger or amalgamation of large Indian travel outfits with much larger multinationals. The trend was started by Airfreight Ltd. with Carlson, followed by Sita Travels joining the Kuonis. This is an indication of the shape of things to come and we can predict more mergers, but it is good for the travel industry of India. Both our inbound and outbound tourism will grow.

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HISTORY

Travel Agency and Tourism OF

TOURISM

TCI of India : The Travel Corporation of India with its headquarters in Mumbai, is India’s largest travel agency in terms of financial turnover, offices in India and abroad, and the staff employed. July 1961 was a watershed year for the travel trade in India. It marked the merger of three leading Indian travel agencies, Jeena & Co., Lee & Muirhead (India) Pvt. Ltd. and N. Jamnadas & Co., to form the Travel Corporation (India) Ltd. Since then, TCI has pioneered new areas in tourism and helped thousands of tourists to discover India and other parts of the world. Along the way, they have earned on behalf of the Indian exchequer, millions of dollars in foreign exchange, collected many prestigious tourism awards and secured a global reputation as successful travel agents. It has won the Government of India’s National Tourism Award around fourteen times. Complete Travel Shop : TCIs services range from international and domestic ticketing to travel documentation and hotel reservations. Their exclusive “Speedotel” service assures instant room reservations at over seventy hotels all over India. TCI has its own fleet of the latest air-conditioned and non-airconditioned deluxe coaches and limousines. TCI are agents for India’s extensive rail network, Indrail passes. They are also special representatives of Eurail, Japan Rail, Amtrak, Greyhound and Cosmos in India. TCI has an annual turnover of Rs 2500 million. It has over a thousand professionals in its twenty-seven offices in India and twelve sales offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, New York, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto and Beunos Aires. TCI has achieved international recognition and is a member of almost all major international travel trade associations. It represents more than a thousand international tour operators.

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TCI has achieved distinction through its innovative efforts. It was often first with new travel ideas, like exploring and developing new areas for tourism like Sikkim, Bhutan, Lakshadweep Islands, Andaman Islands and Ladakh, promoting India as a conference destination and pioneering cruises in the Indian Ocean; introducing air charters and developing incentive and special interest tours to India. TCI was the first to offer scuba-diving facilities in India at its Andaman Beach Resort, achieving the position of an undisputed leader in its field. Due to their large volume of business with hotels and airlines, TCI is in a position to get better rates for their clients.

BUSINESS

IN

INDIA

In promoting inbound business, TCI has been very innovative. For instance, they were one of the first agencies to introduce special interest tours. A fantastic variety of special interest tours is offered. Among these are: Anthropology

Yoga

Archaeology

Angling

Architecture

Biking

Astrology

Desert Safari

Buddhism

Golf

Cuisines

Hang Gliding

Fairs and Festivals

Heli-skiing

Horticulture

Rock Climbing

India by Rail

Scuba Diving

Museums

Skiing

Ornithology

Trekking and Mountaineering

Palaces

Water Sports

Photography

White-water-rafting

Gems and Jewellery

Wild-life

Shopping

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Travel Agency and Tourism AND

PROMOTION

Another area of their specialisation is incentive travel to India. Incentive travel tours are luxurious travel programmes offered by major international companies as rewards to their best workers. TCI designs their programme in India with great care and imagination, adding special touches like the flowers and sandalwood welcome, elephant and camel rides, mock Indian weddings, folk and classical dances, palmistry, magic shows, juggling and other folk entertainment. Lavish banquets and theme parties are organised in chandelier-lit ballrooms of Maharajas’ palaces and royal gardens. Sometimes, desert camps are organised for guests. Hospitality for each group is different. Bazaars and fashion shows are also organised. Special souvenirs, video films and photo albums pertaining to their visit are gifted to clients.

CONFERENCES

IN THE

WORLD

International conferences are also an area where TCI has done a good job. They have set up a special conference management cell to undertake the handling of international and national conferences with precision. Their services include selection of conference venues, hotel and airline reservations, local transportation, sightseeing, pre-and post-conference tours and all the supporting services required for the smooth operation of an international or national conference. Air Charters and Cruise Ships : TCI has pioneered the development of tourist air charters to India. With the liberalisation of the Government of India’s regulations on charter movement, TCI is now handling tourist charters from UK, Germany and Scandinavia. Similarly, TCI handles ground arrangements for many luxury liners calling on Indian ports, looking after their tour and travel arrangements while these ships berth in Mumbai, Chennai Goa or Cochin ports.

Agencies at Work

NEW AREAS :

A

157

DISCOVERY

Discovering new areas for tourism has been a tradition with TCI. They were the first agency to discover the potential of both Andaman as well as the Lakshadweep Islands. TCI built the Andaman Beach Resort, the first deluxe resort in Port Blair in 1978, opening up the area for international tourism. It was the first to introduce cruises in the Indian Ocean in 1974. They have ambitious plans to develop more cruises to South-East Asia, Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Ladakh was yet another area which TCI promoted and brought on the international tourist map. India Outbound : TCI is a major promoter of overseas holidays, tailored for Indians and is one of the largest outbound tour operators of the country. TCI’s “Funtours” are carefully planned and include accommodation at first class hotels, offering Indian vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals, transportation by deluxe coaches and sightseeing with knowledgeable local guides. Every tour is accompanied by a trained and experienced TCI tour escort. Destinations include Europe, UK, USA, South-East Asia, South-East Africa, Mauritius, Maldives, Nepal, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Dubai and Australia. Every year thousands of Indians make use of their services for overseas holidays.

TOURISM

AT

HOME

TCI is also active in domestic tourism, though it is not their strongest area. Specially designed for the Indian holiday market, the TCI’s “24 Carat Indian Holidays” are flexible and economical packages to popular holiday destinations like Goa, Shimla, Kulu-Manali, Darjeeling, Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Kerala, Andaman Islands, Lakshadweep Islands, Mahabalipuram and Delhi-Agra-Jaipur.

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During the four decades of its existence, TCI has grown from strength to strength mainly due to its creative marketing approach to tourism. In promoting international tourism to India, TCI has several firsts to its credit. It was the first Indian travel agency to open offices overseas. It responded to the needs of the market and wherever it found potential, it opened an office. For instance, it opened its office in Tokyo immediately after the Japanese started travelling overseas in the mid-sixties. Now, it has opened an office in Beuros Aires to tap the tourist potential from South America. TCI is also one of the first to introduce automation in its operations and put up its website: www.tcindia.com to market tourism services worldwide. The success of any modern travel agency depends upon its ability to respond to the needs of customers—TCI seems to follow that golden rule. To summarise most leisure travel business today revolves around travel agents and tour operators. They promote and sell all kinds of travel and travel-related services to the public. The travel agency business is not very old. The first travel agency was set up by Thomas Cook in the year 1845, as he discovered accidentally that packaging of travel services could be a profitable business. He also introduced travellers’ cheques and hotel vouchers, eliminating the need of cash in travel. Today, there are over sixty thousand travel agencies appointed by IATA and perhaps the same number which do not have the official approval. In India, there are only one thousand five hundred IATA-appointed travel agencies, but several of them have more than one office. Travel agencies are of two kinds: one, the general services travel agency which undertakes all kinds of travel and travelrelated business and two, specialised travel agencies specialising in business travel, conventions and conferences, incentive travel,

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159

outbound or inbound travel. Travel agencies can be further subdivided into wholesalers and retailers, but several of them combine both functions. Among the services provided by travel agencies are airlines, rail and cruise reservations, booking of hotels and rent-a-car vehicles at the other end of the journey, developing and marketing overseas and domestic package holidays, organising conferences/conventions, entertainments/sports, developing incentive tours, insurance, etc. Their main source of profits is from the commissions earned from their principals like airlines, hotels, steamship companies, car rental companies and railways. To open a new travel agency, it is important to select a location, which is easily accessible to the type of customers whom it wishes to attract. To make it profitable, the owner has to get IATA and other licences in the first year of its operation. Only then is an agency entitled to get commissions from international airlines. New technologies like the computerised Central Reservation System (CRS) has made the task of travel agencies easier and more profitable. With a touch of a few buttons, they can hand over the entire itinerary to a client duly printed. But a newer technology-communications through internet opens new horizons. It may help travel agents further but it also threatens their very existence. Any person owning a personal computer can access any travel information through internet, make reservations and is already in a position to pay by fibre cash. There are at present five million internet connections in India but within the next few years there may be several million. Payment through internet may take time to reach India but Lufthansa Guman Airlines has announced that a potential traveller could do any travel transaction with the help of their ‘Smart Card’ through internet on all their flights as well as the flights of seven hundred other airlines through their Reservation System. Other airlines are not far behind.

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Travel Agency and Tourism

Due to recent liberalisation of the Indian economy, and relaxation of foreign exchange restrictions, Indians are travelling overseas in large numbers. The outbound business today is more than inbound—four million against 2.6 million inbound. The balance of trade in tourism is no longer in India’s favour. It helps Indian trade, industry, exports and expands educational horizons. Several foreign government have opened their tourist offices in India to lure Indians to travel to their lands—a healthy competition. We should welcome that. PATA has done a survey on India’s outbound tourism. According to its estimates, twenty-five million Indians are today in a position to afford foreign travel. Only four million are travelling, leaving a vast potential untapped.

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161

7 TOURISM MANAGEMENT A major contributing factor in growth of air travel holiday tourism has been the development of the ‘inclusive tour’, a method of packaging a holiday. This has been the result of a dramatic growth of tourist traffic to the Mediterranean countries from Europe in the last thirty years. The idea of buying a package of travel, accommodation and perhaps some ancillary services such as entertainment, etc., became an establishment in Western Europe in the 1960s. Essentially, an ‘inclusive tour’ is a package of transport and accommodation and perhaps some other services, which is sold as a single holiday for an all inclusive price. This inclusive price is usually significantly lower than could be obtained by conventional methods of booking transport and accommodation separately from individual hotel and transport tariffs. The principal feature of the inclusive tour is that the tourist may buy for a single price a holiday which is cheaper than would be possible for the holiday maker if he brought the components of his holiday separately and directly from individual hotels and from transport companies or from a retail travel agent.

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Travel Agency and Tourism

TOUR OPERATORS The chief functionary or the principal in this system is the “tour operator”. It is the tour operator who buys aircraft seats and hotel beds and certain other facilities such as surface transport or entertainment and makes up the package. Historically, the tour operator has mostly emerged from retail travel agency. However, today a clear distinction must be made between a tour operator and a travel agent. The latter, the retail travel agent, undertakes to sell the travel services of his principal, i.e., airline companies and other transport undertakings, hotel groups, shipping lines and the provision of such ancillary services as traveller’s cheques, insurance, etc. The tour operator is a manufacturer of a tourism product unlike the travel agent who is the retailer of the tourism products. He plans, organises and sells tours. The tour operator makes all the necessary arrangements—transport, accommodation, sight-seeing, insurance, entertainment and other matters and sells this ‘package’ for an all inclusive price. A package tour is designed to fit a particular group of travellers. There may be special interest tours, i.e., trekking, wildlife tours, etc., and can be escorted. An escorted tour normally includes transportation, meals, sight-seeing, accommodation, guide services, etc. It is the “escort” or the “group leader” who is responsible for maintaining the schedule of the tour and for looking after all the arrangements.

PACKAGES

FOR

TOUR

Group Inclusive Tour (GIT) : This is the most popular form of tour in this category where people travel in groups of 15 or more persons. These tours are available for any destination. The terms and conditions for group inclusive tours are laid down by IATA. The escort for such groups normally travels free as the airline provides him with free passage and accommodation. The Foreign Inclusive Tour (FIT), on the other hand, is an unescorted

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163

package tour. The FIT tours are comparatively more flexible. The traveller can buy a pre-determined package with arrangements for sight-seeing, hotels and certain meals, where necessary. He does not tour with a group. He can make his own arrangements and programmes according to his liking. The inclusive tour is one of the several devices which enable tourists to enjoy the lower price. The Group Inclusive Tour (GIT) programme consists of a series of integrated travel services. Each of the travel services like seat in a aircraft, a hotel room, etc., is purchased by a tour operator in bulk and resold to his retailers or customers directly as part of a package at an all-inclusive price. The product commonly referred to as a ‘package tour are single destination holidays’. In other words, a customer would buy a package holiday from a tour operator or a wholesaler to any single destination, for instance, a tour operator in a particular country will sell a package at a particular price for a cultural holiday in India, a beach holiday in Bali, a wildlife adventure trip in Kenya or a shopping holiday in Singapore, etc. However, some packages comprise two or more destinations. In fact, lately, twin destination packages have become quite popular as with little additional price one can visit more than one country. These tours are quite common and popular in Europe.

PRICE ADVANTAGES The success of a package tours is the result of the fact that the operator, by purchasing his principal services in bulk rather than individually is able to negotiate lower prices. This lower price of the package tour or inclusive tour is made possible by obtaining the air travel and the hotel accommodation in bulk. As tour operating today has become a highly competitive business its success mainly depends upon the operator maintaining the lowest possible prices while continuing to give to its customers a ‘value for money’.

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Travel Agency and Tourism

Because of the bulk purchase, tour operators are able to procure substantial discounts from carriers, hoteliers, etc., and offer their package deals at much lower rates. The profits of the tour operator and the success of his operations, however, depend a great deal on the achieving of very high load factors for the aircraft and high occupancy rates for the hotel. In this way unit costs can be maintained sufficiently low to enable the tour operator to offer his package at a price which is often lower than the cheapest available fare alone. A breakthrough in the business of tour operation came when airlines recognised that tour operation could fill the empty seats, and introduced special fares for use exclusively by tour operators for combining into an inclusive tour. The tour operator has thus emerged as the key manufacturer of the tourist product. The product is the inclusive tour, packaged, standardised and mass produced. The tour operator may sell this product directly to the public or through the channels of the retail travel agencies. It can be marketed successfully in the tourist-generating countries to a mass market just because it is standardised, packaged and quality controlled. The product is, therefore, susceptible to the similar marketing techniques that are applied to the marketing of consumer goods. Package Tour Marketing (Discounts) : In a competitive world market situation, where there is a choice of several alternate holiday destinations, a tour operator has to make a careful decision regarding promoting and marketing a particular package. After considering various alternatives, a tour operator has to narrow down the choice to few potential destinations. A realistic appraisal of the potential of the selected destinations is to be made. Selection of a potential destination by a tour operator is to be based on several factors; some of these factors include the: (i) number of tourists which the area presently attracts; (ii) growth rate in tourist arrivals in these areas;

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165

(iii) share of the competing companies; (iv) estimate of the total share of the market which the company could expect to gain in the next few years of operation; (v) availability of suitable and convenient connections to a destination; (vi) negotiations with principals like the airlines and hotels; and (vii) negotiations with local handling agents at the destinations, etc.

TOUR PAMPHLETS Once all the above factors have been considered, a tour operator would then package a tour and incorporate it in a brochure known as “tour brochure”. A brochure is a document bound in the form of a booklet. It is a voluminous publication with special emphasis on the quality of a paper, the graphic design of the cover and the layout of pages. The tour operators brochure is the most vital marketing tool for selling his product. Since tourism is an intangible product which cannot be pretested by the prospective consumer prior to the purchase, the brochure becomes the important channel of informing a customer about the product and also motivating him to buy the product. The brochure contains a comprehensive and detailed information about a destination including cruises, bus tours, safaris, charter vacations, etc., with colour photographs regarding all the destinations which a company is promoting. Detailed information about hotels, weather conditions, frontier formalities, etc., is also given. The price of various tours is invariably mentioned along with the dates when tours take place. Many tour operators take great care with production of their brochures. There are, however, no travel industry standards or guidelines or the production of brochures. Established tour operating companies take great care while designing their tour brochures.

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Travel Agency and Tourism

The following are some important areas which need to be taken care of while getting the tour brochure printed: (i) Quality of paper (ii) Layout (iii) Quality of printing (iv) Photography (v) Detailed itineraries (vi) Special features (vii) Weather conditions (viii) Maps of areas (ix) Tour conditions (x) Hotel information (xi) Terms and conditions of tour. Several large tour operating companies get their brochures designed and printed in their own advertising departments. Some get the brochures printed in conjunction with the design studio of their advertising agency, who in turn negotiate with the printer to obtain the best quotation and ensure that the print deadlines are adhered to. Adhering to the print deadline is extremely important as the company has to introduce the brochure at a predetermined date, coinciding in most cases with travel trade and consumer holiday fairs. The introduction of a brochure at these events both to travel trade and consumer is crucial for marketing a package. Elements of a Tour Brochure : Two different versions of a tour brochure printed by two different companies are shown in the following pages. Brochure-I is printed by one of the leading tour operating companies having a worldwide network of its branches. A four-colour brochure printed on glazed art paper contains various programmes in the form of packages which the company is promoting through its brochure. However,

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only a few programmes of the company concerning India/Nepal have been shown to give to the reader an idea as to how these are packaged. In the brochure, several programmes have been offered for their clients. These have been appropriately titled to motivate the client. For instance, Programme-titled ‘Indian Experience’ is a nine-day classical tour covering Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi. From day one which is a departure day from USA to India till the ninth day with departure from India to USA, each of the days’ details have been worked out. The client can also take extension of one week’s holidays to Goa to relax on a beach or go to look for a tiger at one of the several game parks. Most of the tour operators offer extension programmes beyond the planned itineraries. A client has initially to pay a printed price for a basic programme and an additional price in case he takes an extension. The brochure gives both departure and return dates of the programme. Programme-II entitled “Splendours of the North” covers two weeks’ programme covering in addition to Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, places like Varanasi, Gwalior and Udaipur. Programme III is a special programme of 18 days entitled “Forts and Palaces”. This programme has been specially put together for those clients who have interest in arts and architecture covering forts and palaces. Programme-IV is twin destination programme covering both India and Nepal. A 22-day programme takes a client first to Nepal and then to India. Titled as “Classical Journey” it covers places associated with religion, culture, legends and mysteries. Travelling at a leisurely pace a tourist can absorb the splendid sights and saviour the unique flavour in both Nepal and India. Programme-V is again a special interest programme for those interested in nature and wildlife. An 18-day programme takes a client through rich tropical jungles, extensive grasslands, temperate forests of India which are reserves of wildlife and some of the world’s most stunning

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Travel Agency and Tourism

national parks. Programme-VI is a 19-day programme to South India entitled “Southern Trader” covering golden beaches and temples in the region. Programme-VII is a 17-day tour entitled “Culinary Feast” covering both North and South India and tailor made for those who have interest in Indian cuisine. Similarly Programme-VIII again is a twin destination programme covering India and the Maldives. An special interest programme of 16 days covers the finest beaches in the Southern coast as also the Maldives. The programme in India covers some of the famous trade routes discovered by the Arabs, Greek, Roman, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British traders. A sample of the brochure may be seen in the following pages. Experience of India Programme-I 9 Days: Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi Day I & 2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Delhi. Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the hotel. The rest of the morning is at leisure. In the afternoon there will be a brief tour of the sights of New Delhi. You will see its many monuments and buildings designed by Lutyens, including India Gate and the President’s house. Day 4. To Agra: In the morning you will visit the sights of Old Delhi, the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid—India’s largest mosque— and the Chandni Chowk bazaar. Early in the afternoon you will set off for Agra arriving in time for dinner, and stay at the hotel for 2 nights. Day 5. Agra: The morning will begin with a visit to Agra Fort, a massive complex with exquisite marble work, a testament to the power of successive Mughal emperors. You will then be taken to the incomparable Taj Mahal, seen as a magnificent

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expression of Emperor Shah Jahan’s undying love. In the afternoon there will be a visit to the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, known to be the forerunner of the Taj Mahal, and later you may wish to return to the Taj Mahal to see it in the soft light of the setting sun. Day 6. To Jaipur: You drive to Jaipur via Fatehpur Sikri, the once prosperous capital of the Mughal empire. Built by Emperor Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri remains in near perfect condition, as a reminder of the architectural wealth and power of one of India’s most famous empires. You will stay at the hotel. Day 7. Jaipur: In the morning you visit Amber where the ascent to the ancient capital is made by gaily caparisoned elephants. The fort has a variety of places within its winding 20kilometer walls, including the unusual Chamber of Mirrors. En route to Amber you will see the Palace of the Winds in the morning sun. The afternoon tour allows time to explore the City Palace, still home of Jaipur’s royal family, and the site of the Jantar Mantar or astrological observatory where India’s impressive scientific heritage can be appreciated. Day 8. To Delhi: You leave the romantic ‘Pink City’ of Jaipur, departing from the golden deserts of Rajasthan to the imperial grandeur of Delhi. You return to the hotel where a room has been reserved for you until the departure for the airport late in the night. Day 9. To USA: Early morning flight from Delhi to USA. Note: You may want to spend an additional week relaxing on one of India’s most famous beaches in Goa or go in search of the elusive tiger at one of India’s game reserves. OUT

RTN

14

Jan

6

Jan.

28

Jan

20

Jan.

3

Feb

11

Feb.

170

Travel Agency and Tourism

Contd... OUT

RTN

17

Feb

25

Feb.

3

Mar

11

Mar.

17

Mar.

25

Mar.

31

Mar.

8

Apr.

8

Apr.

22

Apr.

5

May

13

May

11

Aug.

19

Aug.

8

Sep.

16

Sep.

22

Sep.

30

Sep.

6

Oct.

14

Oct.

20

Oct.

28

Oct.

3

Nov.

11

Nov.

17

Nov.

25

Nov.

8

Dec.

16

Dec.

22.

Dec.

30

Dec.

Programme-II Splendours of the North 25 Days. Delhi-Varanasi-AgraGwalior-Jaipur-Udaipur-Delhi Day 1 &2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Arrive in Delhi: Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the hotel for 2 nights. Afternoon free to rest after your flight. Day 4. Delhi: Visit New Delhi, the capital city and a ‘Jewel in the Crown’ with its buildings—many of which were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens—the Qutub Minar and Emperor Humayun’s tomb. The historic capital of the Mughal and British rulers is a fascinating blend of the old and the new. In the afternoon see

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the famous Red Fort—once the most opulent fort of the Mughal Empire—the Jama Masjid, Raj Ghat and Old Delhi’s bazaar. Day 5. To Varanasi: Fly to Varanasi, the holiest of Hindu cities situated on the sacred River Ganges and a centre of philosophy and religion. Just outside the city is Sarnath, where Buddha preached his first sermon. Visit the Sarnath museum where the ancient Sarnath monastery’s treasures are displayed. Stay at the hotel for 1 night. Day 6. To Agra: Early morning boat ride along the ‘ghats’, the steps which lead down to the river, to see the gathered faithful, ritually cleansing themselves of their sins. In the afternoon, fly to Agra, once the capital of the Mughal empire and the home of the Taj Mahal. Transfer to the hotel for 3 nights. Day 7. Agra: Morning visit to the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan’s monument of eternal love to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Also visit the massive complex of Agra Fort with its many palaces. In the afternoon, visit the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah or the tomb of the great, emperor, Akbar, at Sikandra. A second visit to the Taj Mahal in the soft light of the setting sun is also well worthwhile. Day 8. Gwalior: Gwalior is known for its massive fort built atop sheer cliffs rising out of the plains. Within the walls the Jain statues, Rajput palaces, 9th century Hindu temples and a Victorian school. Travel to Gwalior by train and, on arrival, drive to the royal guest house, for lunch. After lunch, sightseeing will commence, followed by return to Agra. Day 9. To Jaipur: Transfer by road to Jaipur, stopping en route at Fatehpur Sikri, the deserted red sandstone city which Akbar built as his capital in the 16th century and abandoned just 15 years later. In Jaipur, stay for 3 nights at the hotel. Day 10. Jaipur: Jaipur is known as the ‘Pink City’ for its many pink-coloured sandstone buildings in the walled city. See the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory and the ‘Palace of the Winds’. In earlier times, the ladies of the court would stand

172

Travel Agency and Tourism

behind the sandstone screen to see and not be seen. The afternoon is at leisure. Day 11. Jaipur: The highlight of morning is a ride on elephant back to the ancient capital of Amber, perched on a hill and surrounded by a 20-kilometere-long wall. In the afternoon visit the colourful and friendly bazaars of Jaipur. Day 12. To Udaipur: The princely state of Mewar is known for its lakes, palaces and gardens. Fly to Udaipur and stay at the hotel for 2 nights. En route to the hotel you visit the vast City Palace. In the afternoon visit private royal gardens and other sites of interest. Day 13. Udaipur: The full day is at leisure. Optional excursions are available to the nearby hilltop forts and temples. Day 74. To Delhi: Morning you fly back to Delhi, bidding farewell to the magical city of Udaipur. A room has been reserved at the hotel up until the time of your departure for the airport late night. The afternoon is free for final shopping. Day 15. To USA: Early morning flight to the USA. OUT

RTN

7

Jan.

21

Jan.

21

Jan.

4

Feb.

28

Jan.

11

Feb.

11

Feb.

25

Feb.

25

Mar.

8

Apr.

11

Mar.

25

Mar.

8

Apr.

22

Apr.

22

Apr.

6

May.

19

Aug.

2

Sep

2

Sep.

16

Sep.

9

Sep.

23

Sep.

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Contd.. OUT

RTN

23

Sep.

7

Oct.

7

Oct.

21

Oct.

14

Oct.

28

Oct.

21

Oct.

4

Nov.

4

Nov.

18

Nov.

11

Nov.

25

Nov.

25.

Nov.

9

Dec.

16

Dec.

30

Dec.

Programme-III Forts & Palaces 28 Days: Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-KhimsarJaisalmer-Jodhpur-Udaipur-Delhi Day 1 & 2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Arrive in Delhi: Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the hotel for 2 nights. The rest of the afternoon is at leisure. Day 4. Delhi: In the morning, visit the sights of New Delhi, the city built by the British with its many monuments and buildings designed by Lutyens. You will see the India Gate, the President’s house as well as the Pre-Mughal monuments and the tomb of Emperor Humayun. In the afternoon, visit the sights of Old Delhi, the living legacy of the Mughals. Visit the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid—India’s largest mosque — Raj Ghat and the Chandni Chowk bazaar. Day 5. To Agra: Early morning, board one of India’s most modern trains, the Shatabdi Express, to Agra. Stay at the hotel for a night. After breakfast visit the vast Agra Fort. The afternoon is free and you may wish to visit the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, often referred to as ‘Baby Taj’. Visit the Taj Mahal, the marble

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memorial of an emperor’s undying love to see it in the most perfect of lights, the light of the setting sun in the late afternoon. Day 6. To Jaipur: Drive to the land of the Rajputs and its capital, Jaipur. Spend 2 nights at the hotel. En route visit Emperor Akbar’s deserted capital city of Fatehpur Sikri, built in 1571, abandoned 15 years later and which has remained unchanged for over 400 years. Day 7. To Jaipur: After breakfast, visit Amber Fort, pausing en route to see the ‘Palace of the Winds’, Hawa Mahal. Arriving at Amber, ascend to the fort on an elephant and visit the myriad marble palaces. After lunch, visit the City Palace and the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory. Day 8. To Khimsar: Morning visit to the small village of Khimsar. Afternoon free. (Accommodation will most likely be in picturesque Rajasthani tents.) Day 9. Khimsar: Arrive at the medieval desert town of Nagpur, with a fine 11th century fort and a mosque built by the great Mughal emperor, Akbar. Return in the afternoon. Day 10. To Jaisalmer: Following the sun, drive west into the heart of the Thar desert to Jaisalmer, a perfect example of a walled, desert city. Spend 2 nights at the hotel. Day 11. Jaisalmer: Morning walk to the hilltop fort, through the maze of narrow streets dotted with Jain temples and havelis (ornately decorated mansions). After lunch an excursion to the sand-dunes at Sam and the opportunity to take a short camel ride. Day 12. To Jodhpur: Drive east, to the edge of the desert before arriving at the ancient and imposing fort city of Jodhpur. Spend 2 nights at the hotel. Day 13. Jodhpur: A morning tour of this ancient desert city takes you to the magnificent Meherangarh Fort, with its many palaces which serve as a constant reminder of the city’s glorious

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past and the doomed romantic chivalry of the Rajput warriors. The afternoon is free. Day 14. To Udaipur: Continue your journey south to the oasis city of Udaipur. En route, visit the Jain temples of Ranakpur and have a light lunch at Castle. Continuing on through the Aravali Hills, arrive at the Lake Palace in time for dinner and spend 3 nights here. Day 15. Udaipur: A short tour of Jagdish Temple and the City Palace. The afternoon is free to relax in your luxurious surroundings or perhaps take a short cruise on Lake Pichola. OUT 12 26 9 23 9 23 7 21 5 19 2 16 30 21

Jan. Jan. Feb. Feb. Mar. Mar. Sep. Sep. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Nov. Dec.

RTN 29 12 26 12 26 9 24 8 22 5 19 3 17 17

Jan. Feb. Feb. Mar. Mar. Apr. Apr. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Dec. Dec. Jan.

Day 16. Udaipur Leisure for optional sightseeing in the area. Day 17. To Delhi: Morning flight to Delhi. A room will be at your disposal at the hotel until you depart for the airport at late night. Day 18. To USA: Early morning flight from Delhi to the USA.

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SHORT PLEASURE TOURS Programme-IV 22 Days: Delhi-Kathmandu-Temple Tiger-VaranasiKhajuraho- Agra-Jaipur-Udaipur-Aurangabad-Mumbai Day 1 & 2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Arrive Delhi : Arrive in Delhi. After immigration clearance and baggage collection you will be met by a representative and transferred to the Hotel for 2 nights. The historic capital of the Mughal and British rulers is a fascinating blend of the old and the new. In the afternoon, see the famous Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and Old Delhi’s bazaar. In the evening meet your fellow North American travellers at a cocktail reception. Day 4. Delhi-Kathmandu: The sights of New Delhi include the buildings of the British Raj, many designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Morning visit to the Qutub Minar and Emperor Humayun’s tomb. In the evening board a 2-hour flight to the Mountain Kingdom of Nepal. Upon arrival transfer to the hotel. Day 5. Royal Chitwan Park Temple Tiger: In the morning visit to Pashupatinath which is dedicated to the Lord Shiva and continue to the airport for a short flight south to Bharatpur. From the airport, drive through the traditional Tharu villages before crossing the Narayani River by boat and arriving at Temple Tiger, your jungle home for the next 2 nights. In the late afternoon go on your first game viewing. Day 6. Temple Tiger: The full day is spent in the pursuit of Chitwan’s wildlife, both on elephant back and by jeep. Here you will look for the Indian rhinoceros and the Bengal Tiger in addition to hundreds of species of birds and smaller mammals.

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Day 7. To Kathmandu: In the morning fly back to Kathmandu hotel. In the afternoon, explore the streets of Kathmandu, full of wooden pagodas, temples and Buddhist stupas. See Durbar Square and the Swayambhunath shrine. In the evening you meet the British members of your group at a special welcome dinner. Day 8. Kathmandu: Early morning drive to the picturesque little village of Nagarkot to see the sunrise over Everest and the Himalayas. Return via Bhadgaon, one of the three ancient capitals of Nepal. See the five-storeyed Nyatapola Pagoda, the Golden Gate and the Palace of Fifty five windows. The afternoon is free. Day 9. To Varanasi : Fly to Varanasi, the holiest of Hindu cities, situated on the sacred River Ganges. Transfer to the hotel for a night. Day 10. To Khajuraho: Early morning boat ride along the ‘ghats’, the stone steps which lead down to the river, to see the gathered faithful, ritually cleansing themselves of their sins. After breakfast at your hotel, visit the important Buddhist centres of Sarnath before your flight to Khajuraho in the afternoon. Stay at the hotel for a night. Day 11. To Agra: Morning visit to the Chandela dynasty temples, famous for their spectacular sculpture and erotic carvings. In the afternoon fly to Agra. Transfer to the hotel for 2 nights. Day 12. Agra: Morning visit to the Taj Mahal—Shah Jahan’s monument of eternal love—and Agra Fort with its many palaces and halls. In the afternoon there is an optional visit either to the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah or to Emperor Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra. Day 13. To Jaipur: Transfer by road to Jaipur, stopping en route at Fatehpur Sikri, the deserted red sandstone city which

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Akbar built as his capital in the 16th century. In Jaipur stay at the hotel for 2 nights. Day 14. Jaipur: Morning drive out to the ancient capital, and magnificent fort at Amber on elephant back. After lunch explore Jaipur itself which is known as the ‘Pink City’. See the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory and the ‘Palace of the Winds’. Day 15. To Udaipur: Early morning fly to Udaipur. Stay at the hotel for 3 nights. En route to the hotel visit the vast City Palace. Afternoon, visit the private royal gardens. Day 16. Udaipur: At leisure. Optional excursions available to the nearby hilltop forts and temples such as Chittorgarh or Eklingi. Day 17. Udaipur: Drive out to visit the Jain temple at Ranakpur, one of the most impressive Jain temples in India. Return in the evening. Day 18. To Aurangabad: Fly to Aurangabad, the most southerly and the last of the Mughal capitals. In the afternoon visit the Ellora cave temples, rock-hewn shrines of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist art. Stay at the hotel for 2 nights. Day 19. Aurangabad: The Ajanta caves were discovered by a British Army patrol in the 19th century. The Buddhist sculptures and frescoes representing everyday secular and religious life are a thousand years old. Day 20. To Mumbai: Fly to Mumbai, the wealthiest and one of the most cosmopolitan of Indian cities. Transfer to hotel until the time of departure. Day 21. Mumbai: Visit the sights of Mumbai: the Gateway of India, the Prince of Wales Museum, Marine Drive and Malabar Hill. Afternoon free to explore, relax, shop. Day 22. To USA: Early morning flight from Mumbai to the USA.

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OUT 8 22 5 19 2 10 24 8 22 5 19 17

Jan. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Mar. Sep. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Dec.

RTN 29 12 26 9 23 1 15 29 12 26 10 7

Jan. Feb. Feb. Apr. Apr. Oct. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Dec. Jan.

Jungle Odyssey Programme-V 18 Days: Delhi-Corbett-Ranthambore-Bharatpur-AgraBandhavgarh-Khajuraho-Delhi Day 1 & 2, Depart from USA: Fly from your USA departure city to India. Day 3. Delhi: Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the hotel for a night. Day 4. To Corbett National Park: After breakfast, set off into the foothills of the Himalaya and Corbett National Park. Spend 4 nights at the luxurious Tiger Tops Corbett Lodge. The park is set in the undulating Shiwalik foothills of the Himalayas with the Ramganga river flowing through it. Thickly forested, it provides cover for a vast amount of diverse game. Days 5,6 & 7: Game viewing in Corbett the next three days are dedicated to bird-watching and sighting animals, both in and outside the park. In this region, together with the elephant,

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leopard, hog deer and gharial, to name but a few animals, there is an extraordinary array of birdlife with over 520 known species. Day 8. To Delhi: Drive back to Delhi, across the rich farmland of the Gangetic plain. Stay overnight at the hotel. Day 9. To Ranthambore: An early morning flight brings you to Jaipur from where you continue to Ranthambore by road. Formerly the private hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jaipur, this park has always boasted an abundance of many species of game, including tiger, leopard, marsh crocodile, jungle cats and sloth bear. Spend 2 nights at the Lodge. Evening game drive. Day 10. Ranthambore: Early morning and evening game drives, exploring the area by jeep and beginning your search for the elusive tiger and its prey. After the morning game drive, visit the ancient fort in the heart of the park. Day 11. To Bharatpur: Early morning drive to Bharatpur and spend 2 nights at the Bharatpur Forest Lodge/Saras Lodge. Evening bird-watching down in the wetlands. Day 12. Bharatpur: Bharatpur is one of the finest bird sanctuaries in Asia with a huge variety of birds, both migratory and resident, including duck, storks, waders and birds of prey. Early morning watching birds of prey. During daytime, relax at your lodge before returning to watch the birds coming in to roost later in the afternoon. Day 13. To Agra: Leisurely start for the incomparable ancient capital of Agra. En route visit the exquisitely preserved city of Fatehpur Sikri. This deserted red sandstone city was built by Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century. Arrive in Agra and spend a night at the hotel. In the soft light of the setting sun visit the world’s greatest monument to love, the Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his beloved wife, Mumtaz.

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Day 14, To Bandhavgarh : A morning flight brings you to Khajuraho from where you continue your journey through Madhya Pradesh by road to Bandhavgarh National Park. Spend 3 nights at the Bandhavgarh Jungle Camp. Days 15 &16. Game viewing in Bandhavgarh : Bandhavgarh was formerly the Rewa Maharaja’s hunting preserve and was declared a national park in 1968. Incorporated in 1994 into Project Tiger, it has long been famous for its health and stable tiger population. Other animals found here include the jungle cat, leopard, deer, gaur, various species of monkeys and a wide variety of birds. Over half the area is covered by sal forest and towards the north there are large stretches of bamboo and grassland. Two days will be spent game viewing in the early mornings and evenings with the daytime being free for further explorations. Day 17. To Khajuraho / Delhi: Drive to Khajuraho where, time permitting, you explore the decorative and unique temples for which the town is famous. After lunch, fly to Delhi and transfer to the hotel where a room will be at your disposal until your departure for the airport late at night.

SOUTH TRADERS Programme-VI 19 Days: Mumbai-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Mysore-MadrasMadurai-Thekkady-Cochin-Goa-Mumbai Day 1&2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Mumbai: Arrive in Mumbai where you stay at the hotel. In the afternoon you explore this bustling metropolis, India’s commercial capital. See the Marine Drive, Malabar Hill and the Gateway of India. Day 4. To Hyderabad: Travel to Elephanta Island by motor launch, visiting its 7th century rock-cut temples. The afternoon

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is free to explore Mumbai, before your evening flight to Hyderabad where you will stay at the hotel on Banjara Hill for 2 nights. Day 5. Hyderabad: Hyderabad became famous as the capital of the fabulously wealthy Nizam of Hyderabad. Visit the impressive and strategically placed Golconda Fort. Also visit the Charminar Gate and the thriving Mecca Masjid. Hyderabad’s market was reputed to be the finest in India and it retains much of its old charm. Day 6. To Bangalore: Early morning, fly south to Bangalore and check in at the hotel. Known as the Garden City, Bangalore is situated at 1,000 metres above sea level. It is famous for its botanical gardens, race track, polo fields and distinctive style of architecture. Afternoon is free to explore on your own. Day 7. To Mysore: Drive from Bangalore to Mysore, stopping at Srirangapatnam, where the legendary warrior Tipu Sultan built a summer palace. In Mysore, visit the Maharajah’s Palace, Chamundi Hill and the Statue of Nandi, the sacred bull of Shiva. Stay at the hotel. Day 8. To Chennai: Morning for leisure before taking the Shatabdi Express to Madras, arriving in the evening. Madras was the chief British settlement under Clive and provided the base for British expansion in India. It has soaring Gothic monuments along the palm-fringed esplanade. Stay at the hotel for 3 nights. Day 9. Chennai: This will be spent exploring some of India’s oldest monuments which are situated here: Fort St. George built in 1653 and the garrison church of St. Mary’s which is the oldest Anglican church in India. The afternoon is for leisure. Day 10. Chennai: Drive south to Kanchipuram, one of the seven sacred cities of India. It has a spectacular temple complex with many gopurams cupolas. After lunch at the hotel drive down to the famous shore temples at Mahabalipuram which date from the 7th century and were the work of the sculptors of the Pallava dynasty.

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Day 11. To Madurai: Fly to the temple town of Madurai, stay at the hotel for one night. Day 12. To Thekkady: Morning tour of this famous town which boasts of the magnificent Meenakshi Temple, remaining today a ‘living’ temple. Afternoon drive to Thekkady which is located in the cool of the Cardamom Hills, a beautiful area of tranquil winding roads, tea gardens, rubber estates and plantations growing pepper and coffee. Stay 2 nights at the village in Thekkady. Day 13. Thekkady: An excursion to Periyar Wildlife Reserve, famous for its herds of wild elephant and spectacular birdlife. Day 14. To Cochin: Morning drive via Kottayam for lunch at Vembanad Lake. After lunch travel to Alleppey by boat along the famous ‘backwaters’. These are a series of lagoons and waterways surrounded by a profusion of tropical vegetation. They cover thousands of acres adjacent to the Kerala coast where riverside village life can be observed all along the route. On arrival in Alleppey you will be met and driven to Cochin where you stay at the hotel on Willingdon Island for 2 nights. Day 15. Cochin: Known as the ‘Venice of the East’, Cochin is a town characterised by its colonial influences and many canals. Morning visit to the Portuguese church of St. Francis, the Jewish Synagogue of 1568 and the Matancherry Palace, built by the Portuguese and renovated by the Dutch. In the late afternoon, cruise on the Pathira Manal along South India’s most beautiful water route and watch the sunset from on board. Dinner will be served on board and you return to the hotel later in the evening. Day 16. To Goa: A Portuguese colony until 1961, Goa is an oasis of palm-fringed beaches, whitewashed churches and Mediterranean style houses. You arrive in the morning by plane from Cochin and transfer to the hotel. Day 17. Goa: A morning excursion brings you to Old Goa,

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the former capital of the State, where you visit the Se Cathedral in the abandoned city. The afternoon is free to relax on Goa’s famous beaches. Day 18. To Mumbai: After a morning leisure, an early afternoon flight to Mumbai, where a room will be at your disposal at the hotel until departure for the airport late at night. Day 19. To USA: Early morning flight from Mumbai to the USA. Note: This tour offers an ideal opportunity to extend your stay in Goa. Flights from Madras to Madurai can Vary from last minute changes at certain times of the year and it may be that you travel from Madras to Madurai by air-conditioned train. OUT 12 26 9 23 9 23 5 19 2 16 30 21

Jan. Jan. Feb. Feb. Mar. Mar. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Nov. Dec.

RTN 30 13 27 13 27 10 23 6 20 4 18 8

Jan. Feb. Feb. Mar. Mar. Apr. Oct. Nov. Nov. Dec. Dec. Jan.

Culinary Feast Programme-VII 17 Days: Delhi-Lucknow-Calcutta-Hyderabad-Mumbai-GoaMumbai

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Day 1&2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in USA to India. Day 3. Delhi: Arrive in Delhi and transfer to the hotel for 2 nights. Afternoon for leisure. Day 4. Delhi: Morning visit to New Delhi, the capital city and a ‘Jewel in the Crown’ with its British imperial buildings, many of which were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Qutub Minar and Emperor Humayun’s tomb. In the afternoon see the famous Red Fort, once the most opulent fort of the Mughal Empire, the Jama Masjid, Raj Ghat, Old Delhi’s bazaars and the thriving spice market. Dinner will be at the open-air Hauz Khas Village. Day 5. To Lucknow: Morning excursion to a private residence for demonstration of authentic Mughlai cooking, followed by lunch with your host. Late afternoon flight to Lucknow where you spend 2 nights at the hotel. Lucknowi delicacies for dinner at a special restaurant. Day 6. Lucknow: Visit the elegant city. Visit the great Bara Imambara, Hussainabad Imambara with its golden dome and the Residency, the centrepiece of one of the most dramatic sieges of all time. Finish with a visit to the marketplaces which are the pulse and nerve centre of city life, selling an enormous array of delicious local foods. Special Avadhi dinner. Day 7. To Calcutta: Morning cooking demonstration and afternoon for leisure before you take an evening flight to Calcutta. Spend 2 nights at the hotel. Day 8. Calcutta: Early morning visit to the flower market by Howrah bridge followed by a visit to what is considered to be one of India’s finest botanical gardens, set amid lakes and lawns, sprawled along the west bank of the Hooghly. Travel to the gardens in the traditional way, by ferry. Evening drinks will be hosted at the much renowned Tollygune Club followed by a traditional Bengali dinner at the hotel.

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Day 9. To Hyderabad: Morning tour of this remarkable city, visiting the Victoria Memorial. Afternoon flight to Hyderabad where you spend 2 nights at the hotel. Day 10. Hyderabad: Hyderabad became famous as the capital of the fabulously wealthy Nizam of Hyderabad. Visit the impressive and strategically placed Golconda Fort, Charminar gate, the thriving Mecca Masjid and the market which was reputed to be the finest in India. Return to Golconda Fort in the evening for a stunning light-and-sound show on the ramparts followed by a special Hyderabadi dinner where you will sample some of the many specialities of the city’s cuisine. Day 11. To Mumbai: Morning flight to Mumbai where you spend 2 nights at the hotel. In the afternoon explore this bustling metropolis. See the Marine Drive, Malabar Hill and the Gateway of India. In the afternoon a demonstration of Indian cooking will be organised by the legendary chefs of the grand hotel. Day 12. Mumbai: Morning visit to Crawford Market and the Punjabi Family Curry and Spice markets. Afternoon for leisure. Dinner will be hosted at a private home with a typical tempting, local cuisine. Day 13. To Goa: Late morning flight to Goa where you spend 3 nights at the hotel. Evening cocktails at Sunset Point followed by a poolside barbecue, serving local and seafood specialities. Day 14. Goa: A Portuguese colony until 1961, the city of Old Goa still retains strong Portuguese influences which you explore today, including the Se Cathedral. Later visit a local fenni (Goan wine) production site and farmers market in Mapusa. Dinner will be at Casa Portuguese on Baga Beach with a specially prepared local menu. Day 15. Goa: Full day for leisure, relaxing on Goa’s exquisite beaches followed by a cooking demonstration in a private home where a typical Goani dinner will be served.

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Day 16. To Mumbai: Return to Mumbai where a room will be at your disposal at the hotel until the time of your departure for the airport late at night. Day 17. To USA: Early morning flight from Mumbai to USA. OUT

WEST

RTN

4

Feb

20

Feb

4

Mar

20

Mar

14

Oct

30

Oct

18

Nov

4

Dec

AND

EAST COMBINATION

Programme-VIII 16 Days: Mumbai-Goa-Cochin-Trivandrum the Maldives Day 1 &2. Depart from USA: Fly from your departure city in the USA to India. Day 3. Mumbai/Goa: Arrive in Mumbai and transfer to the hotel for relaxation before an afternoon flight to Goa. Spend 4 nights at the hotel. Day 4. Goa: Morning for leisure, relaxing on Goa’s famous beaches. Afternoon, introduction to the Malabar Coast with a walk around the hotel’s own Portuguese fort remains. Day 5. Goa: Morning cruise up the Mandovi River to Old Goa for a look around the Cathedral of St. Catherine da Se, and many other churches, convents and basilicas surviving amidst the ruins of this grand 16th century Portuguese city. Lunch at a typical Goan restaurant with an opportunity to stroll around the present capital, Panaji. En route to the hotel, visit an Old Goan mansion. Day 6. Goa: Morning visit to the wetlands, up river, to see the crocodiles and a good variety of local and migratory birds. Afternoon for leisure.

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Day 7. To Cochin: Early morning flight to Cochin, the Venice of the East and stay 3 nights at the hotel on Wilingdon Island. Afternoon, introduction to Kerala and its spice traders followed by a sunset cruise to the mouth of the harbour. Day 8. Cochin: Morning visit to Matanchery to see India’s oldest synagogue, Jew town and the Dutch Palace, followed by visits to India’s first European church, St. Francis’ Church at Fort Cochin and a fine merchant’s home. Afternoon for leisure before visiting a private home in Ernakulum (Cochin’s twin city) to see a demonstration of some of Kerala’s magnificent dance and martial arts traditions and ayurvedic exercises and cures. Dinner will be served at the private residence. Day 9. Cochin: Morning drive down to Alleppey for a cruise through the backwaters of Kerala, along canals bordered by mango trees, villages, paddy fields, where life is lived both beside and on the water. Lunch on the shores of Vembanad Lake, before returning to Alleppey where you visit a small coir factory before returning to Cochin. Day 10. To Trivandrum : Morning drive south through lush Kerala to Trivandrum, the hilly and spacious capital of Kerala, arriving in time to visit the Napier Museum in the Botanical Gardens and see the Padmanabhaswamy Temple (closed for entry to non-Hindus). Stay a night in Kovalam at the hotel. Day 11. To the Maldives : Early morning flight to Male, the capital of the Maldives, a chain of 1,200 low coral atolls straddling the equator and of which only 9 are larger than two square miles. Stroll around this main atoll to see Hukuru Miskiiy (The Friday Mosque) before taking the boat to Emboodhu Finolhu Island Resort on Male’s south atoll for 4 nights. Day 12. The Maldives : Morning, introduction to the Maldives both above and beneath the sea. Afternoon for leisure. Reservation Form of Passengers : Please read the Booking Conditions and Traveller’s Advice carefully. Complete this form

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in BLOCK LETTERS and mail with deposit of $300 per person and/or full payment if within eight weeks of travel. Passenger’s Last Name

First Name

Mr./Mrs. Ms./Miss

Date of Birth

PassPort No.

Nationality

Place of Issue

Date of Issue

Emergency Contact Name and Number Special Requirement Please note here any other requirements or arrangements which differ from the basic tour. Every effort the Basic tour. Every effort will be made to secure the arrangements requested, but success cannot be guaranteed.

Would you like us to book your international flights Yes No If yes, please indicate class of service Economy Business First Number of Passengers Suite Twin Single.................... Tour Name ........................................... Departure Date..................................... How did you hear about us : Name of Newspaper.......................... Name of Magazine............................

Important Notes CHANGES : Any alterations made to the booking will be charged $50 per alteration

Tourist Office Name of Guide book Name of Travel Agent Travelled with us before (Year)

VISAS : Please note that visas are required for travel to India,

Other.................................................

Nepal and Bhutan.

In signing this reservation form, I/we accept the Conditions as set forth in the brochure on behalf of all those listed above. I/we all declare that I/we have been offered trip cancellation/ baggage insurance and that I/we will not hold travel agent nor its agents responsible for any expenses incurred.

Travel/Agency Stamp/ Client Address

Signed......................... Date.............................

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Day 13. The Maldives : Day of leisure, relaxing on some of the finest beaches the world has to offer, enjoying the tranquillity of the island, resting in hammocks, swimming or snorkeling. Day 14. The Maldives: Take a cruise out to sea to visit some of the neighbouring atolls, enjoying a picnic lunch and a magical sunset as you return to your island retreat. Day 15. To Male : Morning for leisure. Afternoon return by boat to Male in time to catch your return flight to the USA which departs very early the next morning. Day 16. To USA : Early morning flight to the USA. OUT

RTN

26

Jan

10

Feb

30

Mar

14

Apr

5

Oct

20

Oct

16

Nov

1

Dec

A tour operating company, in addition to printing programmes, also gives details about package prices, booking conditions and an information sheet for the advice of the clients. The information sheet is an important document for the client as it gives important details about flights, domestic travel, transfers, surface transport, visa and health requirements of a destination. This practical information comes very handy for a tourist. All this information can be part of a tour brochure or can be printed separately as in the case of company whose programmes have been discussed. This separate printed form which is also a Passenger Reservation Form for booking a programme is distributed together with the brochure. An example of the same is as follows:

BOOKING CONDITIONS Booking Procedures : Once you have chosen your holiday, please read the conditions of travel as your booking is subject

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to the terms listed below. A contract is entered into once your signed booking form and deposit is received by your travel agent or us and we accept and confirm the booking. Payment : An appropriate deposit for each tour chosen will be your only obligation until eight weeks prior to departure. The balance of the tour cost must be paid eight weeks before you travel. If the final balance is not received on time we reserve the right to treat the booking as cancelled by you and to levy cancellation charges. If you book your tour within eight weeks of departure, the full amount of the tour must be paid at the time of booking. Insurance Advice : You will be automatically billed for and enrolled in our travel insurance programme. Should you not require this insurance you must indicate so at time of booking. After receipt of your booking you will be sent a complete brochure on your coverage. Alterations by a Client : If you request any amendments to your travel arrangements once we have confirmed a booking, telex charges and other expenses will be payable by you together with an amendment fee of $50 per alteration. If, after the commencement of your tour, you request for any amendment to your arrangements or accommodation we will do our best to implement it, but we cannot guarantee that it will be possible. In the event of such an amendment being made, you will be liable for any cancellation/retention charges that may be levied for the previously booked service and for any costs incurred by us or our agents in attempting to secure any revised arrangement. Cancellation by a Client : Should you wish to cancel your tour, you must notify in writing. Such notification only will be deemed to have been given on receipt of your letter, since we can only act on receipt. Please state the reason for cancellation as you may be covered by your insurance policy. If notification of cancellation is received more than six weeks before departure

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you will only lose your deposit. For notification received within six weeks of departure, cancellation charges are as follows: Day before departure

Total tour cost lost

42 to 29

25%

28 to 16

75%

15 to 1

85%

Day of Departure

100%

Cancellations received on Fridays for tour departures that weekend (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) will be treated as noshows. We cannot give any allowance or refund for meals, rooms, excursions, etc., not taken when these are included in the price of the tour and no refund can be made on lost, mislaid or destroyed travel tickets or vouchers. Cancellations by Tour Operator : All holidays in our brochure are based on group airfares and hotel rates involving a given minimum number of passengers. If this minimum is not reached we reserve the right to cancel the departure and offer an alternative date, or the same date with a supplementary charge, or at your option, a refund of all sums paid by you. Such cancellation will not take place after the date at which the final balance becomes due. We may be obliged to cancel your tour due to circumstances beyond our control. These may be for reasons of force majeure (cancellations of international and domestic scheduled services, technical problems with transportation, closure of airports, war—whether declared or not—threat of war, riots, civil disturbances, strikes, disasters, terrorist activities of threat of such, alteration of international and domestic scheduled services). In such cases we shall inform agents and direct clients without delay and shall offer clients, the choice of an alternative holiday of comparable

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standard, if available, or a prompt and full refund of all monies paid. Alterations made to the Scheduled Programme : Our holidays are planned several months in advance and changes may be unavoidable due to circumstances amounting to force majeure or similar reasons beyond our control, delays in departures on travel arrangements caused by technical problems, weather conditions, overbooking or closure of a hotel, strikes, riots, decisions by state governments or tourist organisations altering the itinerary, the duration of time spent in a city or even omitting a city or part of the itinerary due to the local situation. In such cases we will offer comparable alternative arrangements or at your option make a full refund of all money paid by you. If any of the circumstances listed above occur during the course of the tour, we reserve the right to alter the scheduled itinerary accordingly and no compensation will be paid. If your tour must be curtailed due to circumstances amounting to force majeure, reparation costs will be met out of unused accommodation costs. No compensation will be made out of accommodation costs. We will make every reasonable effort to provide you with the booked tour arrangements but minor changes may occur. If they are significant we shall, if it is possible, before your departure, inform you or your travel agent. Again, we will offer comparable alternative arrangements or at your option make a full refund of all monies paid, by where such our control you will be entitled booked tour arrangements but minor changes may occur. If they are significant we shall, if it is possible, before your departure, inform you or your travel agent. Again, we will offer comparable alternative arrangements or at your option make a full refund of all monies paid, by where such changes are within our control you will be entitled to a commensurate compensation in accordance with the notice and gravity of the changes.

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Price : Tour prices are based on US dollars. They are subject to variation if there are increases due to governmental action, exchange rates, increases in scheduled airfare or increases in fuel surcharges. Any increase in the original tour price will be notified to you at least eight weeks before departure. If you make your booking within eight weeks of departure the surcharge will be included in your voice. The company will absorb an amount equivalent to 2 per cent of the holiday price. Any surcharge will not exceed 10 per cent of the listed tour price. If you settle the final balance by the due date we will absorb any price increases after that due date. In return for this commitment, we are unable to make any refund or reduce any other costs should the value of the US dollar improve against the currencies used. Visas and Clients Responsibilities : US citizens require a passport with at least 6 months validity from the date of entry. Visas are required and we will furnish the relevant details after receipt of your booking deposit and confirmation of your booking. (Please see the Traveller’s Advice on this form for more details.) Non-US citizens should consult with the appropriate Consulates and Embassies. It is the responsibility of the individual traveller to secure the proper documentation prior to joining the tour. Tour Operators’ Responsibilities : We do not own or operate any of the accommodation or transport or other facilities used in connection with our holidays. We, therefore, cannot accept liability for negligence of the staff of these organisations. We do accept responsibility for failure to exercise reasonable care on the part of our employees. The information contained in this brochure has been complied with all reasonable care and is accurate to the best of our knowledge and is given in good faith. When you travel with an airline the Conditions of Carriage of that airline will apply. These conditions are the subject of

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International Agreements and may limit or exclude liability. Your travel agent can advise you of these conditions. It may be necessary to recast the holiday because of lack of participants. You will be contacted eight weeks prior to your departure date and advised that a supplementary size applies. If all group members accept the increased cost the tour will operate as scheduled. However, if the supplement is not accepted by you then you will be entitled to a full refund of all money paid or a transfer to another tour. The company makes arrangements with airlines, hotels and other independent parties to provide you with the travel services you purchase. These parties are independent suppliers over whom we have no direct control. The company is not liable in the event of any failure by any person or company to render any transportation, accommodation or other travel service to be provided on the journeys, or for expenses incurred due to delays caused by weather, strikes, war, civil disturbances, natural disasters, flight delays, government actions, mechanical failures or any acts of God. We cannot assume any responsibility for flight delays, cancellations or missed connections and are not liable for any expenses or consequences resulting therefrom and such expenses shall be borne by the client. The participant waives any claim against the company for any damage to, or loss of, property, or inquiry to, or death of, due to any act, or negligence of any airlines, surface transportation companies, hotels or any person rendering any of the services or accommodations included. We cannot be held responsible for any claim, losses, damages for delay of baggage or other properties, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment, upset and disappointment, distress or frustrations, whether physical or mental, resulting from the act or omission of any party providing services. We do take all reasonable steps to insure

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the organisations providing services maintain standards which are acceptable within the norm in each locality. In the event of a service being withdrawn by any of our suppliers, we shall have no responsibility beyond refunding all monies paid by the participant. All services are subject to the laws of the countries in which these services are rendered. What Your Tour Price Includes (1) Economy class on inter-tour flights. (2) Standard class on rail, road and other transportation as described in our brochure. (3) In-flight meals and/or refreshments according to flight timings. (4) 44 lbs or 20 kg baggage allowance, or as specified on your air tickets. (5) Transfers between the appropriate overseas airports/ stations/ports and your hotels according to each itinerary unless otherwise stated. (6) Twin-sharing standard room accommodation with private bath or shower and toilet in each room where available. (7) Excursions and tours where specifically detailed. (8) Meals as described. (9) Services of a leader/tutor/guest lecturer. (10) Gratuities for services included on the itinerary. Your Tour Price Excludes (1) International airfare. (2) The cost of personal items such as laundry, drinks with meals or otherwise, incidental, etc. (3) Airport security charges if levied by any airport to cover the cost of security arrangements.

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(4) Airport taxes. (5) Optional excursions. (6) Cost of visas and passports where necessary. (7) Transport between your home and home airport/port/ station. (8) Gratuities for services provided on a personal basis. (9) Meals other than those specified. (10) The single supplement payable on all bookings where only one person is travelling.

NEW EXTENSIONS India-Pakistan-Nepal-Tibet-Bhutan-Sri Lanka-IsraelJordan-Syria. Tour Prices Tour prices do not include international airfares. INDIA Indian Experience — Exp — 9 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$795

$285

Meal Basis

Room and Breakfast

Splendours of the North — Nor — 15 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 2385

$ 865

Meal Basis Breakfast and Dinner (a la carte where available) Classical Journey to India and Nepal—CL—21 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$4185

$1325

Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

(a la carte where available) Forts and Palaces—FPR—18 days

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Single

Share

Supplement

$ 2795

$ 865

Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

(a la carte where available) Southern Trader—SOT—19 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 2985

$ 965

The Nature and Scope of Tour Operations Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

(a la carte where available) Jungle Odyssey—JOD—18 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$3785

$825

Meal Basis

Full Board in Campus

Breakfast and Dinner (a la carte where available) Train to Calcutta—CCU—14 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 2145

$ 735

Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

(a la carte where available) Royal Nepal—NEP—14 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 2425

$ 715

Meal Basis

Full Board in Campus/Trek

Room and Breakfast Elsewhere ...and Beyond The Spirit of Tibet—TIB—16 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 4275

$ 835

Meal Basis

Full Board in Tibet

Room and Breakfast Elsewhere Bhutan: A Walk in the Hidden Kingdom-BHU—l7 days

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Share Supplement $4425 $1085 Meal Basis Full Board in Bhutan Room and Breakfast in Delhi Sri Lanka—The Enchanted Isle—SRI—15 days Twin Single Share Supplement $ 1625 $ 625 Meal Basis Breakfast and Dinner (a la carte where available) ...revisited A Culinary Feast—CUL—16 days Twin Single Share Supplement $ 3965 $ 985 Meal Basis Breakfast and Dinner (a la carte where available) East Meets West—EMW—16 days Twin Single Share Supplement $ 3865 $ 965 Meal Basis Breakfast and Dinner (a la carte where available) Middle East Highlights of Israel—HOI—9 days (Prices exclude International Air fares) Twin Single Share Supplement Low Season $1365-$485 High Season $1745-$485 Meal Basis Breakfast only The Ancient Lands(Prices exclude International Air from UK) Twin Single Share Supplement Low Season $ 2655-$ 865 High Season $2695-$ 895 Meal Basis Breakfast and Dinner Splendours of the Near East—SNE—13 days (Prices exclude International Air from UK)

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Single Supplement

Low Season

$ 2495 $ 695

High Season

$ 2695 $ 855

Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

Tour Extension Syria Extension—6 days Twin

Single

Share

Supplement

$ 1485

$ 755

Meal Basis

Breakfast and Dinner

High Season—March to December Low Season—January and December

TRAVELLERS’ ADVICE The company believes that a good holiday is based not on luck but on judgement. We have, therefore, compiled the following traveller’s service to outline the nature of travel in the Indian sub-continent and to help you prepare for your holiday. Our unrivaled experience has shown that sometimes minor problems can occur. While our ground staff are always on hand to rectify such an occurrence we do request that you have a patient and broad approach to travelling in the subcontinent.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS International flights to and from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are not included in the tour cost as outlined on the Tour Prices sheet. We would be pleased to assist you in making international flight bookings from your departure city in North America to the arrival city for the tour that you have booked. The departure dates listed on the brochure indicate the date that you would leave North America to arrive at your destination city in time to join the first organised programme on your tour. Unless otherwise indicated we have pre-booked the hotel for immediate check-in should your flight arrive early in the morning. Should your flight connections bring you to the arrival city earlier

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than listed on the itinerary we would be pleased to make additional hotel bookings as required.

DOMESTIC TRAVEL All flights within the country or countries visited as part of the tour are included in your tour price. Group reservations are made in economy class and all tickets will be handled by your Tour Director. We regret that we are unable to accept seating requests for internal flights as the domestic airlines generally assign seating only at time of check-in. Additional information on baggage allowance and security regulations will be included in your documents sent to you at the time of booking.

THE ROUTES Airport/hotel transfers are included in the cost of your tour for your arrival and departure into and out of the country featured on you tour. You will be met at the airport by a company representative after clearing both immigration and customs and transferred in a private car to your hotel. If you have booked your own international flights you must advise us of your arrival and departure details and any subsequent change to these details so that we may be able to meet you upon your arrival.

ROAD TRAVELLING Most cars used are of local construction, and while they may appear to be antique they are comfortable and ideally suited to the local road conditions, with spare parts readily available. Coaches are also principally locally made and while not of the standard of an American touring coach they are comfortable and well maintained. All of our coaches are airconditioned with the exception of coaches from some Southern Indian cities where they are not available.

TRAIN TRAVEL On the tours that feature travel by train we always try to reserve first class air-conditioned carriages, but these cannot

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always be reserved ahead of time and do not exist on all routes. Please contact our tour consultants to discuss the facilities available on the route you would like.

VISA REQUIREMENTS US citizens require a passport with at least 6 months of validity from the date of entry into the country/countries included on your tour. Visas are required for entry into India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Jordan and Syria. At this time US citizens do not require visas for entry into Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Israel. At the time that you make your booking we will mail you a visa kit outlining the visa requirements necessary for the tour that you are booked on. This visa kit will include visa forms and an information sheet outlining the visa requirements and procedures. All of the visa handling is done through our visa service. Please note that the above information and service is valid only for US citizens.

MEASURES

FOR

HEALTH

At the time of printing, the countries featured in our tours do not have any compulsory inoculation requirements for entry with the exception of those travellers having been to a country infected with yellow fever within five days of their arrival. However, it is generally recommended that travellers to India have current tetanus inoculations, and gamma globulin injections to protect against hepatitis. If you are travelling in South India or in other jungle areas malaria precautions are advised. For further medical information we advise you to contact your local physician. If you require any special medication we advise carrying an ample supply. Additionally you should carry diarrhoea antidotes and upset stomach medication. Sun lotions, lip balms and sun glasses are highly recommended. Recommendations and advice on food and drink within the country/countries visited will be supplied at the time of booking. In all countries it is highly recommended to drink only bottled

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mineral water or other bottled beverages. These are commonly available in all the hotels that you will be staying at. It is not necessary to purchase local currency prior to your arrival in India or another country featured on your tour. Foreign exchange counters at the hotels provide the same official rate of exchange as the banks or the airports. It is, therefore, not necessary or recommended to purchase local currency at the airport. However, it is recommended to purchase small denominations for use as tips or for small purchases. All major credit cards are accepted at the city hotels you will be staying at. Smaller hotels and wildlife park lodging accept cash in local currency only. Airport Departure Taxes : The cost of our tours does not include airport departure taxes. It is, therefore, necessary for you to pay these locally and in local currency. Foreign currency is not accepted. The taxes vary in each country and will be advised to you before your departure from the USA. These taxes are subject to change and if they do your tour leader or our ground staff will advise you on site. Tipping : Tipping for porterage and all specified sightseeing is included. Tipping is not included for services in addition to these such as meals not included, optional sightseeing, etc. In addition, some members of the groups may want to collectively tip the bus driver or local guide. This is not required and is completely at your discretion. Please ask your tour leader any question you may have about this. Our Tour Directors do not accept tips. Cuisine : In the city hotels, restaurants serve Continental as well as Indian and Oriental cuisine. In the more remote areas and smaller hotels and places the food is basic and mainly Indian. We suggest that in these areas you request vegetarian food since this tends to reduce the risk of stomach upsets. The hotels that we use are keenly aware of the Western visitor’s reaction to Indian food and they take great care in the area of

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hygiene. While health problems can occur, these are usually minor and often result in the change of diet and time zones. Insurance : We realise that no one likes to consider the unexpected problems that interrupt holiday plans. Unfortunately, difficulties occasionally do arise, despite the most careful planning. So, to offer you peace of mind the company offers a comprehensive Passenger Protection Programme exclusively for our passengers. The Passenger Protection Programme is not just cancellation insurance. Yes, it does provide reimbursement for penalties that may be assessed due to cancellation for covered reasons, but it also provides much more. For example, the programme offers medical expense reimbursement for covered accidents overseas, especially important because Medicare, and many private insurance policies, restrict coverage of medical expenses incurred abroad. We strongly recommend that all passengers participate in the Passenger Protection Programme. A full description of coverage will be sent to you or your travel agent automatically with your invoice. For your convenience the cost of the programme is automatically added to your invoice and may be purchased with your initial deposit or prior to final payment but cannot be added at a later date. This is only a brief description of the plan. For full terms, conditions, exclusions and pre-existing limitations, refer to the description of coverage which should be reviewed thoroughly before purchasing. Travel Insurance Coverage Trip Cancellation/Interruption Baggage/Personal Effects

Total Tour Cost $ 1,000

Accident Medical Expense

$ 3,000

In-Hospital Idemnity (Sickness Only)

$ 3,000

Emergency evacuation

$ 2,0000

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Contd... Trip Cancellation/Interruption Worldwide Emergency Assistance

Total Tour Cost 24 Hours

Travel Insurance Rates Tour up to $ 2,000

$99

Tours between $ 2,000 and $ 3,500

$169

Tours between $ 3,501 and $ 5,000

$259

Tours between $ 5,001 and $ 6,000

$299

Tours between $ 6,001 and $ 7,500

$359

Brochure II has a different presentation form while all other elements remain the same. In this brochure most of the programmes are multi-destinational. A client has a choice of more than one destination in a particular region. The tour operator promoting these programmes specialises in East Asia. Although the basic programmes cover India, the tour operator however does not take his clients there first. Tour No. 1 entitled ‘Asian Highlights’ is a 20 days trip starting in USA and covers Hong Kong, India, Nepal and Thailand. A client returns home from Bangkok. In this programme, the client also has a choice of an extension in India and the orient as per his requirements. Tour No. 2 is a 15-18 days tour covering India and Nepal. Tour No. 3 is entitled “Magnificent India and Nepal” and covers both these destinations in 18 days. Tour No. 4 is again a twin destination tour entitled “Essence of India and Nepal” and is of 12 days duration with possible extensions. Unlike in Brochure No. 1, the price of the tours, departure dates and terms and conditions of the tour form part of the main brochure. No separate sheet is printed as in the case of Brochure I. The brochure is printed in four colours using glazed art paper. Use of colour pictures in the brochure is another important element which projects the destination. Each of the programmes shows a colour representation of an important monument, event or an activity covering the itinerary. The following pages show the sample of the brochure discussed above.

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Asian Highlights Tour No. 1 “To world’s best honeymoon... what better place to start a marriage than the Taj Mahal?” Day 1, USA–Canada-Hong Kong Tour Package : Today our Asian Highlights itinerary begins as we board our flight to Hong Kong. Day 2, Hong Kong : Upon arrival in the evening, you will by staff and transferred to your hotel. Mandarin Oriental Day 3, Hong Kong : Tour of Hong Kong Island begins with a panoramic ride up Victoria Peak on the venerable Peak Tram. Then you will visit Stanley Market on the south side of the island, take a sampan ride through the Tanka fishing community in Aberdeen, and sample dim sum at lunch. At the, a welcome dinner party is hosted by Mandarin Oriental. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Day 4, Hong Kong-Delhi : The day is at leisure for shopping or exploring on your own before you transfer to the airport for your evening flight to India’s capital, Delhi. Day 5, Delhi : Full-day sightseeing tour of Old and New Delhi includes visits to Raj Ghat—memorial to Mahatma Gandhi; the Red Fort—a Mughal masterpiece built by Shah Jahan; the bustling silver markets of Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid. Continue sightseeing with a drive past the Diplomatic Enclave and visits to the Qutub Minar and Humayun’s tomb, then continue down Raj Path past the Secretariat buildings, the Presidential Palace and Parliament.

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Day 6, Delhi-Udaipur : Morning flight to Udaipur. Stay at the hotel. Day ends with a sunset cruise on the lake. Day 7, Udaipur : Morning sightseeing in the city, visiting the opulent City Palace and the beautiful Sahelion Ki Badi, “Garden of Friends”. Return to hotel to relax in peaceful surroundings. Day 8, Udaipur-Jaipur : Visit the Bahai Temple and Crafts Museum this morning, then fly to another once royal city, Jaipur, in the afternoon. Day 9, Jaipur : Jaipur was the capital of Rajasthan province, “the abode of rajas”, and everywhere you see the monuments of its Mughal rulers. Trip to the strategically located Amber Fort outside town on elephant back, and inside the walls of the citadel, wander among buildings famous for their intricate mirrored inlays: the Hall of Mirrors, Kali’s Temple and lattice-windowed palaces. City sightseeing in the afternoon shows the City Palace, home to an impressive collection of artwork, jewels, textiles and arms; Jantar Mantar; and the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Winds, a tall facade of almost one thousand windows, behind which royal ladies once took the air in privacy. Day 10, Jaipur-Agra : Morning drive to Agra, sightseeing en route at Fatehpur Sikri, a hilltop ghost fortress and site of the mausoleum of Salim Chisti, a medieval Muslim saint. Continue on to Agra, renowned as the home of the Taj Mahal, which we view in the light of the setting sun. Day 11, Agra : The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, and the flawless execution and

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exquisite workmanship of this architectural wonder are an inspiring memorial to love. After visit to Taj, visit the Agra Fort, built on the city’s River Yamuna by Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great, and the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah. Day 12, Agra-Varanasi : The rise early this morning to watch the sunrise turn the marble of the Taj Mahal to a soft glowing amber. You will at leisure until our afternoon flight to Varanasi, for centuries one of India’s most revered cities and still a centre for philosophy and religion. Day 13, Varanasi-Kathmandu (Nepal) : A dawn boat trip take you along the bathing ghats on the holy river Ganges to witness 2,000-year-old rites of prayer and devotion. Then a short drive bring you to the buried city of Sarnath, where Buddha preached his first sermon. Many treasures of Buddhist art, have been found in the ruins of Sarnath’s ancient monastery, and you will visit the museum where they are displayed. In afternoon you will fly north, far into the range of the Himalayas. Your destination is Kathmandu, a Nepalese kingdom ruled by Hindus but with deep, ancient Buddhist roots. Famous as a trade centre since medieval days, Kathmandu is still an important market town. Day 14, Kathmandu : (Time and weather permitting, a scenic flight over the Himalayas may be an option today; information will be available upon arrival.) Visit to Durbar Square, the House of the Living Goddess, and the Old Royal Palace. Afterwards, we tour Swayambhunath, the oldest Buddhist shrine in Nepal, before enjoying dinner and a cultural performance this evening. Day 15, Kathmandu-Tiger Tops-Chitwan National Park : You will left the mountain-ringed Kathmandu on a short flight to Nepal’s

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Chitwan National Park. Here, after settling into your comfortable rooms at the famous Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, you will set out to explore the park. The transport here is ideally suited to the rough terrain—you can travel on elephant back, in search of the one-homed rhino and other unique species. This evening we enjoy an entertaining wildlife lecture, illustrated by slides, and an excellent dinner at our lodge. Day 16, Chitwan National Park : An early start in order to make the most of your second day in this fascinating wildlife sanctuary. In addition to tiger, Chitwan’s tall grass jungles are best known for the one-horned rhino, chital (spotted deer), wild boar, monkey and leopard. Day 17, Chitwan-Kathmandu : Transfer to the airport for return flight to Kathmandu. Day 18, Kathmandu-Bangkok-Thailand : Morning visit to Patan, founded in A.D. 250 with a stop at the Tibetan Refugee Centre to see the carpet weavers at work. Later day you will fly to Thailand where, upon arrival in Bangkok this evening, you will be transferred to your hotel. Day 19, Bangkok : Planted squarely on the banks of the Chao Phraya River and threaded with a seemingly endless system of narrow canals, Bangkok’s waters are her highways. Like the Thais, you can use the city’s waterways to your best advantage. Same morning you can tour the Grand Palace by private boat before visiting the Emerald Buddha Temple. Your afternoon is for leisure; on your own, you may wish to see the remarkable collection of Oriental antiques. In night you can enjoy Thai cuisine at your farewell cocktail and dinner party at Sala Rim Naam.

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Day 20, Bangkok-USA or Canada : Asian Highlights itinerary ends, boarding the flight back to the USA or Canada. Tour No. 2 Magnificent India and Nepal Day 1, USA or Canada-London : Magnificent India and Nepal itinerary begins today when you will board your flight to London. Day 2, London-Delhi : Upon arrival in London, you will escort to our day-rooms near the airport. Later we return to the airport to catch our flight to Delhi. Day 3, Delhi-India : You will arrive at Delhi in morning, with the rest of the day at leisure to rest and unpack before you begin tomorrow’s explorations of India’s capital city. On the same evening you will attend a briefing followed by a welcome dinner. Day 4, Delhi : This day you will be on the sightsee in Delhi. In Old Delhi you will stop at Rajghat, Delhi’s monument to Mahatma Gandhi, and visit the Red Fort citadel. Other points of interest include the Jama Masjid and the bustling market-place of Chandni Chowk, where silver merchants ply their trade. You may continue in New Delhi, driving by the Presidential Palace and Parliament House, then stopping to see the Qutub Minar, Humayun’s tomb, India Gate and memorials to India’s modern leaders. Day 5, Delhi-Udaipur : In morning you can leave Delhi, flying on to Udaipur, a serene desert city on the shores of Lake Pichola. We end the day with a sunset cruise on the lake.

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Day 6, Udaipur : While sightseeing in the city, visiting the opulent City Palace and the beautiful Sahelion Ki Badi, “Garden of Friends”. Then you may return to your hotel where you can relax in your peaceful surroundings. Day 7, Udaipur-Jaipur : We arrive in this princely city and check in at our hotel, once the grand palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur and still retaining its former grandeur. In afternoon you may tour Jaipur, visiting the Maharaja’s City Palace; the Jantar Mantar or Royal Observatory; the Ram Niwas Gardens; and the Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds, an intricate facade of pink sandstone designed to allow court ladies to take the air without exposing themselves to the stares of commoners. In the night can enjoy the crisp desert air while sipping a cool drink on the palace lawns. Day 8, Jaipur : In morning you can take an elephant ride to the fabled Amber Fort and Palaces, overlooking the city, where you will see the deservedly famous Hall of Mirrors and the best views of the valley as seem from the Royal apartments. The rest of the day is at your leisure. Day 9, Jaipur-Agra : The morning’s journey to Agra takes you through rural India for an insight into the village and countryside life. You will stop at Fatehpur Sikri, built by Emperor Akbar as his capital and abandoned after just a few years when the water supply was exhausted. In Agra, renowned as the home of the Taj Mahal, you can first visit this magnificent monument at sunset, to watch the beautiful white marble turn slowly to a soft, rosy pink.

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Day 10, Agra : The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, and its flawless execution and exquisite workmanship are an inspiring memorial to love. This morning, you may re-visit the Taj Mahal and also the imposing Agra Fort, built of red sandstone and marble. Later, you can see the enchanting Itimad-ud-Daulah, nicknamed the “Baby Taj.” Day 11, Agra-Varanasi : With start early in the day to see the first golden rays of the sun warm the marble of Agra’s most famous monument, the Taj Mahal. In afternoon you can fly to Varanasi, the holiest and oldest living city in India. For the devout Hindu, Varanasi must be visited at least once in a lifetime to wash away one’s sins. Day 12, Varanasi-Kathmandu (Nepal) : Early in the morning you can take a boat ride, pass the bathing ghats on the river Ganges, where thousands of Hindus perform morning-rites of prayer. After breakfast you may continue with an excursion to Sarnath, where Buddha delivered his first sermon; you may also visit Sarnath’s temple and the Archaeological Museum, full of Buddhist art treasures. Day 13, Kathmandu : (Time and weather permitting, a scenic flight over the Himalayas may be an option; information will be available upon arrival.) In morning you can tour the city, a bustling trade centre since medieval times. You can also visit Durbar Square; the Kumari Devi or House of the Living Goddess, the Royal Palace; and Swayambhunath, the oldest Buddhist stupa (shrine) in Nepal. You can drive this afternoon to Bhaktapur, a 9th century fortified town. At the night you will meet for a special cultural performance and farewell dinner.

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Kathmandu-Delhi : For travellers concluding their tour, the remainder of the day is free for independent pursuits. KathmanduTiger Tops-Chitwan National Park, (Extension) Travellers who have chosen the Tiger Tops option take a short flight from Kathmandu to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, where explorations begin immediately with an afternoon game drive on elephantback. Day 15, Delhi-USA or Canada : Travellers who have not chosen to extend their trip are transferred to the airport early this morning to board a flight home. Chitwan National Park (Extension) Travellers on the Tiger Tops extension spend the morning on elephant-back amidst Chitwan’s tall grass jungles, in search of rhinos and the elusive Royal Bengal Tiger. Boat rides, nature walks and a visit to the nearby crocodile farm also provide fresh insights into the natural world. Day 16, Chitwan-Kathmandu : In the morning Tiger Tops travellers are transferred to the airport to board a flight back to Kathmandu. The remaining day is at our leisure. Day 17, Kathmandu-Delhi : Then you fly to Delhi today where you will are free to relax, do some last minute shopping or further explore the city. Extend Your Trip We can help you plan your own extension in India or the Orient, “tailor-made” as you require. Essence of India and Nepal Twenty-one Days Departure Limited to 20 Passengers

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Travel Agency and Tourism Tour Cost Per Person Land Arrangements Double occupancy

$ 5290.00

Single supplement

$ 1650.00

Internal Airfare

$ 580.00

Air Supplement from New York

$ 1499.00

Airfares via Pacific are available. 2003 Tour Dates (Depart from USA or Canada) Depart

Return

Depart

Return

Depart

Jan 03

Jan 23

Feb 28

Mar 19

Oct 23

Return

Jan 17

Feb 06

Mar 13

Apr 02

Nov 06

Nov 26

Jan 31

Feb 20

Sep 18

Oct 08

Nov 20

Dec 10

Feb 14

Mar 05

Oct 09

Oct 29

Dec 18

Jan 07

Nov 12

2004 Tour Dates (New dates and prices may apply) Depart

Return

Depart

Return

Depart

Return

Jan 08

Jan 28

Feb 05

Feb 25

Mar 05

Mar 25

Jan 22

Feb 11

Mar 11

Mar 19

Mar 19

Apr 08

Your land arrangements include: Hotel accommodations as indicated in the itinerary or similar. Meals as indicated in the itinerary a la carte where-ever possible. Domestic bottled water with group meals. All group transfers when arriving and departing on scheduled dates. All sightseeing as shown, including entrance fees. Service of a professional escort. All gratuities except to your escort. Handling of two bags per person. Airport departure taxes.

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Not included are personal expenses such as laundry; personal insurance; excess baggage fees; communication charges; cost of obtaining passport or visas; meals, beverages or sightseeing not included in the itinerary; any airfares. Essence of India and Nepal Day 1, USA or Canada-London : A leader of a group touring from Canada to London writes his experience as follows : Our programme begins when we board our flight to London. Day 2, London : Upon arrival in London, we transfer to our dayrooms to relax until the departure of our flight to Mumbai. Day 3, Mumbai, India : We land in bustling Mumbai this morning and transfer to our hotel. We are at leisure until an introductory briefing, followed by welcome drinks and dinner. Day 4, Mumbai : This morning we cruise through Mumbai Harbour and visit the cave temples on Elephanta Island. In the afternoon, we visit the Mani Bhawan, Gandhi’s Mumbai residence; see the Gateway of India and stop at the Hanging Gardens. Day 5, Mumbai-Aurangabad : We fly east to Aurangabad, our base for excursions to two nearby sites of great significance: Ellora and Ajanta. This afternoon we travel to the spectacular Ellora Caves, with their 34 rock-cut temples dedicated to Buddhist, Jain and the Hindu gods. Day 6, Aurangabad : We travel about sixty miles from the city for

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a full day’s tour of the monolithic Ajanta Caves, dating back to the 2nd century B.C. Day 7, Aurangabad- Udaipur This morning we fly to Udaipur, where we stay at the Lake Palace Hotel, located in the middle of Lake Pichola; here we are joined by travellers on Asian Highlights tour. Our day ends with a sunset cruise on the lake. Day 8, Udaipur : This morning we sightsee in the city visiting the opulent City Palace and the beautiful Sahelion Ki Badi, “Garden of Friends”. We return to our hotel to relax in peaceful surroundings. Day 9, Udaipur-Jaipur : Jaipur, the ‘Pink City’, is our destination this morning. After lunch, we begin our introduction to this capital of Rajasthan, “abode of rajahs”. The City Palace is still the residence of the Jaipur family, and the City Palace Museum displays paintings carpets, jewellery and arms. We also see the Hawa Mahal, “Palace of the Winds”. Day 10, Jaipur : Outside Jaipur is the strategically-placed Amber Fort. We look down on the city from the fort, as her Rajput rulers once did, from the back of a gaily-painted elephant. Our elephant takes us up the hill, where we can wander on foot among the impressive Hall of Mirrors, Kali’s temple and the lattice-windowed palaces. The rest of the day is free to explore or relax. Day 11, Jaipur-Agra : Today we drive to Agra, visiting Fatehpur Sikri and the exquisite mother-of-pearl mausoleum of the Muslim saint, Salim Chisti en route. We arrive in Agra in time to see

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the sunset over the magnificent Taj Mahal, turning its filigreed marble to a glowing rosy pink. Day 12, Agra : Our morning tour begins with a detailed introduction of the Taj Mahal, long-fabled Wonder of the World. Today we also see the Agra Fort and visit the charming Itimad-ud-Daulah, known as the “Baby Taj”. Rules and Regulations : Tour prices quoted in this brochure are valid up to December 31, 1996 and include transfer, baggage handling, accommodations, hotel taxes, meals, sightseeing, entrance fees, gratuities and escort services as indicated in each itinerary. Not Included in Quoted Tour Price : Costs of obtaining passports; visas unless otherwise specified in individual itinerary; excess baggage charges; travel insurance; personal expenses such as laundry; room service in excess of your meal allotment; gratuities and transportation to/from restaurants for a la carte meals; gratuities to escort, staff and crew of Eastern & Oriental Express, Road to Mandalay or Yanzi Princess; communication charges; meals, beverages or sightseeing; not included in the itinerary any airfares. Luggage : Tour prices include the handling of two pieces of baggage per person. Baggage and personal effect are at owner’s risk throughout the tour. Check with the airline for baggage restrictions applicable to your international flights. Passport and Visas : Valid passport are required for travel to the destinations in this brochure; check with your travel agent or ask the latest requirements and assistance. Registration : A deposit of $ 500 per person is required at the time you book, at which time you will receive your invoice and pre-tour documentation. The reminder of the price of your trip is due 60 days prior to your departure date. If your reservation

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is made within 60 days of departure, the entire price of the trip must be paid at the time of confirmation. When your reservation is initiated within 30 days of your departure, a non-refundable “rush booking” fee of $ 50 per booking will be charged. Cancellations : Cancellations received up to 60 days prior to departure, $100 per person cancellation fee per tour or extension; 59-45 days, 10 per cent of tour price; 44-15 days, 20 per cent of tour price; 14 days or less 100 per cent of tour price. Claims and Refunds : All claims for days missed while on tour should be made in writing within 30 days of the termination of the tour. This claim should be accompanied by a statement from the Tour Operating Company verifying the claim. Refunds are based on the actual costs of service involved and not on a per claim basis. Refunds will not be made for unused sightseeing trips or meals. The company will not accept any liability for any claims which are not received within 30 days of the termination of your tour. Arrangements : Quoted tour prices include planning, handling and operational charges, and are based on the current rates of exchange and tariffs as of July, 1995. In the event of a marked change in foreign exchange rates, fuel costs or tariff rates, tour costs are subject to revision. Responsibility : The company purchases transportation, hotel accommodation, restaurant services and other services from various independent suppliers that are not subject to its control. The Company, cannot, therefore, be liable for any personal injury or property damage, which may occur due to (1) any act of Commission of such a supplier or (2) defects in or failures of any aircraft, vessel, automotive vehicle or other means of transportation that is not under its control. The company reserves the right to adjust US dollar prices without notice, to reflect fluctuation(s) in the Foreign Exchange

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Markets. The Company also reserves the right to withdraw a tour or any part of it, to make such alternations in the itinerary as deems necessary or desirable, to refuse to accept or to retain as a member of the tour any person at any time, and to pass on to tour members any expenditures or losses caused by delays or events beyond its control. Transportation by Air : We will arrange the best priced airfare available in the classes category you request at the time of your booking. Sample air prices are shown in this brochure. Should you cancel or change your air reservation before or after your departure, cancellation penalties may apply. Airlines concerned are not to be held responsible for any act, omission or event during the time passengers are not on board their planes or conveyances. These tours may use the services of any IATA carrier. The passage contract in use by these companies when issued shall constitute the sole contract between the companies and the purchaser of these tours and/ or passage. Elements in a Tour Brochure : The description of the tour brochure of the two companies shows how different elements of a programme are carefully planned to include all necessary information to make a holiday comfortable. The necessary elements of a good programme in a brochure can be divided into two parts, e.g. (i) ‘pre-visit’ and (ii) ‘on arrival’. Pre-visit details would include the following: (a) destination information (b) price of a tour (c) departure dates (d) hotel information (e) visa requirements ( f) health requirements (g) insurance advice

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(ii) day to day itinerary (iii) guide service (iv) entertainment/cultural programmes (v) shopping (vi) currency exchange (vii) emergency services (viii) cuisine (ix) customs to be observed (x) airport departure taxes All the elements in a programme of a big tour operator are tailor-made to suit particular interest and need of a client. A tour operator, after carefully considering various alternatives available and based on the market research packages, offers different programmes for including in his tour brochure. Network of Distribution : The tour operator has thus emerged as the true manufacturer of the inclusive tour product packaged, standardised and quality controlled. The inclusive tour product can be marketed successfully by a tour operator in the tourist generating countries to a mass market, either directly or through travel agents. A large majority of tour operators sell their tour packages through a network of several hundred agents who are the members of the Association of Travel Agents in a particular country. For instance, if a tour operator happens to be USA based he would sell his product through ASTA, (American Society of Travel Agents) in UK, through ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) in Australia, through AFTA (Australian Federation of Travel Agents) etc. A large percentage of tour packages are marketed in this manner.

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Some tour operators resort to a direct selling or selling through a network of their own branches. For instance, in Switzerland, the largest tour operating company ‘KUONI’ sells its product through 85 of their own Kuoni retail sales offices as also through 765 appointed retail agents who are the members of FASV, the Swiss association of travel agents. Thomas Cook is well known as a travel retailer of its own product in addition to being a major tour operator of package tours. Most of their package tours are sold through an extensive network of their own retail sales offices. Direct sale of the holiday packages is however resorted to by large tour operating companies having retail sales agencies of their own within a destination where these are located or in other neighbouring destinations. On the other hand, small tour operating companies not having retail sales outside will either concentrate entirely on selling their product or will support a select few travel agencies in important locations spread over the country. However, unlike sales of a tour operator programmes through travel agencies, direct selling involves higher fixed costs in advertising, direct mail promotion and similar other aspects. Direct selling also requires strong and efficient administrative back-up to deal swiftly with consumer and trade enquiries and sales. Agreements of Sales : A tour operator who decides to sell his tours through a network of travel agents, has to enter into some form of an agreement with them. A formal agreement with the travel agents they appoint is to be drawn up to facilitate the agents to sell the services on behalf of a tour operator. The agreements inter alia specify the various terms and conditions of sale including issues like quantum of commission to be paid to the agents. It also specifies if the travel agent is to be a cash or credit agency as also the dates by which the operator is likely to settle his accounts. Another important condition of the agreement relates to a sale price of a tour. Most tour operators

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impose on an agent the condition in the agreements that their tours shall not be sold at a lower price than that published in the brochure. Brochure Marketing : Printing of a tour brochure is very expensive. A brochure is a voluminous publication with special emphasis on the quality of paper, the reproduction of illustrations, graphic design of the cover and the layout of the pages. In order to be an attractive sales tool, it has to be printed on glazed art paper in four colours. Special emphasis is laid on the quality of papers and printing, as its main objective is to inform the prospective tourist about the attractions and facilities of a programme being promoted by a tour operator. Considering all the above aspects, a tour operator has to spend considerable amount of money on printing of a tour brochure. Some of the tour brochures of large companies contain several programmes running into several hundred pages. Each of the individual programme in a brochure is to be marketed to realise a sale of that programme. Several programmes contained in a brochure are to be marketed both by the tour operator and the agents at a destination to achieve actual bookings for a particular programme. Marketing and promotion of a particular programme in a tour brochure involves several elements starting first with the distribution of a brochure to travel agents located throughout the country. In case a tour operator had retail sales offices of his own, the brochure is also to be distributed to them. The quantity will depend on the size of the agency as also its location. It will also depend on the volume of business generated by the agent during the past few years. Launching a press campaign is another important element in promoting a holiday programme printed in a brochure. A special advertising campaign is necessary to be launched in selected consumer newspapers in the generating market featuring tour programmes. The selection of the consumer newspapers should be based on factors like the area to be

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covered, the type of audience to be reached, the appeals to be used, etc. The consumer newspapers are selected because of their wider reach. Window display campaign is another important and effective way of promoting a tour programme of a brochure. Specially prepared window display materials featuring tour programmes of a company for a particular destination can be used in retail sales office locations. The visual appeal of displays motivates a prospective tourist to enter the office and ask for more details. Simultaneous launching of a press campaign and window display campaign gives added advantage in that it registers a message about a destination more forcefully. Trade education is another important element in promoting the sale of a holiday package. The sales staff of a tour operating company should be given orientation concerning the tour programme they are to promote through their outlets. This could be handled by planning experts of the tour operating company. A similar trade education programme can be organised for retail agents. All appointed retail sales agencies should be involved in this programme. Press and public relations activities of the company promoting a programme play a vital role. A large tour operating company has a separate press and public relation department which create special press releases on their various tour programmes. The text of these press releases is given to select consumer newspapers throughout the country. To sum up, the various methods which a tour operator needs to use for pushing a programme through his tour brochure include: (i) distribution channels for brochure; (ii) launching press campaign for promoting tour programmes; (iii) launching window display campaign (in organising trade education seminars/workshops for sales staff); and (iv) creating special press releases for selected consumer newspaper.

8 ORGANISATION

OF

TOURS

A few years ago, a survey was conducted in Germany to find out what people would like to buy most, if they had a choice. Travel for a holiday was the choice of the majority. It is true of most countries in western Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. It may not be true in India as yet because a majority of people in India have other priorities, like housing and other basic requirements of life to deal with, before they can even think of a vacation away from their home. But for the emerging new middle class in the country with disposable income, holiday away from home is a top priority.

TRAVELLING :

A

WAY

OF

LIFE

First, let us find out why people travel. Travel, was in the past limited to a few who were rich and venturesome. The people who were not rich had little time to travel, because they had no respite from their daily grind. And, if they had time, they had no disposable income. One starts thinking of holiday travel only when one has some disposable income after taking care of housing, food, clothing and education of the children. More changes have taken place in the structure of our societies in the last hundred years, than in the previous two thousand years.

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Industrial development has led to urbanisation. Urbanisation led to pollution and overcrowding in our cities. Industrialisation brought about some benefits too—more employment, increased leisure and paid holidays to the workers. The overcrowding in the cities led to people’s search for the sun, sand, solitude and the fresh mountain air. The revolution in transportation, specially the evolution of cheaper air-services, encouraged people to travel. In the developed industrial societies of the west, the urge to travel became irresistible. In 1961, fifty per cent of British workers enjoyed fourteen days or less paid holidays in a year. In 2000, almost hundred per cent of the British workers enjoyed paid holidays for one month or more. Executives and workers in major Indian companies have also acquired similar benefits. Government servants in India have too many holidays—more than most countries in the world. Even if a political leader dies, government declares a holiday. What for? One wonders! There are too many religious holidays in India. If we count their privilege and sick leave, Indians are on leave six months in a year. A holiday abroad, has become quite affordable and attractive within Europe for Europeans. Brian Moynahan, author of a book, Fools Paradise, says: “At its best the industry offers superb value for money. A fortnight can be had in a foreign resort, with rooms, meals and air travel for the cost of a suit.” He was referring to the low prices of package tours available in London, for Spain and Portugal. Establishment of National Tourist Administration (NTAs) : The rapid spread of education led to the desire to find out how people live in other countries. Governments helped in the promotion of tourism by setting up National Tourist Organisations, initially to promote inbound tourism to their country. Some countries actively promoted the concept of overseas travel among their own nationals. Take the case of Japan—this

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small country of one hundred and twenty million people sends fifteen million tourists to foreign lands every year— more than one out of ten Japanese. The Japanese Government considers it a way of balancing their huge trade surplus with other countries. The Japanese who come to India, for instance, spend money in India. And, the Indian Government which has an unfavourable balance of trade with Japan, can balance the trade gap to some extent. Over fifty-five million trips to foreign countries are taken by the US citizens every year—and the total US population is a little more than two hundred and eighty million. Domestic tourism, too is an essential part of the life-styles of Americans, Europeans and the Japanese. Two or three domestic holidays in one year are not uncommon. Why Travelling ? : Anybody who travels has a motive of his or her own. On the basis of these motives or purposes, we can divide tourism into distinct categories. Recreational Travel : The first and foremost is recreational travel. The purpose in this case is recreation—holiday or leisure. People want to get away from the humdrum of everyday life and move to beaches, mountains and the scenic countryside. It has been estimated that seventy-five per cent of international travel in the world and fifty per cent of domestic travel is recreational. According to an Indian Government Survey, done in 1999, seventy-five per cent of foreign visitors come to India for recreation or holiday and the remaining twenty-five per cent come for business, official visits and other purposes. Adventure and Sports Tourism : The trips undertaken by people for playing golf, tennis, skiing, trekking, mountaineering, etc., fall within this category. Adventure tourism is becoming a popular form of tourism in India. The country offers many opportunities for an adventure holiday and it is becoming more popular.

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Cultural Tourism : The third category is cultural tourism. When people are motivated to travel in order to see the cultural heritage of their own country or those of foreign countries, i.e., visit ancient historical monuments, places of religious interest, museums, art galleries, etc., it is termed as cultural tourism. Visits to Varanasi, Haridwar or Rameshwaram are part of cultural tourism. Health Tourism : The fourth category is that of people who take trips to have medical treatment elsewhere, or to visit places where there are curative possibilities such as hot springs, spas or yoga institutes. This is called health tourism. People travelling to Kerala for ayurvedic treatment or to the USA for major surgeries, fall in this category.

GENESIS

OF

CONFERENCE

AND

CONVENTION TOURISM

In recent years, two new, but very important categories of tourism have emerged—convention and conference tourism. A large number of people are now travelling within their own country, or abroad to attend conventions or conferences, attending meetings relating to their businesses. The purpose is to gain knowledge through other people’s experiences. This is a fast-growing area of travel. In many countries like the USA and Japan, expenditure incurred by company executives on attending business-related conferences overseas, is taxdeductible. If a doctor from the USA or Japan comes to India to attend a medical conference, his expenditure on his Indian trip will be tax-deductible. The Government of India does not extend similar concessions to its professionals as yet.

GENESIS

OF INCENTIVE

TRAVEL

The concept of incentive travel was developed to motivate workers to do a better job. The manufacturing companies or business corporations offer their good workers, sales executives, retailers or wholesalers with rewards of free holidays within the country or overseas which include transportation, hotels, meals

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and entertainment. People seem to prefer free holidays as a reward, as compared to material gifts like a TV set, refrigerator or a washing machine. In affluent countries, workers often do not need these items as incentives as they have already bought them from their own savings. So, the idea of offering free holidays as an incentive was discovered and has since caught on. Often, the incentive includes free travel, both for husband and wife. Every year, millions of people are travelling as part of incentive travel from their companies in different parts of the world. In countries like the USA, there are travel companies specialising in organising incentive travel only for business corporations. Incentive travel for workers and executives has started in India too—though the scale is as yet modest. Some companies promote foreign tours to neighbouring countries.

GLOBAL TOURISM ORGANISATIONS Having determined what makes people travel, we can look at the organisation of tourism in the world. The travel agents act as coordinators of different segments of travel. Travel has become a massive business enterprise. In some countries it has assumed the shape of mass tourism. Imagine, Spain with a population of ten million—had forty-eight million foreign visitors in 2000) had Even in Asia, Singapore has a population of 2.4 million and foreign visitors were seven million in 2000. Government’s Role : Governments, therefore, have to play a key role in the planning, development, regulation and marketing of tourism. Tourism helps every government because it provides employment to the citizens and earns foreign currency for the country. Therefore, practically every government in the world, irrespective of its size, has a NTA. It may be called a Department of Tourism as in the case of India, a Tourist Promotion Board as in the case of Singapore, a Tourism Authority as in the UK

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and Thailand or a Tourism Ministry as in the Philippines. The NTAs are involved in planning, development, promotion and administration of tourism. While planning a beach or mountain resort, an NTA tries to make sure that there is no overcrowding, pollution and destruction of historic or archaeological landmarks as a result of the new area development for tourism. To promote tourism, an NTA opens tourist offices overseas to attract foreign tourists to their shores. They also have tourist information offices within their own countries, to provide information to foreign visitors on arrival and also to domestic travellers who wish to travel within their own country. In India, the Central Department of Tourism has eleven tourist offices in foreign countries and twenty-one within India. In large countries like India, there are several Government tourist organisations. For instance, almost all the twenty-eight State Governments of India and seven Union Territories have their Departments of Tourism and majority of them have Government-owned State Tourism Development Corporations. They operate at State levels. Although most States have their Departments of Tourism and Tourism Development Corporations, the level of tourism development has been uneven. Tourism is a State subject and the Centre cannot enforce its decisions unilaterally on all the States. It was in this context that the National Committee on Tourism (NCT), suggested in 1988 that tourism should be brought on the concurrent list of the Constitution of India. The advantage would be that the Central Government could initiate a legislation in the tourism field for All-India application. Initially State Governments were not interested in tourism development. The Centre had to subsidise the State Governments to open such departments for promotion of tourism. Now most of them are reasonably active and are no longer subsidised by the Centre. The Centre, however, assists them financially to strengthen or streamline their infrastructure where needed.

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At the All-India level, there is the public sector—India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), with a network of hotels all over India, transport units in various states, a chain of duty-free shops at the international airports and undertaking other tourismrelated jobs. Several States have followed the ITDC pattern at their level. Now, a decision has been taken at the Centre that the Government should leave the tourism business to private sector. ITDC is, therefore, in the process of privatisation and the State Governments too are thinking on similar lines. In fact, these Corporations with so much public investments have become a burden on public exchequer, as they are no longer profitable. The Government has to put in money to run them. Establishment of World Tourism Organisation (WTO) : In the organisational chart of tourism, World Tourism Organisation (WTO) is the apex body—representing at world level, the tourism interests of NTAs and working as an affiliate of the United Nations Organisation (UNO). Started as the International Union of Official Travel Organisation (IUOTO) in the first half of the twentieth century, it became an intergovernmental organisation in 1975 and named World Tourism Organisation WTO, for short. Presently, it has a membership of one hundred and thirty-seven countries and territories. Besides, there are some three hundred and fifty affiliate members like airlines, travel agencies, etc. WTO provides many services to its members—principal one being the compilation of travel statistics and the publication of books and reports, to help member Governments to plan and develop their tourism. It works closely with several other international organisation with the objectives of helping develop tourism in the world. It offers expert help to developing countries to plan, develop and reorganise their tourism. It strives to improve the quality of tourism education. Presently, its focus is to create environment for sustainable tourism. India is one of its founding members and is often elected to its Executive Council. Its Chief Executive is called Secretary

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General. WTO aims to create favourable conditions for free movement of travel in the world. For this purpose, it favours the passport-free travel in the world. To some extent, it has been achieved in all the European Countries (EU), where the citizens can travel without visa and passport. Besides, they have introduced a common currency called Euro making travel hasslefree. At present, if a visitor gets visa for one of the eleven European countries, it is valid for all the eleven member countries. WTO is based in Madrid, Spain. Establishment of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) : Among other world bodies which sustain and promote international tourism, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is notable. Although its active members are from the Pacific region, extending from Canada to the Indian sub-continent, (hundred governments, sixty-six airlines and cruise lines. Its presence, etc., worldwide is felt through its more than eighty chapters (seventeen thousand members). It is primarily a marketing organisation, promoting tourism to the Pacific region and assisting member countries in various ways. Originally established in Hawaii in 1951, it was later headquartered in San Francisco for four decades and is now based in Bangkok, with divisional offices in USA, Australia, Singapore and Europe. It membership exceeds 2000 and consists of governments, airlines, steamship companies, cruise lines, travel agencies, media, etc. PATA is headed by a Chief Executive and managed by a large Board of Directors, representing many countries. Its annual conventions are a great draw, attracting some one thousand five hundred industry leaders from all over the world. The 2002 Convention was held in New Delhi. PATA organisation is actively involved in developing ethos for sustainable tourism. PATA programmes are designed to meet the needs of

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members, allowing each to remain competitive in the world market place. PATA offers to its members research and marketing services, product development and a variety of educational seminars and workshops. Besides the above, there are world organisations representing hotels, travel agencies, airlines, transport, etc. In the organisation of tourism, transport is an inseparable element. Tourism transport consists of aeroplanes, motor vehicles, railways, cruise lines, etc. Of course, governments are closely involved in the operation and regulation of the transport system. Another essential element of tourism is accommodation— hotels, motels, inns, tourist bungalows or lodges, youth hostels, etc., where tourists can stay. Finally, the most important elements are the tourist attractions of a country—scenic beauty, historical monuments, rivers, lakes, parks, mountains, beaches, forests, wildlife, flora and fauna, climate, food and shopping. Tourists come to see and enjoy what a country can offer. Together, all the elements mentioned above, comprise the tourism assets or resources of a country. When these are packaged, the experts call it the ‘tourism product’ of a country. After all, this is the product a visitor wants to buy. Like manufactured products, the tourism product too has a lot of variety. You can package it in many interesting ways as preferred or demanded by the customers. It may be a holiday on the beaches, a peep into a country’s past, a mountain vacation, wildlife viewing or a shopping tour. The visitors have several options and combinations of options at different price ranges. There is, however, one difference. Tourism is a product which has to be bought unseen. Like manufactured products, you cannot bring them to the customer to see and feel. The customer has to go to it to experience and to feel it. The new

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technology however, can present to you, on a computer, ‘virtual reality’ of the tourism product. Establishment of India’s National Tourist Administration (NTA) : As mentioned earlier, every country sets up its National Tourist Administration (NTA) according to its own requirements. All countries or States of the world, have a NTA, supported and sponsored by the Government of the country. In the western world, most NTAs are sponsored and financed by the Government. In a few countries, private sector also supports it financially and is involved, to some extent, in the management of NTAs. This is not so in India. The Department of Tourism which manages tourism at the Government level, is wholly dependent on the Government for financial support. No attempt has been made to involve the private sector financially in a supporting role. The private sector is not involved even in an advisory role, though it is sometimes consulted at the discretion of the Government. The argument in favour of private sector participation is that since the private sector is the major beneficiary of tourism promotion undertaken by a Government, it is logical that they share part of the expenditure on tourism promotion and management. The Government of India, in its wisdom, decided not to involve the private sector. Or, when the Government of India mooted the idea of promoting tourism, the private sector was not strong enough to contribute any money. A successful example of the Government and the private sector being actively involved in the NTO affairs is Switzerland, where the private sector contributes almost forty per cent of the expenditure. USA does not have a NTA—it was disbanded in 1995 for economic reasons. Federal Government felt that the private sector should solely promote tourism as they were the primary beneficiaries. And, US tourism has not since looked back. There were valid reasons for not involving the private sector. When the Department of Tourism was set up in 1958, the travel

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industry in India was so small and so shy that the Government did not think that the industry could contribute substantially. So, the idea of charging a fee from the industry did not appeal to the decision-makers. In fact, the private sector in hoteliering and transport was so reluctant that the Government of India had to set up a company in the public sector to build and operate hotels at tourist centres, where the private sector was not willing to invest. Similarly, at major tourist centres like Khajuraho, Varanasi or Jaipur, there was no adequate tourist transport facilities. The public sector company, ITDC with its headquarters in New Delhi, had to step in to operate public sector transport units to provide good transport fleet. India, therefore, is a unique case history in tourism development. During the early years of independence, major business houses, except the house of Tatas, did not consider the operation of hotels and restaurants as an honourable business. There were only a few modern hotels in the country and those too run by foreigners. The Government’s intervention became necessary to develop the basic infrastructure at major tourist centres to attract foreign tourists. This led to the Government building and operating hotels and transport units, through its public sector organisation like the ITDC all over India. State Tourism Corporations have followed the same pattern and built budget accommodation and have also operated tourist transport fleets in their respective States. The tourism scene has changed drastically during the last thirty years and the private sector is now very active in tourism development. Indian hotels in the private sector compare favourably with the best in the world and some of the leading Indian hotel chains are operating hotels in developed countries under their brand name. The Government of India has recognised this fact and decided not to invest any more in the construction

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of new five-star hotels, leaving the tourism industry totally open to the private sector in India. In fact, there are moves to sell hotels owned by ITDC and Hotel Corporation of India. A few properties were sold in 2002. India’s NTA would, therefore, consists of a Department of Tourism which is a Department of the Ministry of Tourism and also the India Tourism Development Corporation which is a public sector company and implements Government’s policy decisions in tourism field. The WTO has a new name for NTOs— the National Tourism Administration—NTAs. They prefer to call it NTA because an Administration has wider ramifications than the Organisation. The private sector is encouraged by the Department of Tourism to operate tourism facilities under the overall policy guidelines of the Government. In fact, there is an excellent cooperation and understanding between the Department of Tourism and the private sector tour operators, travel agents, transporters and hoteliers in the area of tourism development. Historically, tourism development in India has suffered due to a lack of clear thinking on the part of political decision-makers in the country. Bureaucratic hurdles made it worse. India became aware of the importance of tourism promotion as early as in 1946. Sir John Sargent, Educational Adviser to the Government of India, headed a committee to survey the potential of tourism in India and recommended that developing tourist traffic, both internal and external, will be beneficial for India. The recommendation led to the establishment of a Tourist Traffic branch in the Ministry of Transport and Communication, with a network of tourist offices in India and abroad. The branch later transformed itself into a department headed by a director general in 1958. The first overseas tourist office was set up in New York as early as in 1952, followed by similar offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Colombo, Melbourne and San Francisco. In retrospect, tourist offices overseas were opened

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too soon at too many foreign cities without providing them adequate budgetary support and without analysing the availability of adequate infrastructure at home, particularly accommodation suitable for foreigners. Besides, travellers from distant countries like USA, Canada, had a poor image of India as a holiday destination. Establishment of Tourism Logo Department : The establishment of a separate Department of Tourism, helped considerably and the international tourist arrivals which were sixteen thousand in 1951 jumped to over sixteen lakh in 1990, and were twenty-six crore in 2000. The importance of promotion of tourism for the economic development of India, was realised by the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. She established in 1967, a separate Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation under Dr. Karan Singh. It was good to tie up tourism with civil aviation, as fast development of tourism is not possible without the total support of the Civil Aviation Ministry, in a country where ninety-eight per cent of foreign visitors come by air. Subsequently, all kinds of experiments have been done with the Tourism Ministry to suit the political needs of the Government in power. At times, the Ministry of Tourism has been separated from Civil Aviation to work in isolation. Later, it was attached to Commerce which made some sense. In 1991, it was tied to Agriculture which made no sense. In 1991, the Tourism and Civil Aviation ministries were again combined under a Cabinet Minister, Madhavrao Scindia. The Deve Gowda Government linked Tourism Ministry with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 1996. The BJP Government did the same in 1998. Presently, it is attached to Culture which again makes sense. It seems, tourism portfolio is the least attractive for politicians. The Director General of Tourism in the Department of Tourism, is of the rank of an Additional Secretary and under him

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are various heads of divisions like planning, publicity, hotels, market research, supplementary accommodation, etc.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT The activities of the Department of Tourism in India, and for that matter, all NTAs anywhere in the world, can be summed up as under the following broad heads: • Compilation, collection and dissemination of tourist information in India and abroad; attending to enquiries from international tourists, tour operators and travel industry sectors such as airlines, steamship companies and hotels; production of tourist literature—posters, brochures, information directories, tourist guide maps— for wide distribution. Now, most NTAs including India, have set up their websites for travel information so that the people with internet connections can access this information and make their travel decisions. There website have to be updated from time to time; • Cooperation with international travel and tourist organisations at the Government and non-Government levels; • Facilitation, such as simplification of frontier formalities in respect of entry of international tourists; • Development of tourist activities of interest to international tourists; • Publicity at home and abroad with the object of creating an overall awareness of the importance of tourism; • Regulation of the activities of various segments of the travel trade, such as hotels, youth hostels, travel agents, wildlife outfitters, guides, tourist car operators and shopkeepers catering to tourist needs; and • Compilation of statistics and market research on international tourist traffic to India and on its utilisation

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for effective tourist promotion. Compilation of domestic tourism statistics.

REORGANISATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS In 1987, the Government of India under the late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, appointed a high-level National Committee on Tourism under the chairmanship of Mr. Mohammed Yunus. The Committee consisted of leading experts on tourism from the Government of India as well as the private sector. A major recommendation of the Committee was the reorganisation of the Department of Tourism, to make it a National Tourism Board like the Railway Board, with considerable autonomy in the implementation of schemes. The other recommendation was to have a cadre of professional tourist officers in the organisation instead of inducting Indian administrative service officers or staff from other ministries. The recommendations were welcomed by the industry but implementation is not yet on the horizon. The vested interest of the entrenched officers is the major hurdle. Establishment of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) : Set up in 1966 as an autonomous public sector corporation, ITDC was entrusted with the task of helping to develop a tourist infrastructure and promoting India as a tourist destination. Over the years, ITDC has been playing a crucial, strategic role in ensuring: • Proper dispersal of socio-economic benefits of tourism; • Promoting national integration and international understanding; • Removal of regional imbalances; • Generating employment opportunities; • Augmenting foreign exchange earnings; and • Acting as a catalyst in the development of tourism by opening up new unexplored tourist areas.

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ITDC’s present range of operations is diverse. The package of tourist services comprises accommodation, catering, transport, publicity services, duty-free shops, an in-house travel agency— the Ashok Travels—entertainment, conferences, and providing management consultancy services within India and abroad.

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The Ashok Group, ITDC’s accommodation chain, is the largest in the country and offers accommodation in over three thousand and eight hundred rooms in its thirty-three hotels at twenty-six destinations, ranging from luxury suites to modestly furnished rooms and from beach resorts to moderately priced travellers/ forest lodges. ITDC owns twenty-six hotels—six of its hotels are owned by its subsidiaries. Accommodation is divided into three categories—Elite (six), Classic (sixteen) and Comfort (eleven). A few of the ITDC owned hotels have recently been sold to the private sector. It may be mentioned that a few of the ITDC-owned hotels were sold to private sector in 2002. The Corporation’s scheme of joint ventures/consultancy collaborations with the State Governments/Tourism Corporations, and private entrepreneurs, has had an enthusiastic response. Several States and private sector organisations have entered into agreements with ITDC, with ITDC operating their hotel properties under a management contract. Duty-Free Shops : To facilitate shopping by international passengers, ITDC operates ten duty-free shops and a tax-free shop. The duty-free shops function in the arrival and departure lounges of the international airports of the country—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Thiruananthapuram and Goa. The only tax-free shop is located at Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. Dutyfree shops offer a product portfolio of over fifteen thousand. It is currently one of its few profitable areas, others are lossmaking including accommodation.

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CONVENTIONS FACILITY

India’s potential for convention tourism has been exploited by ITDC. ITDC’s flagship—Ashok Hotel in New Delhi provides good facilities for holding international conferences for a thousand or more people at a time. It is still a popular venue for international conferences in New Delhi. Network of Ashok : The Ashok Network, a centralised reservation service located at New Delhi, with four regional offices covering north, south, east and west India, ensures instant accommodation and transport confirmations for individuals and groups countrywide. An addition to instant bookings/confirmations is Ashok Internet, a hotel-to-hotel reservation system of the Ashok Group. Ashok Travels and Tours : To provide back-up support to its hotels, the Corporation has its in-house full service travel agency—the Ashok Travels and Tours (ATT). From eleven units, located in various parts of the country, the ATT operates the largest fleet of coaches, tourist cars and air-conditioned limousines. Entertainment : The French started a novel experiment in the late fifties—telling the story of old castles and palaces through the medium of sound and light. This was an additional source of entertainment for tourists. In India, the first Sound & Light Show was mounted at the Red Fort, Delhi, narrating the story of the famous Mughal Fort beginning with the Mughal era and going on to India’s Independence. Subsequently, another show came up at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad on the life of the “Father of the Nation”, Mahatma Gandhi. In the same year, a Sound & Light Show was mounted at Shalimar Gardens, Srinagar, based on the romantic story of the Great Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, and his intelligent and dynamic consort, Noor Jahan. After that, ITDC put up shows

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at the Cellular Jail (a national monument now) in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and at Golconda Fort in Hyderabad. Sound & Light Shows provide good, wholesome entertainment and are so very informative. ITDC has now mounted a show at Chandragiri Fort in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Others in the pipeline are at the Somnath Temple in Veraval district, Gujarat and at the Sun Temple at Konarak, Orissa. The world heritage site of Hampi in Karnataka—the Capital of the mighty Vijayanagar Empire; as also Katra in Jammu— nestling at the feet of the Goddess Durga, will also see Sound & Light Shows before long. Modern dramatic techniques of lighting systems, are being used in mounting these shows with the help of digital technology. Travel Packages : To promote domestic tourism, ITDC operates various tourism packages every year. These packages are moderately priced and sold at all hotels of the Ashok Group in the country. Publicity Consultancy : ITDC has a publicity division which offers consultancy services to State Governments and other similar organisations. Their services include advertising, publicity and tourism communications. Financial Success : ITDC with an authorised share capital of Rs 75 crore and paid up capital of Rs 675 crore has six subsidiary companies. It is one of the few public sector undertakings which has been making profits ever since its inception. However, in the late nineties, it started its downhill journey and has been consistently in the red mainly due to overstaffing and unionisation. The Government of India has decided in principle to disinvest in the activities of ITDC and let the private sector run the business of hotel-keeping. It is only a matter of time when ITDC will be out of the hands of the Government. Delay is mainly due to vested interest.

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Establishment of India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) : In a bid to promote convention and conference tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has sponsored the establishment of the India “Wanted Ambassadors for India” : It is estimated that more than 20,000 of India’s professional elite, attend over 10,000 conferences worldwide every year. Are you one of them? We need you as an Ambassador. We need you to go beyond the role of a delegate to that of a dignitary, to present India as the Conference Destination of the 90s. To bag the next conference at the next international meet you attend, and make India the prestigious venue. The Booming Conference Business : Over 33,000 conferences are held around the world every year and generate an incredible US dollars 104 billion in revenue. India’s share is minuscule. We host around 170 conferences annually. Imagine the opportunities and the pivotal role you can play in attracting this immensely prestigious, booming business to India! India—New Destination : There is an international awakening. There is a growing realisation that India is much more than a tourist destination. It is an unforgettable learning experience. Contemporary facilities and the richest legacies. That is the inimitable beauty of India you can offer with the greatest pride and confidence: Majesty, Mystery, Grandeur and above all our famed warmth and hospitality in comfort and style that will redefine international standards. Assure them of our prestigious conference venues in historic Delhi, in scenic Srinagar

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and several other centres, each especially planned and developed as a confluence for minds. Convention Halls for ten to 10,000, Hi-Tech Communication facilities—Fax, Telex, Computers, International Direct Dialling, Administrative and Secretarial help, Staff with convention experience. In essence, you name it, it is there. India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) redefines you from Delegate to Host : To make you vie with the world. To provide all the support you need to bid and win. That is the role of ICBP. A non-profit association sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. In this endeavour, ICBP has the support and resources of its member bodies comprising Airlines, Hotels, Travel Agents, Tour Operators, Tourist Bureaus, Travel Associations, etc. Count on ICPB to make your conference happen. ICPB is with you all the way. Right from the ideation stage, discussing ways and means of getting your conference to India, preparing professional bid documents, assisting in the post-bid phase through member organisations, promoters, bookings, management of the event— everything. If all this sounds amazing, talk to ICBP if you are serious about becoming an Ambassador for India. ICPB has its office at Room No.233, Ashok Hotel, New Delhi-110021. Tel: 6874318. Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB). While a major part of the expenses is borne by the Government of India, the private sector also contributes its share. Its office is located in the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. ICPB tries to attract international conferences to India—by making presentations at the conferences regarding the facilities offered by India and the fun that awaits the delegates.

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Extracts from the text of an advertisement issued by ICPB in major national magazines are reproduced on the facing page. It explains the ICPB’s area of work. Opening of Overseas Tourist Offices : The Government of India opened its tourist offices overseas, to promote inbound tourism to destination India as early as 1950— now they number seventeen in different parts of the world. Most of them are located in the affluent countries of the west— including the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. Annual expenditure on the upkeep of these offices and promotion abroad exceeds Rs 75 crore. The expenditure is insignificant as the country earns over Rs 10,000 crore from foreign tourism and this small expense seems justifiable. The entire expenditure is funded by the Government of India—the private sector which benefits from tourism does not contribute to it. But, there are examples of some successful experiments doing without overseas tourist offices with little adverse effect on their inbound arrivals, e.g., the USA, China and Russia. The USA once had tourist offices abroad but closed them finding that they did not add to the number of arrivals. There are countries like Pakistan, Nepal and others which too do not have overseas offices. A WTO study done in 1997 revealed that, worldwide, Singapore was the destination which spent most in a year on promotion overseas through its overseas office—US$99 million, followed by the UK, US$78 million; Spain, US$71 million; Thailand, US$66 million and Australia, US$61 million. But, their tourism is much larger than India’s. However, the new technology and the availability of excellent websites of nations has made them redundant. Even at the time, this technology was not available, the percentage of visitors to India who got information from overseas tourist offices or through their advertising was less than two per cent.

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Now, it will be much less. Questions, therefore, have been raised by not only the travel industry but also by the Tourism Minister, Finance Minister, etc., about the utility of these offices or at least so many of them. In India, it is not easy to think objectively on subjects where plum jobs are involved—involving extensive foreign travel abroad. However, in 2002, the Government of India decided to close down five of its sixteen overseas offices. Explosion of Domestic Tourism : An unfortunate feature of Indian tourism is that policy-makers in the past have always equated tourism with foreign visitors. There were two reasons for it—one, it was traditionally the foreign visitor who occupied hotel rooms, filled airline seats, frequented bars and restaurants and used the recreation and adventure facilities. And, during the days of short supply of foreign exchange, it was the foreign visitor who seem to be purveyor of unlimited money supply. Every aspect of Indian tourism was, therefore, arranged to suit his needs. Even the price mechanism seemed to tie with overseas costs, ignoring the average standards in the country. There is, however, a hidden dimension to Indian tourism one that has figured little in the policy planning or thinking of most industry and Government players: almost unobstrusive and yet inexorable rise in domestic tourism. In the last ten years, domestic tourism has increased by more than hundred million travellers, up by, from 63.8 million in 1990 to one hundred and seventy-six million in 1999. The explosion in domestic travel is an inevitable by-product of economic development in the country and various other factors like pilgrimages. An average Indian traveller is an avid sightseer too and his average spending is growing. Soon, many of them will be patronising star hotels. Personal spending on travel and tourism in 2001, by the residents positions, puts India as the nineteenth largest spender in the world.

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The forecast for personal travel tourism growth over the next decade, at 9.7 per cent annually, positions India as the second fastest growing country in this category. Business travel and tourism in India is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent per annum over the coming decade (Source : WTTC), and, that too without much help from the Government. NTA’s Success Story Singapore : Singapore Tourism is an interesting success story. In 1957, when Singapore and Malaysia were one country, an Assembly man, William Tan, argued against the allocation of a budget of US$300,000 for tourism promotion because, he felt, Singapore had nothing worthwhile to offer to foreign visitors. Singapore, he stated, had only three attractions: “Swamplands, some five buildings and the death houses of Sago Lane. Little else!” Despite romanticism engendered by Somerset Maugham’s exotic tales of the east, written in the gardens of the Singapore’s old Raffles Hotel, there were not many visitors who wanted to come to the city for sightseeing. In 1957, some one lakh fifty thousand passengers had to stop in Singapore en route to other destinations, but not even half of them chose to visit the city, instead they preferred to staying in “transit”. Such was the image of this city till the early sixties. After 1960, tourists started arriving in Singapore for a different reason. They found shops on Sundays with unbelievably low price-tags on imported goods. Visitors from Australia and New Zealand discovered a new world, full of itinerant Asian hawkers selling dishes with strange names and stranger flavours, interesting food taken on stools outside the rickety shophouses, firecrackers erupting on festival days, touts promising ‘best buys for you, Sir’ and exotic night-life. For the less adventurous, Raffles Hotel offered a slice of England on the Equator with Asia beckoning at the doorstep.

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The Government of Singapore realised the potential of tourism and set up an organisation to promote it. But tourism efforts got a real boost when in 1 August, 1965, Singapore seceded from the Malayan Federation and became an independent republic. Independence gave an impetus to tourism which was strengthened to generate more employment and the economic development of the City-State. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) was born with a mandate to be the catalyst in the development of tourism. And, they did it effectively. The Government gave them enough funds to undertake the promotion of Singapore all over the world and also to develop new attractions by the simple method of giving back to them, a small tax, collected on hotel room rental charges and meals. Singapore has not looked back since then. Although this port-city is often compared to Manhattan, New York, because of its high-rise buildings, it is essentially eastern and presents a mixture of four cultures: Chinese, Malaya, Indian and European. The cultural mix has been successfully presented by Singapore in its advertising campaign. They present Singapore as a mini-Asia to the western world. Singapore has a population of only 2.5 million: seventyseven per cent Chinese, fifteen per cent Malaya, six per cent Indians and two per cent others. It has an area of one thousand square kilometres, the same as Hong Kong. This is the only country in Asia where the number of visitors in a year is more than double its population—over seven million in the year 2000. English is the language for business and of the Government. People also speak Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Hindi. The port of Singapore, the world’s second busiest, is used by three hundred major shipping lines. On an average, a harbour vessel enters or leaves the harbour every ten minutes. Singapore has emerged as an important financial centre in Asia and over hundred international banks are located in the City-State. Communication facilities are as good as in any advanced country.

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The central position of the island-state and its comprehensive tourist facilities have attracted an increasing number of visitors.

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY Since its inception, STPB has involved the travel industry of the country in its promotional efforts. Singapore hotels spend over US$25 million annually on overseas advertising, independently of STPB. Similarly, the National Association of Travel Agents (NATA) and the Retail Shopkeepers Associations are involved in the promotional programmes of their own, complementing the work of the STPB. Singapore’s advertising campaign is an example of cooperative working of Singapore Airlines and the STPB. Their advertising is perhaps most noticeable in the USA and in Europe as compared to that of other Asian destinations. In the UK and USA, Singapore runs television commercials, which not many Asian countries can afford. Although STPB contributes ninety per cent of the advertising funds, their name does not appear in media advertisements. The name is only of the Singapore Airlines, which responds to the enquiries. Now, they are using Indian TV channels too, for selling Singapore to Indians. Singapore’s tourism promotion budget is the highest in the world according to WTO (above US$100 million in 2000). STPB is convinced that Singapore by itself cannot be sold as a tourist destination. It has to be a stopover point or an extension to a holiday in the region—average stay is only three days. STPB, therefore, works closely with Malaysia and its other ASEAN neighbours like Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. They jointly promote the ASEAN region. STPB’s marketing skills have been applied not only at the selling end of the marketing process, but also at the starting point, with an ambitious product development programme aimed

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at keeping Singapore in good shape. Promotion and product development have moved hand in hand. The Government encouraged the construction of hotels in the early seventies. It was then felt that Singapore was over-building, but the period of low occupancy was short-lived and hotels soon started enjoying healthy occupancies upto eighty per cent and more. While modernisation is taking its toll in Singapore, STPB is making earnest efforts to retain the old-world charm of historical institutions, sites and streets as tourist assets of the country. The year 1986 was a momentous year for the Singapore Travel Industry as the US$1 billion Tourist Product Development Plan was launched which has resulted in reviving of the old Bugis Street at a new site near the original one, the redevelopment of Haw Par Villa into the world’s first Chinese mythological hightechnology park and the revitalisation of historic districts like China Town, Little India, etc. Old buildings have been restored to their original condition and where it was not possible, these have been replaced with exact replicas. The latest attraction is a Night Safari Park, an artificially developed jungle where hundreds of animals imported from different climes roam in their natural surroundings. The Park opens at night and the animals are visible from windows of a slow-moving train in bright moonlight—again artificially created. Only land-starved Singapore could undertake such a project. There is no danger of animals straying out of their respective jungle abodes as the high-tech park has fool-proof security. Singapore has one of the finest airports in Asia. The new Changi International Airport handles take-offs or landings every two minutes, round the clock. Things move very fast at this airport. Customs checks are nominal and immigration clearance even faster. While one is waiting for the baggage, there are courtesy phones from where a person may make a local telephone call without payment. Tourist literature is placed at convenient locations to be picked up by incoming passengers.

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For visitors taking connecting flights but having time on their hands, short sightseeing trips are available free of charge— courtesy STPB. Such short trips create an interest among the transit passengers to come back for a longer holiday.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS In order to keep tourists occupied in Singapore, a number of tourist attractions have been added and promoted. Among these is the privately-run twenty hectare Junong Bird Park. The Park boasts of myriad birds and a thirty-metre high waterfall, all enclosed in a gigantic forested cage. Other areas to visit include a Chinese and Japanese Gardens, a Nature Reserve, an Orchid Garden, etc. But the most popular man-made attraction is the newly developed Santosa Island, which is reached by cable car or ferry. On this island, a fast and efficient mono-rail is used to move people. Festivals have been revived and given an international flavour to bring tourists and these include the annual International Kite Flying Contest, International Dragon Boat Races, Bird Singing Contest, Orchard Parade, Chinese Opera, etc. Commenting on Singapore’s successful marketing, Graham Hornel, presently Executive Director, Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation (IOTO), said, “The selling of Singapore during the past years by STPB, SIA and the Singapore Hotel Association is a communication success story in itself and, I believe, all PATA destinations can learn something from the Singapore example.” Indeed, it is a success story. They have created a wealth of tourist attractions out of what one of its leaders described as “Swamplands, five buildings and the death houses of Sago Lane”. Essence : People travel for many reasons: principal among these are recreation or holiday; seeking adventure or outdoor sports; cultural travel to see how people in other countries or in other parts of the same country live; health tourism to spas

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or resorts; seeking medical treatment; business travel. Another increasingly pressing reason for travel is to attend business and professional conferences. Travel is also offered as a reward to good workers or salesmen of a company as an incentive. This segment is called incentive travel and millions of people are travelling all over the world having been rewarded by their companies. Modern tourism has emerged as a big business providing employment to millions of workers in the host countries and earning them foreign exchange for economic development. Governments, therefore, are bound to take interest and play an active role in tourism. Tourism also has the potential to do damage to the ecosystem of the host country or change the cultural pattern of the host communities, if allowed to develop unplanned and unregulated. Therefore, Governments take keen interest in the planned and harmonious development of tourism. How do Governments intervene? Nationally, each Government has set up a NTO or what WTO now terms it, NTA. Their primary functions are promotion and marketing of the country as a tourist destination, planning and development of tourist infrastructure and in regulating to some extent, tourismrelated activities. A good, efficient, honest and professional tourist organisation can do a lot to promote and improve the development of tourism in a country. In India, the Department of Tourism which is a part of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, can be described as the NTA of the country. Not all the countries have the same system. Britain and Thailand have Tourist Authorities, while Singapore and Ireland have a Tourist Board each. Authorities and Boards have greater autonomy and, often, they have the involvement of the private sector in its management. Major funding is done by the Governments, but organisations benefiting from tourism are also expected to give financial support.

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India’s Department of Tourism is totally funded by the Government of India and the private sector has no direct say in its policy-making. The ITDC, a public sector organisation working under the Ministry of Tourism is also a part of the NTA of India. ITDC, set up in 1966, was entrusted with the management and operation of all Government-owned hotels, motels and other similar properties. In addition, it offers publicity and other consultancy services to tourism organisations, operates an India-wide tourism-related transport network and runs duty-free shops at international airports. The hotels operated by ITDC are called Ashok Hotels. ITDC has thirty-three hotels at twenty-six destinations—about three thousand and five hundred rooms—a few hotels have been privatised in 2002. ITDC was set up when the private sector was shy of investing in hotels and similar tourism projects. The Government decided to fill up the gap. ITDC performed excellently during the early years. However, now the private sector has come of age, and there is a strong demand that the facilities run by ITDC may be best left to the private sector. Competition has made ITDC indifferent and today, this highly profitable public sector organisation has turned into red. The threat of privatisation hangs over it like the Damocles sword. At the time of writing this book, the Government of India had identified it as one of the public sector organisation to be put on the auction block and disinvestment has already started. At the State level, there are State Tourism Development Corporations run on the pattern of the ITDC. Most of them manage State-owned hotels or guest houses, tourist transport and offer package tours, in their respective States. Many of these Corporations are in the red. They too are facing the threat of privatisation. But vested interests do not allow the State Governments to sell these loss-making companies.

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At the international level, the WTO with headquarters at Madrid, is UN-sponsored inter-governmental organisation with one hundred and thirty Governments as its members. India plays an active role in the working of the WTO and has been a member of its Executive Committee. Apart from providing coordination among the member Governments in matters relating to tourism, WTO compiles international tourist statistics. PATA is yet another international organisation devoted to the promotion and marketing of tourism in the Asia Pacific region, of which India is a part. Set up in 1951, it has membership of hundred Governments and two thousand other travel-related companies as its members. India is a very active member. Its annual convention in 2002 was held in New Delhi. Established in 1958, the Department of Tourism, Government of India, has promoted India successfully as a tourist destination during more than four decades of its existence. Initially, the Government of India did not consider tourism as an important economic activity. In recent years, the Government has realised the importance of tourism as an economic factor and allocations for publicity and infrastructural developments have been steadily enhanced. It has also been declared as an industry, but implementation has yet to come. There has been a demand for the reorganisation of the Department of Tourism. The National Committee on Tourism (NCT) set up by the Government of the late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, felt the need for change and recommended the establishment of a National Tourist Board on the lines of the Railway Board of India. The recommendation has not yet been implemented and its report is gathering dust in the archives of the Department of Tourism. It is a shame that national issues are ignored with damaging consequences. No wonder India’s share in the world tourism is a mere 0.38 per cent.

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9 MOVEMENT

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Travel necessarily means movement of people from one place to another. Mobility is the key factor. A tourist, in order to get to his destination, has to travel and, therefore, some mode of transport is necessary to make possible this travel. In other words, transport is an essential precondition of travel. The growth and development of transport, both public and private, have had a tremendous impact on the growth and direction of organised tourism, especially mass tourism.

THE BACKGROUND Mechanised transport was invented in the nineteenth century beginning with the introduction of railways. The introduction of railways was a crucial landmark in the annals of the travel history. In fact, the seeds of the modern travel agency system were planted way back in the year 1830 when passengers were first carried by rail in England. Rail-road Transport : The newly completed railway track between Liverpool and Manchester in England featured special provisions for carrying passengers in addition to freight. However, the birth of organised rail travel came in the year 1841. A Baptist

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preacher of Derbyshire, England, was on his way to a temperance meeting in Leicester when he was inspired with the idea of engaging a special train to carry the friends of temperance society from Leicester to Loughborough and back to attend a quarterly delegate meeting. The man behind this was Thomas Cook. He broached his idea to his friends. A few weeks later, 570 passengers made the journey by the Midland Countries Railway at a specially reduced fare. This venture was followed by various excursions to beauty spots. In the year 1843,3,000 school children were taken on a trip from Leicester to Derby. From 1848 to 1863 Thomas Cook conducted circular tours of Scotland, with 5,000 tourists a season. The Liverpool and Manchester railway, opened in the year 1830, encouraged many other countries in Europe to open railway lines. Railway tracks were laid in France, Austria and in Switzerland. Across the Atlantic the tracks were laid in America. This revolution in rail transport technology produced an immediate expansion in European tourism. In the year 1881, the railways carried over 600 million passengers over lines operated by one hundred odd companies. The railways were now keen to stimulate travel and to improve the system. There was also an element of competition and the various railway companies tried to make travel as comfortable as possible. In the early 1870s, first class railway travel was introduced by an American, G.M. Pullman, who developed the Pullman coaches with their luxury furnishing and dining facilities. Long distance travel could now be undertaken in comfort and pleasure. The Pullman cars manufactured in America were imported by some railway companies in England and other countries in Europe. The cars which were very comfortable for long journeys were first introduced in America. The longer distances in America necessitated the ensuring of great comfort for passengers. By the year 1872 the Pullman

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Company had 700 cars working over 30,000 miles of railway under contract with other 150 different companies. Rapid Expansion in Europe : Europe was one continent where rail transport developed very fast. In Europe the expansion of rail networks linking different countries within Europe as also outside Europe expanded rapidly. The urge and the motivation to travel within Europe was responsible for the introduction of several new railway lines which were responsible for the introduction of great trains, both of short and long distances. These train and train journeys even today are remembered with nostalgia. The great Inter-European Express, the Nord Express connecting Paris with Vienna in Austria, the Orient Express from Paris to Vienna and Constantinople, the Trans-Siberian, the Ostend-Vienna and Ostend-Warsaw services, and those from Berlin and Vienna to the Riviera and Italy are all creations of early twentieth century. There were several other services like between Entente countries, the Calais-Brindisi, the express from the Channel ports and Paris to Switzerland and Italy through Basle and Lausanne by the Lotschberg and Simplon, the Paris-Rome-Palermo, the Sud Express from Paris to Madrid, Lisbon, Seville, and even the fast services from Paris to Riviera, Nice and Genoa in Italy.

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The compelling influence of mass individual as well as organised travel in the subsequent years brought in great development in the rail transport not only in Europe but in many other continents. It was, however, in Europe that revolutionary experiments were made and are continued to be made in the area of high speed luxury trains. The energy crisis in 1974 which resulted in widespread recession and galloping inflation had adversely affected travel by air and by private car. It was becoming increasingly expensive

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to travel by air and private car and coach. The fuel consumption per passenger per kilometre is two to four times more in automobiles and ten times more in aeroplanes as compared to trains. This factor of increase in oil prices is responsible for the remarkable achievement in recent years in the growth of faster and cheaper rail transport. Besides the cost factor, the railways also have an advantage over the airlines in that the terminal stations are often located in the heart of the cities and the train timings are generally more convenient. To add to this, the growing congestion on highways and airports has given a further impetus to this trend. All the above factors coupled with advanced technology and increasing needs for mobility are leading to a renaissance of the rail transport. The railways which were pioneers in the growth and development of early mass travel and were relegated to a secondary place with the introduction of motor and air transport, are once again assuming an important role. In almost all the European countries, the United States of America, Asia and elsewhere, revolutionary ideas for achieving higher speeds and comfort are being conceived and put into practice. The trend, however, was discernible before the world was affected by the energy crisis. It was in Europe that designs for faster and comfortable trains were first formulated. In the year 1960 the British Railways electrified its London-Manchester line, a very busy line to achieve the speed of 160 kilometers per hour. The new high-speed trains on this line reduced the running time by a full one hour from the former three hours forty minutes trip. Passenger traffic almost doubled in five years. In Germany, a new inter-city system introduced in 1971 provided a rapid train service at two-hour intervals between major cities in the country and brought over 30 per cent more passengers in the first twelve months. Passengers were provided with extra conveniences like

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telephones, secretariat services, latest stock quotations and ‘a la carte’ dining-car service round the clock. Similarly, in France, the 160 kilometers per hour turbine train service, which began in 1970 between Paris and Caen in Northern France cut travel time by almost one-fifth. Passenger loads went up by 25 per cent in the first year. High-speed train services elsewhere in Europe connect Paris and Lyons in France, Rome and Milan in Italy and Moscow and Leningrad in Russia. High-speed Trains : It was japan which took the epochmaking decision to use the latest technology and convert the rail line between Tokyo and Osaka, covering a distance of 515 kilometers into a high-speed track. This ambitious project was completed in the year 1964. The superfast train known as Hikari Express—’bullet train’—running on the new Tokaido line at a speed of 210 kilometers per hour cutting the journey time to less than three hours against six and a half hours taken earlier— was a revolution in high-speed trains. Encouraged by the success of its bold venture, Japan went further and built the new Sanyo line, 565 kilometers in length on which trains travelled even faster at a maximum speed of 260 kilometers per hour. Elsewhere in Asia, new and faster rail tracks were introduced as the number of passengers carried by rail have been increasing in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. In France a world record of speed was broken in the year 1981. In September 1981, a new high speed train owned by the State-run SNCF Railroad Company shattered the 26-year-old world record for rail speed by clocking 380 kilometers per hour (236 miles). The record-breaking time was achieved near the central French city of Tonnerre during the test run of the French manufactured ‘Train a Grande Vitesse’ (TGV) train. It broke the previous record of 331 kilometers per hour (205 miles) that was set earlier.

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The commercial operations of this high-speed train began in 1981 between Paris and Lyon. The fastest train in the world, TGV, was launched in September 1981 covering the 560 kilometers distance between Paris and Lyon in one hour and 48 minutes. In comfortable, sound-proofed cars the only noise heard is the quiet hiss of air-conditioning. The latter version, the ‘TGV Atlantic’, reduced an hour off journeys from Paris to main cities in the West of France from Brest to Bordeaux. By mid-1990 the French started running TGVs along half their long distance routes, to bring London, Bordeaux, Rotterdam and Cologne within 3.5 hours from Paris. The 320.0 mph (515.3 km/h) TGV Atlantic today holds the world record in speed. Several other new rail projects were announced in the European countries. The Italian State Railways inaugurated high-speed runs between Rome and Milan. The nonstop train makes the 393 miles (638 kilometers) trip in four hours and 20 minutes, about an hour less than the standard runs. Sweden improved its four major lines to reduce the travel time between its major cities in the year 1994. In the United States of America, the railways are coming back into the scene in recent years. Increasing number of railway lines are being built to carry a large number of passengers not only within the suburbs but also long distances. There is a great spurt in the urban rail system construction all over the United States. It is increasingly being felt that as mass transit system, it can reduce congestion in high density towns and that this may reduce the automobile pollution. Long distance trains running on the Amtrak system between New York and San Francisco have been modernised. The Amtrak has also added new double Pullman coaches on the system with a view to encourage more rail travel. High-speed train services now connect highly populated Washington-BaltimorePhiladelphia-New York-Boston ‘Corridor’ in the United States.

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The concept of high-speed trains has come to USA as well. Amtrak has recently selected the Canadian firm to build its first high-speed train to link Washington and Boston at speeds up to 150 mph. The national passenger railroad Amtrak is planning to procure 18 train sets composed of six cars each, as well as leading and trailing locomotives. Another famous company, GECAlsthom NV of France, the maker of the world-famous French high speed train TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) is also joining to modernise the rail system in USA. The trains would start running in the fall of 1999 and are designed to maintain speeds far faster than the current Amtrak top speed of 125 mph. The day is not far off when trains will cruise at the speeds of 600 kilometers per hour. The new technology aims at dispensing with conventional rails. It aims at providing an aircushion to replace the conventional run on a track. The projected aero-trains will not only be fast but also sleek looking, noise free, low pollutant, and above all, will cause no wear and tear on the track because they never touch it. Glimpses of such trains are already available in France, Germany and Japan where many experiments have already been performed successfully. The Eurostar : The first yellow-nosed Eurostar train, the most recent revolutionary development in the rail transport carrying up to 800 passengers, pulled out of London’s international station parked at Gare du Nord Station in Paris in June, 1994. Eurostar, operator of the cross-channel high speed passenger train service between London and Paris and London and Brussels, hopes to capture one-half of the annual air traffic of over 5 million passengers on those routes by the end of 1996. About 18 to 22 million passenger journeys will be undertaken on the three-hour London-Paris and Paris-London route by the end of the decade. The channel tunnel marks a new era of European rail travel and follows the development of many more high-speed networks in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. These will be linked up later with the tunnel service and provide good

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competition for airlines on journeys of over 500-600 kilometers. Airlines have to face a stiff competition as the first class intercity train travel is much cheaper than flexible airline fares. According to Gunther Ellwanglr, high-speed director at the Paris-based Union International des Chemins de Fer, “The tunnel marks the advent of a real international high speed network. Until now, we just had the French TGV going to Switzerland or the German ICE train to Zurich. Many more lines will be built by end of the century, notably into Germany, then into Spain and Italy.” It is estimated that the volume of rail traffic will be far greater than 3 million passengers on the LondonParis air corridor. The railways expect to absorb over 40 per cent of airline business. Speed and economy are not the only factors in the futuristic trains; comfort and convenience are the other two major advantages. Many travellers find it more convenient to travel from one city centre to another rather than endure the hassles and extra expenses of getting to and from airports. A three-hour journey on the high-speed Eurorail on London-Brussels or London-Paris route provides an uninterrupted stretch of time in which one can work, read or doze in comfort. Eurostar trains are provided with phones, faxes and meals supplied by a British, French and Belgian consortium. French specialist, Carlson Wagon Lits, provides meals that combine French culinary skills with computer-aided delivery.

TRAVEL

BY

PLACES

While rail transport played a crucial role in the growth and development of inter-regional travel, especially within Europe, air transport on the other hand introduced an entirely new dimension in the introduction of mass inter-continental travel. It has certainly been a key factor in the growth of international travel and tourism. Although commercial air travel was introduced before the Second World War on a limited scale, air transport for the masses has essentially been a post-war phenomenon.

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The principal period of growth was from the late fifties continuing into sixties when overseas holiday became a systematic benefit of society, experiencing rising living standards and resulting in disposable incomes for holidays. Attempts to introduce commercial airlines were, however, made immediately after World War I in Europe. The war itself had a direct bearing on the development of air transport in a similar way as it had with motor transport. Certain commercial civil air services were inaugurated and developed in this period. Besides Europe, air transport was developed in many other countries during this period. Although international air travel was born at the end of World War I and slowly grew between the two wars, it was only at the end of World War II that it made a tremendous breakthrough. It emerged into a practical mode of transport over long distances only in the late forties when the aircraft industry in America applied the technical and manufacturing resources that it had developed during the war. This period saw the development of large pressurised civil aircrafts like the Douglas DC-6s and the Lockheed Constellations followed by the DC-7s and the Super-Constellations operating at twice the speed and flying altitudes of their predecessor warplanes.

BUSINESS TRANSPORT The tremendous speed, safety and comfort provided by the new aircrafts released the long pent-up wanderlust of the people the world over. In the year 1952 the two-class travel was introduced which was made possible by the larger capacity of the new aircrafts, resulting in lowering airfares. The steady fall in the real cost of flying has been chiefly productive in the traffic across the Atlantic and within the USA, stimulated by the introduction of tourist fares in the year 1952. This period also saw the first port-war attempt to build a “package holiday” around air transport, the model for most of

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today’s global tourism. The growing willingness of tourists to take to air travel during this period was responsible for the annual flood of North Americans across the Atlantic to Europe. This trend continues even today. Within Europe, there has been the spectacular explosion of the Mediterranean resorts. Air traffic between commercial sectors was now growing rapidly. In Europe, before World War II, Swiss-air was already flying the twin-engine Douglas DC-2s carrying as many as 14-16 passengers between Zurich and London. In the year 1920 KLM, the Dutch Airlines, introduced the first commercial service between Amsterdam and London. The journey in two-seater De Havilland DH-9 took about four hours. In the year 1929 KLM inaugurated another service to the Far East to Jakarta and within the next few years it was flying most major West European cities. Travelling in these early commercial flights was more an adventure than a pleasure that it is today. It was only after World War II that commercial air travel started surging ahead. More facilities were added for the passengers and travel was being made more comfortable. The commercial jet air travel, however, was pioneered by Great Britain in the year 1952 with the inauguration of jet flights, by BOAC. Thereafter, Pan American Airlines introduced the Boeing 707 service between Paris and New York in the year 1958. By the year 1968 most of the European carriers had converted totally to jet aircraft. Introduction of Jet Air Travel : As a result of the introduction of jet air services, there was a tremendous boost of air travel from the year 1958. The most decisive development during this period was, however, the development of the concept of ‘inclusive tours’ in which travellers were carried on charter flights at rates substantially lower than those on normal scheduled services. Air transport can be considered to be responsible for the introduction of cheaper travel, especially long distance, enabling

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a large majority of potential travellers to now think of visiting far off countries for the purposes of holidays. The introduction of ‘Jumbo Jets’ in the year 1970 heralded the phenomena of mass market international tourism as well as business tourism. The jumbo jets—the Boeing 747s—DCl0s and L-7077s made air travel convenient, comfortable and luxurious. Luxury air travel was made possible for business as well as non-business travellers. This was possible as the big size of jets gave the airlines space enough to partition off a section of the space for executives who were willing to pay extra for the luxury. Pan Am and Japan Air Lines (JAL) were among the first carriers to offer to its passengers what came to be known as business class travel. The seats in this class were wider, giving more space to stretch and relax in comfort, making the long distance travel less cumbersome. As the popularity of business class travel grew, more and more airlines introduced the scheme. It became extremely successful on long-haul international flights. As an outcome of the success of business class yet another class known as ‘Executive Class’ was introduced. As the volume of the number of business travel grew and competition increased, the airlines started to further upgrade their services for their clients. This resulted in the introduction of the ‘Executive Class’. It was once again Japan Air Lines which in the year 1975 started an ‘Executive Service’ lounge in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, complete with conference rooms, having all the facilities for organising meetings. Lufthansa opened a lounge at Frankfurt and SAS at Copenhagen airports. Many other airlines such as TWA with Ambassador Club, Singapore with Silver Kris Lounges, Pan Am with Clipper Club, Air France with Le Club, Cathay Pacific with Marco Polo, British Airways with Supper Club and airlines like Qantas, Air India,

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Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Swissair, etc., offered additional on-ground facilities to their clients. In addition to facilities like office and a club, these airlines provided various other facilities to its members. These included special check-in counters, priority baggage handling and clearance, free transport to and from airport, free drinks, etc. The membership is open to those who pay a nominal fee or is offered free to travellers who have travelled frequently on the carrier. Growth in Air Traffic : In spite of ever increasing fuel costs and inflation the air transport industry is able to control successfully fare levels as a result of economies of scale provided by the big wide-bodied aircrafts of modern times. The improved fuel efficiency of the later models of jet engines combined with ingenuity and marketing expertise of airlines, travel agencies and tour operators have made air travel accessible to an increasing number of people. This is also illustrated by the North Atlantic route—the socalled golden route of traffic—which saw the successive introduction of excursion fares in 1948, coach fares in 1952, family fares in 1955, economy class fares in 1958, affinity group in 1963, group inclusive tour fares in 1967, youth fares in 1972 and apex fares in 1975. As a result of these innovations in air travel, fares per seat mile declined in real terms, between 1962 and 1975. In the recent past great advances have been made in air travel, more particularly for overseas holiday making. Tourism in turn has had a significant impact on the aircraft industry and on the carriers. Factors like comfort, speed, and safety influence the tourists’ choice of mode of transport. Now wide-bodied jets such as Boeing 747, the McDonnel-Douglas DC-10, the Airbus A-300, A-320 and Lockheed Tristar L-1011 are all part of the response to the requirements of the ever-growing travel market. The technical brilliance of the supersonic aircraft like the Concord are remarkable landmarks in the aviation history. The

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industry has a bright future. As far as the long range international travel in the nineties is concerned, the large majority of the aircrafts used will continue to be of the current wide-bodied generation. In order to achieve further economy in running the aircraft to offset the increase in aviation fuel costs, the subsequent period may make substantial further advance in the form of still larger aircrafts such as the doubledeck-800 seater, derivative of the Boeing 747. This new application of the concept of long distance international travel is likely to stimulate the growth of tourist traffic in the coming years. With a view to meet the competition, the stand-by and budget fares have been introduced by the scheduled airlines on the Atlantic and other routes. Recent global economic recovery has resulted in increase in overall seating capacity and a marked increase in the number of business travellers. In the year 1994, for example, the total number of passengers on Lufthansa German Airlines—among the world’s top five carriers—increased to 29.6 million, up 4.1 per cent over 1993. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines increased its passengers load from 9.5 million in 1993 to more than 11.6 million in 1994, an increase of more than 22 per cent. In Europe, overall, traffic increased nearly 9 per cent and total passenger traffic was expected to double from 500 million in 1994-95 to 1 billion by the year 2010. Air transport, thus, is a single key factor which has largely been responsible for the spurt in travel and tourism, especially modern tourism. The future of air transport is bright and the airlines will continue to play a vital role in the growth of international tourism for a long time to come.

TRAFFIC

ON

WATER

Like the railways, ocean transport made a significant contribution to travel during the nineteenth century. While railways were responsible for inland travel, especially in Europe, the steamship crossed the boundaries and made strides in inter-continental travel. The shipping technology made a number

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of innovations in the nineteenth century. In America a number of sailing ships were built which were considered to be superior to those built in England or elsewhere. The English felt a great need for improved communications across the Atlantic with America for the purpose of trade and passenger transportation. As a result of this there were great strides in the development of deep sea shipping. The history of the Canard Steamship Company in England demonstrates important features in the growth of North Atlantic shipping. A subsidy in the form of an award of the mail contract represented a recurring theme in the development of passenger transportation. With the passage of time toward the last quarter of the nineteenth century, emigrant traffic became an important factor in North Atlantic travel. America was considered at this time the ‘new world’ full of opportunities and fortunes for people in Europe. A great number of people from the continent started going to America in search of fortune. First Great Britain and later Germany along with other countries became the principal generators of emigrants to the new world. Many travelled as tourists to see the new world. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought about the possibility of a much shortened route between the West and the East and in turn stimulated the introduction of better steamship carriage to the Far-East. Liner Passenger Service : Engagement of the ships in the cruising fashion for the charter and operation of cruises on a limited scale dates from the mid-nineteenth century. One of the earliest cruises, perhaps, was that described by Mark Twain in his first book, The Innocent Abroad, published in 1869. Cruising, however, did not play a significant part in the world of shipping until the beginning of the twentieth century. The period just before the First World War can be considered the heyday of liner passenger service. It was an era of large and comfortable fast ships operated by a relatively small number

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of companies in various countries. The glamour of the deepsea travel was, however, reserved for the wealthy Europeans and Americans. In the luxury liners, a large space reserved for the not-too-wealthy was used by the emigrant traffic. In fact, the bigger volume of trans-Atlantic passenger transport was the emigrant traffic. In the first half of the twentieth century, the descendants of those migrants must have formed a large part of the transAtlantic tourist movement. Transport by water makes a significant contribution to the development of travel on land and by air. Scheduled liner transport, formerly much used for intercontinental travel, has presently almost vanished. The expansion of international tourism has however led to an increasing use of ferry boats by tourists on short sea crossings. Tourist sea transport on the whole does not seem to have a promising future. Long distance sea travel may continue to contract, although there will always be a limited demand for sea cruising, since this leisure and attractive mode of travel has a great appeal. In the recent past one of the most important developments in sea traffic has in fact been that of holiday sea cruises, especially in the Mediterranean and Caribbean and also in South-East Asia. Introduction of Cruises : The advantage of travel by vessel, however, is the element of relaxation and entertainment of a voyage by sea. This advantage has resulted in the introduction of cruises. Since the beginning of the 1969s, passenger shipping industry has gradually shifted in emphasis from the voyage services to cruises. More and more rich and elderly people initially, promoted cruise as they wanted a holiday in a completely relaxed atmosphere. Subsequently, many companies discovered the advantages of cruise for their incentive winners. Cruises became increasingly popular to motivate top producers as more and more incentive winners wanted to enjoy the delights of life on the high seas.

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Cruise lines aim to please as cruises offer everything which is a five-star luxury like gourmet dining, top class entertainment, and excellent service. In addition, it offers fascinating shore visits with unusual shopping opportunities and enough activities to keep most athletic and energetic individuals satisfied. Cruises had record business in the year 1994 when more than five million holiday muters embarked on the world’s over 200 cruise liners and mega-yachts. These cruise liners headed for destinations ranging from the Caribbean to Alaska. The Mediterranean and the Pacific, China and Vietnam are now ports of call. They made it a record year for cruising, the fastest growing sector of the travel market. The reasons for this rapid growth in cruises are numerous. These include new exotic holiday destinations, early booking discounts, built-in airfares to departure points, streamlined facilitation at port, gourmet cuisine, entertainment including champagne breakfast in bed. Cruising is also acquiring a new image by tapping a younger market. The under-50s now form half the complement on the 120 ships of the New York-based Cruise Lines International Association, serving the North American cruise market. With an extra half-million people taking to the sea every year and the dominant North American market expected to almost double to more than 8 million passengers during the decade, more liners are on order to meet the demand. Shipyard workers in Papenburg, Germany, for example, are putting the finishing touches on the $296 million, 67,000-ton Oriana, the first cruise liner specifically designed for the British market. This market is expanding by 15 per cent a year, while the much bigger North American market has been growing at 10 per cent a year. The new generation of ships has not been converted but are custom-made for cruising. The future superliner of Carnival,

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the market leader, will have 2,600 berths. When the Oriana sailed from Southampton on its inaugural cruise in April 1995 it marked a new chapter both for the P & O line, which invented cruising in 1848, and for what is now a global phenomenon in travel. The high-tech Oriana has a record deck space, 17 public rooms and capacity for 1,900 passengers. Other new ships include Carnival Cruise Line’s 2,200 passenger Fascination, Holland America’s 1,266- passenger Ryndam and the 295-passenger Silver Cloud and Silver Wind, part of the new generation of upmarket smaller boats led by France’s Club Med II, which caters to Japanese and Asian cruisers in the Pacific. Other newcomers are Radisson’s Diamond and Ruby, both luxury catamarans. The number of cruises transiting the Panama canal has almost doubled in recent years, while the Southern Caribbean is drawing more ships in addition to those visiting island ports farther north. The concept of fly-cruise deals mean that it is cheaper in many cases to fly to the Caribbean from Europe and join a cruise than it is to sail around the Mediterranean. Passenger sea transport on the other hand has, however, not made much strides compared to railroad and air transport. Because of the advances in air technologies resulting in reduced airfares on most of the routes, especially across the Atlantic, most of the shipping lines were unable to compete, resulting in a decline in their services. Coupled with this, the higher labour costs, prohibitive replacement costs of older and outdated vessels and operating costs resulted in many companies closing their business, specially after the early sixties. During 1960s and 1970s most of the major shipping companies either reduced their services or discontinued their long established routes. Cruising, on the other hand did manage to come up to a point where it was necessary to diversify the product and change the marketing strategy in order to survive.

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Short sea voyages or ferry services have managed to withstand competition and are doing well in many areas. Channel crossing between some European countries and England by ferry service or hovercraft has been a profitable business for many ferry companies. This could be attributed to the general growth of tourism in the region, lower prices due to competition as also shorter journey time. Increase in the private car ownership in the region is another very important factor in the success of short sea voyages. However, with the completion of Eurotunnel in the year 1994, ferry companies are having a tough time as did the ocean liners with the introduction of cheaper air transport across the Atlantic in 1960s.

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10 SALE

OF

TICKETS

International tourists prefer to use airlines to travel to foreign countries. In Europe, they prefer to move by Euro Rail; they can get Shengen Visas to move to several countries of Europe. If they are in south-east Asia, they use trains or coaches to move from one country to another country. But most of the times, they use airlines to move from one country to another that is located far away from the former. Tourists give importance to air travel because they assume that it is synonymous with comfort and luxury. They also presume that air travel saves their time. The efforts and agonies that they might have faced during their travel by road or rail routes are also eliminated altogether. Air travel was synonymous with luxury during the days of its introduction. However, it has become a necessity for most of international travellers. It is not easy to cover distances of thousands of miles by road or rail. Hence, air travel is a natural choice of international tourists. In India, this trend is catching up slowly. Indian tourists are also indulging in air travel as it offers them speed, convenience and luxury. Super Apex and Apex airfares have made it possible for the Indian Diaspora to travel by air and complete their tours

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within days. However, India has a long way to go before she catches up with the West in the field of air travel. Sea travel is undertaken by many tourists but their purpose is different. Tourists undertake travel by cruise lines and luxury yachts to enjoy the environs of the oceans. In fact, sea travel is costlier than air travel, at least in the parlance of international tourism operations. In the West, domestic tourists also prefer air travel to road or sea travel. They are supposed to complete their tours and business trips in short time periods. Business travellers also find it easy and convenient to travel by air. Thus, air travel has not only become a status symbol, but also it has assumed significance as a modus operandi for luxurious and convenient travel to all corners of the world. Rates of air tickets are falling and private air taxis are also working hard to woo customers. In this chapter, we shall discuss the procedures of airline ticketing, CRS and airport handling procedures. We have discussed some of these issues at various stages in this volume. This chapter would sum up all the vital details related to airline ticketing, CRS, airport handling procedures and baggage rules.

SYSTEM

OF

AIRLINE TICKETING

Airlines provide services of transport, food and hospitality to their clients. Travelling by air can be fun for many. But frequent fliers may not find anything special in the gargantuan gamut of air travel. Passengers travelling by air for the first time may find the experience to be very exciting, though. Airline ticketing is the process of booking airline tickets for a customer according to his pre-planned tour itinerary. A travel agent normally performs this job on behalf of his client (traveller). This travel agent may be a PSA, GSA or subagent of a PSA or GSA. The airlines of the world operate their flights to and from airports. Their departure and destination airports are clearly defined and there cannot be any drastic change in their flight

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schedules unless they encounter some serious problems. On the other hand, the customer also has some tour plans and requirements. The process of travel must be in tune with the entire itinerary of the customer. The job of a travel agent is to book the air tickets for the customer so that the objectives of the airline as well as those of the customer could be met. In this process, the travel agent earns a commission from the airline. If the travel agent is also planning the tour itinerary for his customer, he is entitled to get commission from the hotel or another travel agency that executes the tour of the customer at the tourist spot. But his commission on the airline ticket is paid by the airline. If he is a subagent, his commission is paid by the agent (PSA or GSA). The passenger gets the air ticket; in fact, he has to procure it before getting his passport stamped for visas. In the case of domestic travel, he does not have to get his passport stamped for visas. Foreigners moving in a country must have their passports ready at all times; they may have to show these to the airport authorities. During transit within a country that they are visiting. The travel agent arranges the ticket for the customer and delivers the same at his office or residence.

PURCHASING TICKETS Travel agencies are responsible for the task of purchasing air tickets, cruise line tickets and coach tickets for their clients. They plan the tour itineraries of their clients in advance, get their approvals and then, proceed to procure tickets from the airlines. The clients can also directly procure tickets from airlines. But that is the case when the passenger does not buy any tour package and is on his own during the course of his journey. We have observed that business travellers normally buy tickets only. They are well versed about those places that they are going to visit. Hence, hotel stay, food and transport are not the problems for them. Leisure travellers, on the other hand, buy tour packages,

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which include tickets of all types; they are not well versed with the tourist spots that they plan to visit and hence, depend upon the travel agency for preparing smooth and efficient tour itineraries. Agents : Travel agencies become the representatives of airlines. They are called Agents of those airlines. But there are fine divisions within the term Agent. In this section, we shall describe such divisions, as follows. General Sales Agent (GSA) : The full form of the term GSA is General Sales Agent. He is approved by the IATA. There can be only one GSA of an airline in one city. The GSA takes air tickets in bulk from the airline. He is required to achieve the targets of sales (of such tickets) in specified timeframes. He is a bulk purchaser of tickets. He can sell tickets to PSAs and sub-agents. He holds maximum stocks of air tickets. He gives a guarantee to the airline that he would sell a minimum number of tickets within a given timeframe. GSA’s Commission : There are two schemes of payment of commission to the GSA, as follows : (a)

Commission Based on Basic Ticket Price : The GSA gets a commission of 7 per cent on the basic ticket price for every ticket sold by him. If he sells the ticket to the subagent or the PSA, then he gets a commission of 1 per cent on the basic ticket price while the subagent or PSA gets 6, per cent on the basic ticket price. In such cases, the PSA or subagent does the selling to the ultimate customer who is supposed to buy the ticket. These percentages are approved by the IATA. These are changed only rarely.

(b)

Commission Based on Quantity of Tickets Sold : If the GSA sells 10 tickets, he gets the eleventh ticket free of cost. If he is able to sell the eleventh ticket, he keeps the entire amount (of its basic price) with himself. If he is not able to sell that ticket, the airline reimburses the

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basic price of that (eleventh) ticket to him. The rule of 10 sold + 1 free has been replaced by 15 sold + 1 free. The latter implies that if the GSA sells 15 tickets, he gets the sixteenth ticket free of cost. He can sell it and keep its basic ticket price with him. If he is unable to sell it, then, he is reimbursed the basic ticket price for that (sixteenth) ticket by the airline. Note that different airlines may use different schemes in this context. But the generally accepted rule nowadays is 15 sold + 1 free. (c)

Other Incentives : The airline gives turnover incentives and free tickets or packages to the staff of a GSA from time to time. But these sops depend upon how the GSA performs in the market. Different airlines give different types of incentives. Normally, free air packages or tour packages are given to the director of the GSA or his employees. These are over and above the commission that the GSA gets, as explained earlier.

Examples : Nijhawan Travels is the GSA of British Airways. There is no other GSA of British Airways in Delhi except Nijhawan Travels. Further, the GSAs of Lufthansa and Air Lanka are having their offices in Connaught Place (New Delhi;. Stic Travels is the GSA of all the airlines except British Airways). Passenger Sales Agent (PSA) : He is also approved by the IATA. There can be many PSAs of one airline within the same city. They can buy tickets from GSAs. They normally sell ticket stocks to ultimate customers. The PSA takes air tickets in small quantities from the airline. He is not a bulk purchaser of tickets. He can sell tickets to sub-agents. He can get 10-12 stocks of air tickets per flight. PSA’s Commission : There are two schemes of payment of commission to the PSA, as follows : (a) Commission Based on Basic Ticket Price : The PSA gets a commission of 7 per cent on the basic ticket price for every ticket sold by him. If he sells the ticket to the

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Travel Agency and Tourism sub-agent, he gets a commission of 1 per cent on the basic ticket price while the sub-agent gets 6 per cent on the basic ticket price. In such cases, the sub-agent does the selling to the ultimate customer who is supposed to buy the ticket.

(b)

Commission Based on Quantity of Tickets Sold : The rule of 10 sold + 1 free or 15 sold + 1 free is also applicable in the case of a PSA.

(c)

Other Incentives : The incentives given to the GSA can also be given to the PSA.

Examples: Aeroflot has PSAs but no GSA. Thai Airways has PSAs but no GSA. Air India also has PSAs. Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) has PSAs; so has Austrian Airlines. Finally, Indian Airlines also has PSAs. Direct Selling Agent (DSA) : These agents also sell air tickets directly to passengers. They can also sell tickets to subagents. A DSA must also be approved by the IATA. The airline gives air ticket stocks to him directly. Sub-Agents : These are the small travel agencies that operate in various cities and depend upon PSAs or GSAs for their ticket requirements. They need not be approved by the IATA. They can deal with both the PSAs and GSAs. They get a commission of 6 per cent of the basic ticket price. The balance 1 per cent, is retained by those PSAs or GSAs from whom, they procure such tickets. They are not eligible for getting incentives based on ticket sales (like 10 sold + 1 free or 15 sold + 1 free scheme). They get only commission on airline seats sold by them. However, in group bookings, PSAs may offer them extra seats (i.e., under 10 sold + 1 free or 15 sold + 1 free scheme). Normally, they work under PSAs. Their credit term is 14 days. Every PSA or GSA has a validation stamp that is granted to him by the IATA, the chief approving authority. This validation

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stamp is printed on the air ticket that is issued by the airline through him. Let us examine a validation stamp. Sitiglobal Passages 115 Antriksh Building 22 KG Marg In 14351433 A validation stamp of a PSA or GSA Look at the following information : (1)

The name of the PSA or GSA is Sitiglobal Passages.

(2)

Its office is located at 115, Antariksh Building, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Dellhi 110001 (INDIA).

(3)

Its registration number is 14351433. This number is given by the IATA to the PSA or GSA. It is a unique number; no other PSA or GSA can use it.

This validation stamp is printed, along with other sets of information, on the top right part of every air ticket that is issued by this PSA or GSA. This validation stamp is not issued to any subagent. It is a privilege enjoyed only by the IATA-approved PSAs and GSAs. The validation stamp may be printed on some other part of the ticket. The format of the ticket would decide its exact position. Finally, both the PSA and GSA must have validation stamps so that they could issue tickets. Travel Related Important Terminologies : Before we study airline ticketing procedures, it is important for us to know some basic terms related to the jargon of air travel. These terms, if carefully imbibed, would help our valued readers understand the intricacies of airline ticketing with ease. We have also discussed terms related to hotel operations. Terms related to sea travel have been purposely mentioned in Chapter 5. Let us study terms related to air travel and hotel bookings in this chapter (readers are required to understand each one of these thoroughly before studying the ticketing procedures).

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Affinity Group : A group travelling together that has been formed for a purpose other than travel. AGT : A Travel Agent. APEF: Also called Apex Fare. Its full form is Advance Passenger Excursion Fare. It is offered only by scheduled carriers. Passengers must pay the full prices of tickets 14 to 20 days in advance. The current trend is to get ticket bookings done at least 30 days in advance. Around-the-world Trip : This is a circle trip and applies to continuous eastbound or westbound travel commencing from and returning to the same point via both the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The fare for an around-the-world trip is constructed in the same manner that is used to construct the fare of a circle trip. ARR : Arrival. ARUNK : Arrival Unknown. Also read Surface in this context. Baggage Allowance : It means the volume or weight of baggage that may be carried by a passenger without any additional charge. BHM Check: Done for one-way journey only. Only stopover points from the origin would participate for fare calculation in all types of transactions, if the fare from the station of origin to one of the stopover points is higher than the fare from origin to destination. Board : Refers to going aboard a ship. Boarding Pass : It means printed pass issued at the checkin or boarding counter when the ticket coupon is taken, giving the flight and seat numbers. Some airlines may call it Boarding Card. Booking : Making reservations for a flight. When reservations of a passenger are confirmed, he is deemed ‘booked’ on the flight.

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Bump : Displacing a passenger by virtue of holding a reservation with a higher priority (a regular-fare passenger would bump a standby passenger). Carrier : An airline or firm that operates its aircraft from one station to another to carry passengers. The carrier can be of two types—official or private. An official carrier is the one that represents a country. It also depicts the culture, cuisine, hospitality of that country through its services that are unique (and based on the traditions of its country). A private carrier is any private firm in the business of air transport operations. Such a firm carries passengers from one airport to another. It can be a domestic carrier or an international carrier. Examples : Air India is the official carrier of India. A natural corollary of this fact is that you would find air-hostesses, music, cuisine and hospitality of Indian style aboard the aircraft of this airline. Jet airways is a private carrier (in the domestic air transport sector). Malaysian Airline System (MAS) is an international carrier. CB : Carte Blanche (a credit card; only globally valid credit cards can be used in international travel). CHTR : Charter. Circle Fare : A special fare, lower than the sum of the pointto-point fares for individual segments, of a circle trip. Circle Trip : Travel, other than a round trip, from one point and return to the same point by a continuous circuitous air route, including around-the-world trips. The circle trip can be made to any number of cities using any route and return to the point of origin as long as all the transportation is done by scheduled commercial airlines. It is a journey with stopovers that return to the point of departure without retracing its route. City Terminal : An airline ticket office, not located at an airport, where a passenger may check in for a flight, check his baggage, get his seat arrangement/plan and secure a mode of ground transport to the airport.

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Commission : A certain cash percentage paid to the travel agent by various suppliers of goods and services, which normally comprise the elements of the finished product (itinerary) of travel agents, namely, airline, coach/bus, rail, sight-seeing tickets, hotels, steamship reservation, auto rentals and guide and escort services. Conducted or Escorted Tour : A pre-arranged travel programme escorted by a courier or a sight-seeing programme conducted by a guide. Connection : An aircraft change at an intermediate point between the point of departure and the point of destination. In order for a passenger to connect, he must depart for the connection city on a flight that is scheduled to depart within four hours of arrival or on the first flight on which, space is available or on a flight that would make provision for an earlier arrival. Continental Plan : A hotel rate that includes bed and continental breakfast. Courier : A professional travel escort assigned within one country. Crane : A derrick used for raising and lowering heavy weights on board an aircraft. CT : Circle Trip. Customs : An official government agency in whose office, travellers must declare all the items (purchased from a foreign country) upon entry to his own country or to another country during the course of an itinerary. DC : Diner Club’s credit card (only globally valid credit cards can be used in international travel). Declaration Form : A form filled by a passenger that requires him to declare the goods he has brought along with him from

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any other country (through which, he may have travelled) and such goods attract customs duty of any kind. If the passenger does not possess any dutiable goods, then he has to write in the form that he is not carrying any such good as can attract customs duty. If he declares that he is not carrying any dutiable goods but is actually carrying such goods, he may be fined and his dutiable goods confiscated by the customs authorities at the airport. The passenger cannot take contraband items and drugs during his journey (by any mode of transport). The declaration form may also ask him to declare the amount of cash he is carrying in various international currencies. His personal particulars are also asked. He has to refer to his passport and air ticket to fill up the relevant details. The customs declaration form is issued to passengers nearly 45 to 60 minutes before the flight lands at the destination airport. No passenger can avoid filling it up and submitting it at the customs counter at the destination airport. DEP : Departure. Direct : A boarding point to a deplaning point with any number of intermediate stops. Direct Flight : A flight, which does not require a passenger to change aircraft, but may have intermediate stops en route. DMC Check : Valid for transactions other than SITI transactions. All ticketed points, whether stopovers or nonstopovers, would participate for the purpose of fare calculation. Duty Free : Shops where imported goods are sold at low prices in countries and islands whose governments do not impose duties or customs charges. Duty-free shops are normally located at airports, in important city centres and at places specified by the government of a country. Only international tourists and passengers are allowed to buy from duty free shops. If the tourist wishes to buy through a credit card, he must submit his passport at the counter of such a shop.

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Excess Baggage : The weight of the baggage that is over and above the free per-passenger baggage, in bulk or weight and subject to a surcharge by item or weight. Excess Baggage Rate : Also called EBR. It is the rate per kg of extra baggage that is charged by the airline from a passenger who carries that extra baggage. Normally, a traveller can carry baggage weighing 20 kg free of cost in the cargo bay of an aircraft. In addition, he can carry baggage weighing 5 kg along with him in the aircraft. The Extra Baggage Rate (called EBR) is a nominal rate per kg of extra weight of the baggage for which, passengers have to pay at the time of checking in at the airport (at the airline counter). When they pay for extra baggage, it is taken away, to be loaded in the cargo bay of the aircraft that they are about to board. Note that the EBR rate is in Rs per kg in India only. Outside India, the passenger has to pay in terms of US$ per kg. Foreigners moving through the length and breadth of India also pay in terms of US$ per kg. Excursion : Refers to a trip that returns to its starting point. FAM Trip : Refers to a reduced rate familiarisation tour for travel agents and airline employees and is designed to stimulate travel to the area visited. Feeder Lines : Refers to regularly scheduled (usually regional) airlines normally providing services from sparsely populated areas to major cities, connecting with trunk carriers. FET : Foreign Escorted Tour. GI : Global Indicator. Guaranteed Reservation: A hotel reservation secured by the guest’s agreement to pay for his room whether he uses it or not. HIF Check : (A) for SITI/SOTI transactions, only stopover points would participate for fare calculation. For journey from India to the USA/Canada via Europe, European points would

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not participate for fare calculation in the cases of SITI/SOTI transactions. (B) For SITO/SOTO transactions, all the ticketed points, whether they are stopover or non-stop over points, would participate for the purpose of fare calculation. IATA International Air Transport Association, ICAO : International Civil Aviation Organisation. INF : Infant. Interline Service : Segments of two or more different carriers. Intermediate Stop : A point of landing between the passenger’s original station of departure and his final destination, which does not require deplaning by the passenger. IT: Inclusive Tour. Itinerary : All the parts of the reservation of a passenger that include surface transport, if any, from the station of origin to the ‘station of final destination. There are five types of itineraries or trips—One-way Trip, Return Trip, Circle Trip and Open Jaw Trip. All of these have been discussed in this chapter. Joint Fare : A fare for outline or interline transportation. Local Fare : A fare for online transportation. MPM : Maximum Permitted Mileage. NO + OP : This shows in the status box (of the reservation sheet) that a particular segment is not operating. Nonstop : Refers to a flight made from one city/airport to another, with no stops en route. Nonstop : A boarding point to a deplaning point with no intermediate stop(s). NUC : Neutral Unit of Construction. Offline Service : Segments of different carriers (ie, DL to EA). OK : All reservations in a particular segment confirmed. OK/F : It is written in the status box (of the reservation sheet) and means that this particular box has been WL/Y

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confirmed for First Class booking and has been Wait Listed in the Y/Coach Class. NIKON Online Service : Segments of the same airline (ie, EA to EA). Open Jaw : An itinerary, which has the nature similar to that of a round trip or circle trip but has a segment that is not transited by air. An open jaw trip comprises a travel activity whose nature is similar to that of a round trip, with the exception that the outward point of arrival and inward point of departure are not the same. It means a round trip itinerary in which, the arrival point is different from the departure point and the trip usually has a surface segment. Origin : Also called Point of Origin or Station of Origin. It is the station from which, the tourist or passenger starts his journey. Overbooking : Refers to the sale of more units for a given date and time than the seller actually has vacant and available for sale. OW : One-way ticket; also, Delhi Airport Taxes (Rs 700). Package : Refers to a tour including various tour elements as well as accommodation, transport, airport transfers, guide services, free meals, etc. Different travel agents offer different packages to their clients. Passenger Liability (Hague Protocol) : It was signed in 1955. It fixed the passenger liability at a value of US$ 20,000. Passenger Liability (Montreal Meet) : It was signed in 1961 . The maximum passenger liability was fixed at a value of US$ 75,000 according to its document. Passenger Liability (Warsaw Convention) : It was signed in 1929. It fixed passenger liability at a value of US$ 10,000. The Warsaw Convention was amended by the Hague Protocol (1955).

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Passport : An official government document that proves the identity and citizenship of an individual and gives him permission to travel abroad. PNR : Refers to Passenger Name Record. The CRS has a database that is used to look at the data by feeding the PNR into the CRS package. On the basis of the PNR, the data of every passenger can be viewed through the CRS. The PNR number is mentioned in all the reservation forms of airlines, coach/bus firms, taxi operators and travel agencies. Promotional Fare : Refers to any tariff below regular level that is established to stimulate passenger traffic. PTA: Passenger Traffic Manager. Q : Surcharge. Reconfirmation : A call to the airlines to verify the reservation for a return or continuing flight. Reconfirmation is optional on domestic flights but is required on international flights at least 72 hours (3 days) in advance of the departure of the passenger. REP : A representative of an airline, steamship line, luxury cruise liner or tour operator. Reservation Sheet : A printed form on which, travel agents book air tickets through manual ticketing procedures. RET : Refers to Return Ticket. Airfare of the return journey is also included in the air ticket. Round Trip : A trip from the point of origin to the point of destination and return to the (same) point of origin. This term also means travel from one point to another and return to the same point of origin by any route that may be different from the one used for the outbound portion. This definition would only apply when the same one-way fare is applicable to both the outbound and inbound portions. Round Trip : Travel from one point to another and return to the point of origin by the same air route as the one used for the outbound portion.

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RQ : This shows in the status box (of the reservation sheet) of the booking form that a particular segment has been placed on request from another airline. RT : Round trip. RTE : Route Reference. SITA : Sales Inside Ticket Inside the COC of journey. SITO : Sales Inside Ticket Outside the country of COC of the journey. SOTI : Sales Outside Ticket Inside. SOTO : Sales Outside Ticket Outside. Standby Fare : A reduced rate fare for a passenger who cannot board an aircraft until all reserved passengers have boarded. Stopover : Deliberate interruption by the passenger in the course of travel, in agreement with the carrier, at a point between the place of origin and the place of destination. It is equivalent to a break in the trip. Stopover : A stop along the route of a journey, usually for twenty-four hours or more. Stowaway : An illegal passenger. Super Apex Fare : Its full form is Super Advance Passenger Excursion Fare. Passengers must get the air tickets booked at least 30 days in advance. Rates of these fares are cheap but terms are very strict. Such offers are normally made by airlines during peak seasons and holiday periods. SUR : Surface travel. Surface : It may also be written as SUR in travel documents and service vouchers. A portion of the complete itinerary of the passenger not transited by air. Also read ARUNK and VOID in this context. In modern times, ‘surface’ would mean travel by

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a coach, taxi or any other mode of transport. This mode helps the passenger move on to the next station (destination) in his itinerary. The passenger has to pay extra for this type of travel because the airline does not take any responsibility. It only wants the tourist to be present at the airport from where, it is supposed to pick him up. The travel agent informs the tourist that at some places, airlines do not operate their aircraft due to geographical or political reasons. Even otherwise, the tourist himself may opt for surface travel during the course of his itinerary due to his curiosity. Our research concludes that it is easier to travel by coach than to travel by train due to the economy and speed of the former. But this conclusion is applicable for short distances. Tariff : A published list of fares and rules of a supplier. Thorough Checking : Baggage checked thoroughly from the departure city up to the final destination. Tour : A preplanned programme of travel, employing prepaid reservations of at least one night’s hotel accommodation, with one sight-seeing tour and/or transfer from the airport to the hotel and/or breakfast. Tour Operator : A company that puts together tour packages and sells them either on a wholesale basis to a travel agent or directly to the public. Transfer Voucher : A voucher given to the passenger that would make him eligible to get a transport mode (like an airconditioned coach or taxi) from a place to another place stated in the voucher. Normally, payments are made in advance for such types of services. Travel agencies charge fares for such transfers and give separate transfer vouchers to their clients for different cities. The travel agent has to arrange the transfer of the passenger through his counterpart, representative or another travel agent with whom, he has a commercial tie-up.

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UK : This shows in the status box (of the reservation sheet) that this particular segment (or leg) is unable to confirm either class of service. UM : A minor who is travelling alone. VIA PT : Via Point. Visa : An official document issued through the government embassy or consulate of any foreign country, giving a noncitizen an authorisation to travel and/or stay in that country for a specified period of time. The visa is always printed or pasted on the back pages of a passport. It has a validity date or period specifically mentioned on it. When the passenger visits the country in question, the immigration official notes down his particulars and puts a stamp on the passport. This stamp indicates that the passenger has visited the country. The popular identification of this proof is a seal that has the phrase “Journey Performed.” The visa is checked when the passenger enters or leaves the country for which, this visa has been issued. VOID : No air service provided on the segment in question. Also read Surface in this context. Voucher : It is a document issued by the travel agent or airline, stating that the passenger has paid for or is entitled to certain accommodation or services. Vouchers are issued for hotels, car rentals, sight-seeing trips and other prepaid vacation activities. Waitlist : A list of passengers who are waiting for cancellations so that they may be accommodated on a flight or tour that has already been sold out. WATA : The World Tourism Organisation (now known as the WTO). WL/Y : Confirmed for the First Class and has been Wait Listed in the Y/Coach Class. XS : An exchange order. XX : Cancel.

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Terminologies Related to Hotels A la Carte’ : A restaurant or hotel dining room, menu on which, each item or course is selected and priced separately. Check In : Getting a room of a hotel and staying in it. The time of checking in is important. If the tourist checks in at 9:00 pm in the night and the check-out time is 12:00 pm noon, then the tourist would be charged for the full day. Check Out: Leaving a room of a hotel and taking luggage out of it. The time of checking out is important. If the tourist checks out at 3:00 pm in the noon and the check-out time is 12:00 pm noon, then the tourist would be charged for the next full day, even if he does not stay in the room till 12:00 pm noon. It is advisable to deposit the luggage in the cloakroom at 12:00 pm and check out of the hotel. Clear the bill of the hotel and do your work in the city. Later, come back and pick your luggage. FHTL : First Class Hotel. Guaranteed Reservation : A hotel reservation secured by the guest’s agreement to pay for his room whether he has used it or not. Hostel : Supervised inexpensive accommodation usually for young people. Hotel : A building, which provides the general public with pre-reserved sleeping accommodation, meeting rooms and food and beverage services for a daily, weekly or monthly rental per room. Hotel Voucher : A document issued to a client of a travel agency, which mentions that the said client is allowed/authorised to stay in a particular room from a fixed data up to another fixed date. He can also be allowed to have breakfast and avail hotelairport-hotel transfers. All the services to be provided to the client are clearly mentioned in the hotel voucher. The names of persons to be contacted in the city where this voucher is to

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be utilised are also mentioned on it (read Chapter 4). This voucher is non-refundable. Sometimes, the client may have to pay for it as and when he checks into the hotel or arrives at the destination station where this hotel is located. HTL : A hotel. IHA : International Hotel Association. IN : Check-in Date. Motel : A smaller hotel (with less than 250 rooms), which is usually located on the fringe of a main highway. Used by motorists and passengers for overnight stay. Pension : A guest boarding house in Europe or American hotels and motels with meals usually served at the community table and included in the room rate. Resort Hotel : An establishment (having over 250 rooms but less than 600 rooms), which is a hotel and includes golf and/ or other recreational facilities, with full mean plans included in the room rental cost. Suit : A double room with an attached bathroom and an attached sitting room. THTL : A tourist class hotel. Terminologies Related to Tours ABC : Also called Advance Booking Centre. It refers to airfare only but may include land arrangements as well. AFF : Also called Affinity Group on a Charter Flight. These packages are available only to bonafide affinity groups with a minimum strength of 20-40 passengers. GIT : Refers to Group Inclusive Tours. These are available on scheduled flights. Minimum group sizes vary with destinations. Normally 15-20 passengers can be accommodated in one group. GRP : Also called Group Fare. It is available through tour operators of airlines. Some group fares require purchase of land packages as well.

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ITC : Refers to Inclusive Group Charters. These include airfare, land packages and minimum of three destinations per tour programme. ITX : Refers to Inclusive Tour Excursion Fare. Available only on scheduled flights. Prices of such packages include airfare and ground/hotel packages. NAG : Refers to Non-Affinity Group Fare. It is operated on scheduled flights. OTC : Refers to One Stop Inclusive Tour Charter. It includes airfare and land package to one destination. It may include more than one destination. The OTCs are better known as Public Charters nowadays. All the charters except affinity charters are public charters. PUB : Refers to Public Charters. These are chartered flights that are open to all but with no affinity or group size requirements. Advance purchase is not needed. One-way flights are normally available. Optional return dates can be offered. Routing : Refers to carriers, classes of service and cities served. SVR : Also called Super Saver Fare. It is a discounted fare on a scheduled airline service. Advance booking and payment must be done. Maximum and minimum stay requirements must be specified. (a) Only stopover points would participate for fare calculation for all types of transactions. (b) One way journey would have at least one fare component; it could have more than one as well, if certain limitations placed by the fare rules exceeded. (c) Return journey would have at least two fare components; it could have more than two as well. (d) Sectional fare would always be higher than through fare.

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(e) The fare is charged from the passenger ie, applicable from the date of commencement of travel. Any change in the fare level would not apply to the passenger who got his seat reserved for the journey commencing after the increase of fare but confirmation has been made before the increase in fare level. (f) Whenever an open date ticket is presented for fare confirmation, it is mandatory to check the correctness of the fare charged on the ticket. (g) When the journey is to/from/via the USA/Canada, the baggage rule applicable is the piece rate system: Though the ticket indicates both the weight and piece rate systems (when there is a flight to the USA via any European or another city as no stopover point), the ticket would mention the piece rate price for direct flights to the USA/Canada. (h) Pets must be paid for (except such dogs as lead blind persons or other disabled individuals). (i) Any suitcase whose dimension exceeds 62 inches but does not exceed 80 inches, would attract 1 penalty charge. (j) When the dimension exceeds 80 inches and/or weight exceeds 32 kg, apply 3 charge for a weight up to 45 kg and 1 additional charge for each additional 10 kg or parts thereof. (k) US$ 0.50 for each US$ 100 or parts thereof would be charged for the higher values declared. (l) When the payment is made in the COC of travel but in a currency other than the currency of the country, convert the local currency fare into the currency of payment by applying BBR. (m) The CTM check is carried out by taking round trip fares from the origin to each stopover point on the routine.

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The highest round trip fare from the origin is the CTM fare for the route. (n) For a DMC, check, all stopovers and non-stopovers would participate in fare calculations whereas for a BHM check, only stopover point would participate. (o) Fare is applied in the direction of travel. (p) If there are limitations on the number of stopovers and transfer connections, each stopover is counted as one of the permitted transfers. (q) If we are combining an excursion fare with a normal fare, when rules so permit, more restricted conditions would be applicable to the entire journey. (r) Fare level would not change and would be applicable at the same level as it was on the day of issuance of the previous ticket. Even ROE transaction rules and all the exceptions (if any) of the same date (when the previous ticket was issued) would be applicable. (s) The mode of payment never changes. (t) According to rules, find out the location of the passenger when he wishes to change his routine. In order to calculate the fare applicable for a new routine, go back to the previous construction point, which may be the turn round point as well. Example : If routing is to/ from the USA, always go back to origin, which is the USA. (u) For SITI/SOTI transactions, do the following. For passengers originating in India and travelling to Canada or the USA, HIF normal fares in Europe may be ignored when a stopover is made at such as HIF. Thus, in the case of a passenger traveling to Canada/the USA via any stopover in Europe, the HIF found during the HIF check would be ignored. (v) The IATA basic fare construction principles state that when no through fare is especially published for a desired

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(w) A published direct fare always takes precedence over any combination of fares of the same type, which may exist between the same points for the same class of service. Example : For a direct journey, NYN-MADTUN, the published fare NYC TUN must be used even if the sum of NYC-MAD plus MAD-TUN is lower. (x) A published direct fare takes precedence when such a fare is used as a component of the constructed fare to a further point. Example : For a direct journey in the sector NYC-MADTUN-DJE, when no through fare is published, the correct construction to be used is NYCTUN plus TUN-DJE even though the resulting fare is higher. (y) Special domestic fare (Examples : Apex fares, Super Saver Schemes, etc.) may be combined with international fares, even though such a combination undercuts published through international fare. The applicable fare would be the published or constructed through fare in effect at the time when travel begins on the first flight coupon. (z) Travel agents must know where to find accurate sets of information for various destinations ie, hotels, motels, resorts and drive-in places for taking rest. The fare used for the outbound portion is different from the one used for the inbound one. (aa) Point-to-point fares have to be calculated from the station of origin to the station of destination. The client cannot

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be charged extra amount simply because his flight is via another station that is not his chosen destination station.

DOMESTIC TICKETING PROCEDURE In India, private airlines have been allowed to operate so that domestic tourists and passengers could be served. The aircraft operated by these private airlines are called Air Taxis. Besides, the State-owned organisation, Indian Airlines, also operates its flights within India. Note that Indian Airlines is also operating flights to and from some international airports. A domestic passenger need not submit his passport to collect his air ticket. A foreigner must submit his passport (for the purpose of his identification) even if he flies within the boundaries of India. This rule is applicable to all the foreigners when they travel to other countries and take domestic flights to move within such countries. They cannot buy tickets in INR values. They must pay in terms of US Dollars to do so. A citizen of India need not submit any proof of identity to buy a domestic ticket. He has to buy domestic tickets in INR values. Domestic Flights and Classes of Travel : There are two classes in domestic flights, as follows : J Class : It is also called Executive Class. It is a costly class. It has better seats, air conditioning, cushions of seats, music systems, etc. Services provided to passengers travelling by this class are also better. There are two sub-classes in the J Class, as follows. J Class (INR Fare) : Indian customers can buy tickets for this class in Indian National Rupees (INR). J Class (Dollar Fare) : The customer can buy tickets for this class in United States Dollars. Foreigners, who visit India, normally carry an international currency like the US Dollar. So, they find it convenient to pay the prices of domestic tickets in

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terms of this currency. They can buy only by paying the airfare in US Dollars; they are not allowed to buy J Class tickets with INR. Y Class : It is also called Economy Class. It is a cheap class. The amenities provided to the passengers travelling by this class are not as good as those provided to the passengers of J Class. There are two sub-classes in Y Class, as follows. Y Class (INR FARE) : The Indian customers can buy tickets for this class in Indian National Rupees (INR). Y Class (Dollar Fare) : The customer can buy tickets for this class in United States Dollars. Foreigners, who visit India, normally carry international currency like the US Dollar. So, they find it convenient to pay the prices of domestic tickets in terms of this currency. They can buy only by paying the airfare in US Dollars; they are not allowed to buy Y Class tickets with INR. Basic Norms for Domestic Flights : The government has defined elaborate sets of rules to ensure that passengers get air services of the best quality while they are airborne. These rules are applicable to all the domestic airlines. Identification Marks and Flight Numbers of Airlines : Every domestic airline has a code awarded to it. It also has an identifiable symbol or insignia that differentiates it from other carriers. This rule is in tune with the norms and guidelines of the ICAO. Hence, these rules are also applicable in domestic air travel operations as well. These identification marks are provided so that passengers, air crew and aircraft maintenance staff are not confused while identifying the aircraft at the airport. One Aircraft’s brand name can be easily differentiated from other airlines. It can also be easily identified. Further, each flight is given a number. This number (or flight code) is typical in the sense that it cannot be used in any other airline or sector. Example: Jagson Airlines Limited has allocated code JA-212 to the flight from Dharamshala (HP) to Delhi. This

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flight originates from Dharamshala at 9:55 hours and arrives at Delhi at 11:50 hours (on the same day). The days of this flight have been earmarked as every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the week. This data normally does not change and the agents of the airline continue to book seats according to the departure and arrival schedules specified by the airline. These schedules are in printed formats and also include the price break-ups for each and every ticket that the airline offers. The airline can make changes in departure and arrival schedules only after it has consulted the relevant government authority and made a formal request to effect such changes. Normally, these schedules are not changed. But the prices of tickets vary according to seasons. Example : Jet Airways had released an advertisement in the print media on May 14, 2003 and declared Super Apex fares for its selected flights. The table below shows these fares. Tickets can be booked 30 days in advance to get heavy discounts under the Super Apex Fares Scheme. Super Apex Fares From Delhi toSuper Apex Fair (Rs) From Delhi to Super Apex Fare (Rs) Ahmedabad Baroda

2,335 3,360

Jammu Kolkata

1,800 3,205

Bangalore Bhopal

4,700 2,000

Lucknow Mumbai

2,500 3,400

Chennai Cochin Guwahati

3,600 5,275 4,200

Pune Trivandrum Udaipur

3,305 5,610 1,500

Hyderabad

4,000

Vadodara

2,285

Indore

1,880

Varanasi

2,300

Other airlines like the AI also follow suit and customers are the real beneficiaries of these price wars. But when the real cause of this reduction disappears, airlines increase their fares once again. In the case of prices given above (of jet Airways),

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the reason for reduction in prices was the holiday season. When the season is over, the airline reverts to its normal (high) fare structure. Other airlines also follow suit. There can be many more reasons for reduction of airfares, namely, attacks on countries (e.g., Iraq), epidemic (eg, SARS), poor economic growth rates (eg, sluggish US economy), force majeure (eg, deluge) and many more. Because of these problems, passengers do not travel by air. Hence, airlines reduce the prices of their tickets so as to motivate them to use their services during lean or bad seasons. Almost all the airlines adopt these promotional strategies and try to sell as many air tickets as may be possible. Our research has concluded that most of the airlines do not slash their fares even during the periods of crises. Example: Singapore Airlines has reduced its airfares as other airlines of the world have cut down their fares by almost 15 to 20 per cent. Note that Singapore Airlines normally does not reduce its airfares but it has done so in the wake of reduced passenger traffic. This reduction was effected due to the identification of a number of SARS cases in that island-State. Singapore was declared SARS-free by the WHO later. Buying Ticket through Credit Cards : Many domestic passengers buy tickets through Credit Card (CC) transactions. Foreigners, who have globally valid CCs, can also buy domestic tickets through such CCs. They have to pay in US Dollars to do so. The Indians can use CCs that are valid in India. They can also use globally valid CCs to do so. Kinds of Passengers : Four types of classes can be defined in this context—adults, children, infants and foreigners in the age group of 12 to 30 years. Adults are the persons above the age of 12 years. Children are the persons in the age group 212 years. Infants are the persons in the age group of 2-12 years. Foreigners in the age group of 12-30 years are eligible for special fares; fare calculations have been discussed for this

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group in this chapter. In general, there are only three major categories of passengers, if their age group is the criterion for classification. These are-adults, children and infants. Rates of IATT and Concessions : The term IATT stands for Indian Airport Travel Tax. This tax is charged from all the domestic passengers. Foreigners are exempted from some of the IATT levies, as would be discussed in the calculations that follow. In some domestic sectors, the IATT is not charged from foreigners (for US Dollar tickets). In some others, the IATT is not charged from the Indian nationals (for INR tickets). Rules may change from time to time in the context of levying the IATT: The government takes a final decision in this context. This decision is binding on all the domestic carriers. There are two parts of the IATT, as follows : (a)

IATT Tax.

(b)

IATT Insurance.

We have discussed these concepts in the examples that have been given this chapter. PSF : Its full form is Passenger Service Fare. It is charged from all the passengers, domestic or international. The examples of fare calculations would help our readers understand this concept. YQ : This is the insurance charge that is charged from every passenger.

KINDS

OF

DOMESTIC TICKETS

A domestic passenger can choose his day of departure and day of return. He can also choose to fly by an aircraft but may not return. He may use a surface route to return to his station of origin, to quote an example. Thus, we have three types of (domestic) tickets, if the itinerary is the chief criterion, as follows : (a) One Way Ticket : Its code is OW. The passenger can buy a ticket to any domestic station. He can use that

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Travel Agency and Tourism ticket and fly by the designated carrier. But he may not return at all.

(b) Open Ticket : This means a ticket in which, the date of arrival or departure is not printed. Naturally, it can be a one-way ticket or two-way ticket. If it is a one-way open ticket, the passenger specifies the date of his arrival or departure and it is printed on his ticket. If it is a twoway open ticket, the passenger is free to decide when he would start his journey (departure) and also, end his journey (return). But he can do so only within a specified period of time, starting from the date of issue of the ticket. This time period is called Validity Period of Ticket. Many airline issue tickets that may be valid for 1 year from the date of their issue. Some others may be valid for only 4 months from the date of their issue. Different airlines have different rules in this context. In the parlance of domestic travel, there is no problem of return to the station of origin. Example : The passenger may go from New Delhi to Kolkata with a one-way open ticket. He may stay there for three months. One fine morning, he may decide to come back to New Delhi. All he has to do is to inform the airline or travel agent that he wants to go back to New Delhi. He would get the first available flight to New Delhi. The same procedure is applied if it is a two-way open ticket; in this case, he can decide the day of his departure as well but within the validity period of the ticket. (c) Return Ticket : In this type of’ ticket, the departure and return dates are decided in advance and mentioned on the ticket.

PROCEDURE

OF

MANUAL BOOKING

A travel agent can also book tickets for his clients through manual booking procedures. This concept is being replaced by the CRS and online booking systems through satellites. But

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many airlines are still using the manual system of air ticket booking. It is important for us to know how the manual system works. The executive of the travel agency processes the requests of his client either over telephone or through across-the-table discussions. He books seats for passengers according to their specific travel needs. He also confirms with airlines from time to time and finds out whether seats are available for particular sectors and on given dates or not. Then, he fills up the chart. It has been provided by Jagson Airlines Ltd. Reservation Chart Flt. No. JA .............................................................. Date .......................... Time of Departure .................................. From ................. To ................. No. Name of Passenger

Status

Ticket No.

Destination

Phone No. & Contact Address

PNR.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Jagson Airlines Ltd. and Manual Reservation Chart : The PNR is important in this context; it stands for Passenger Name Record. The passenger is identified by the PNR and his name. Note that manual reservation systems are being phased out, albeit gradually.

DOMESTIC TICKET CATEGORIES We have seven major categories of tickets in the parlance of domestic airline operations. These have two major categories— INR value tickets and Dollar value tickets. Within each category, fares are charged from adults, children and infants; thus, we get six categories due to this subdivision. The final (seventh) category is that of foreigners who are between the age group of 12 to 30 years. So, the total number of categories is seven in domestic ticketing.

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Costing Values for Adult Passengers on INR Basis : In domestic air ticketing, there are four major components, as follows. Basic Ticket Price : This is the basic price of the ticket that the domestic carrier charges from the passenger in lieu of the air service provided by it. The airline has to pay commission to its PSAs and GSAs out of this basic price. It has also to bear the costs of staff, fuel, airport landing charges, navigation charges, maintenance crew, pilots, airhostesses and other support staff. It has also to earn profits out of this basic price after deducting all the costs. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline can be calculated as follows : Basic Fare = Rs 2,400 IATT : It is a tax component that is levied by the government on the basic fare. It has two subcomponents-IATT tax and IATT insurance. IATT Tax : It is normally a percentage of the basic fare. This percentage may vary; the government takes a final decision in this context. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

=

Rs 2,400

IATT

=

Rs 360

IATT Insurance : It is charged along with the IATT tax. Its rates vary from sector to sector. The government defines these insurance charges. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare IATT IATT Insurance

= = =

Rs 2,400 Rs 360 Rs 40

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PSF : Its full form is Passenger Service Fare. Its value is also fixed by the government. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare IATT IATT Insurance Passenger Service Fare

= = = =

Rs As Rs Rs

2,400 360 40 200

Insurance : This charge is also defined by the government. It is also called YQ Charge. It remains fixed. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline (final) Basic Fare

=

Rs 2,400

IATT

=

Rs 360

IATT Insurance

=

Rs 40

Passenger Service Fare =

Rs 200

YQ Charge (Insurance) =

Rs 250

Total Fare (Adult)

=

2400 + (360 + 40) + (200) + (250) = Rs 3,250

Costing Values for Children on INR Basis : Passengers up to the age of 2-12 years are deemed children. Generally, the basic fare of a child’s ticket is 50 per cent of the basic price of an adult’s ticket. The components of the ticket cost are, just like they are in the case of an adult’s ticket. But the government may or may not charge some of these from the children. An example would clear the concept. Example: Udaipur-Rajkot one-way fare Basic Fare

=

Rs 2,739

IATT (50 per cent of the IATT for an adult) = Rs 411 IATT Insurance

=

Rs 40

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Passenger Service Fare

=

Rs 200

YQ Charge (Insurance)

=

Rs 250

Total Fare (Child)

=

2400 + (411 + 40) + (200) + (250) = Rs 3,640

Costing Values for Infants on INR Basis : Passengers up to the age of 0-2 years are deemed infants. The basic fare of an infant’s ticket is 10 per cent of the basic price of an adult’s basic ticket price. The components of the ticket cost are, just like they are in the case of an adult’s ticket. The IATT tax is normally not charged from infants. An example would clear the concept. Example : Delhi-Kullu one-way fare Basic Fare

=

Rs 485

IATT Tax

=

Rs 0

IATT Insurance

=

Rs 0

Passenger Service Fare =

Rs 200

YQ Charge (Insurance) =

Rs 0

Total Fare (Infant)

485 + (0 + 0) + (200) + (0)

= =

Rs 685

Costing Values for Adult Passengers on Dollar Basis : In domestic air ticketing, foreign tourists are spared some taxes and charges. There are three components of a domestic ticket (with a value in US Dollars), as follows. Basic Ticket Pricing : This is the basic price of the ticket that the airline takes from the passenger in lieu of the air service provided by it. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline can be calculated as follows Basic Fare : US$ 80 IATT : This is the tax component that is levied by the government on the basic fare. This tax has two components-

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IATT tax and insurance. It may or may not be levied in some sectors. IATT Tax : Normally, foreigners are exempted from this charge. But the government may change the rules. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fair of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

=

US$ 80

IATT

=

US$ 0

IATT Insurance : It is charged along with the IATT tax. Its rates vary from sector to sector. The government defines these insurance charges. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fair of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

=

US$ 80

IATT

=

US$ 0

IATT Insurance

=

US$ 0

PSF : Its full form is Passenger Service Fare. Its value is also fixed by the government. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur oneway fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

=

US$ 80

IATT

=

US$ 0

IATT Insurance

=

US$ 0

Passenger Service Fare

=

US$ 5

Insurance : This charge is also defined by the government. It is also called YQ Charge. In the parlance of airline ticketing, the letter Q strands for surcharge. It is decided by the government and remains fixed. Example : Jaipur-Udaipur one-way fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

=

US$ 80

IATT

=

US$ 0

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Travel Agency and Tourism IATT Insurance Passenger Service Fare YQ (Insurance) Total Fare (Adult)

= = = = =

US$ 0 US$ 5 US$ 5 80 + (0 + 0) + (5) + (5) US$ 90

Costing Values for Children on Dollar Basis : Passengers up to the age of 2-12 years are deemed children. The basic fare of the child’s ticket is 50 per cent of the basic price of an adult’s ticket. The components of the ticket cost are 4, just like they are in the case of an adult’s ticket. But the government may or may not charge some of these from children. An example would clear the concept. Example : Udaipur-Rajkot one-way fare Basic Fare IATT IATT Insurance Passenger Service Fare YQ Charge (Insurance) Total Fare (Child)

= = = = = = =

US$ 45 US$ 0 US$ 0 US$ 5 US$ 5 45 + (0 + 0) + (5) + (5) US$ 55

Costing Values for Infants on Dollar Basis : Passengers up to the age of 0-2 years are deemed infants. The basic fare of the infant’s ticket is 10 per cent of the basic price of an adult’s ticket. The components of the ticket cost are 4, just like they are in the ease of an adult’s ticket. The IATT tax is normally not charged from infants. The government may or may not charge some of these from infants. The insurance charge (YQ) is not taken from infants in almost all the cases. An example would clear the concept. Example: Kullu-Gaggal one-way fare Basic Fare IATT Tax

= =

US$ 10 US$ 0

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IATT Insurance

=

US$ 0

Passenger Service Fare

=

US$ 5

YQ Charge (Insurance)

=

Rs 0

Total Fare (Infant)

=

10 + (0 + 0) + (5) + (0)

=

US$ 15

Special Fares For Foreigners : This is a special category of passengers. We have already mentioned it in this chapter. Airlines release special fare lists for foreigners from time to time. Holiday seasons or peak seasons may be the reasons for declaring such special fares. These fares are applicable only to those passengers who are (a)

foreigners;

(b)

touring through the length and breadth of India; and

(c)

in the age group of 12 to 30 years.

The government may change rules with respect to special fares at any point of time. The airline would have to conform to the new regime of rules. Let us study an example. Example: Delhi-Dehradun one-way fare Basic Fare

=

US$ 86

IATT Tax

=

US$ 0

IATT Insurance

=

US$ 0

Passenger Service Fare

=

US$ 5

YQ Charge (Insurance)

=

US$ 5

=

86 + (0 + 0) + (5) + (5)

=

US$ 96

Total Fare (Youth)

CANCELLATION

AND

REFUND LAWS

Cancellation of INR Tickets These rules are as follows (this list has been provided by Jagson Airlines, New Delhi):

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Travel Agency and Tourism

(a)

Passengers can buy tickets by paying the Indian monetary currency, called INR. Foreigners cannot pay in terms of INR to buy domestic air tickets. However, some domestic airlines permit them to do so. Example: Jagson Airlines. The IA and AI do not allow foreign nationals to buy domestic tickets in INR values.

(b)

No cancellation charges are levied on an open ticket or an unconfirmed ticket.

(c)

A cancellation charge of Rs 100 is levied on a ticket with “confirmed status” if it is cancelled 48 hours or later before the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft.

(d)

A cancellation charge equivalent to 10 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled 48 to 24 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft.

(e)

A cancellation charge equivalent to 25 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled 24 to 4 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft.

(f)

A cancellation charge equivalent to 100 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled within 4 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft. If the passenger does not turn up to board the aircraft, even then 100 per cent value of the ticket price is deducted; the inability of the passenger to turn up at the departure lounge is called No Show.

(g)

Cancellation fees are not applicable on the tickets of infants.

(h)

Cancellation fees are not applicable if the aircraft is unable to fly due to a technical snag, or if the flight is cancelled due to bad weather.

Cancellation of Dollar Tickets : These rules are as follows: (a)

International tourists and passengers can buy tickets by paying the ticket amounts in United States Dollars.

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(b)

No cancellation charges are levied on an open ticket or an unconfirmed ticket.

(c)

A cancellation charge equivalent to 10 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled more than 48 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the flight.

(d) A cancellation charge equivalent to 25 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled 48 to 24 ours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft. (e) A cancellation charge equivalent to 50 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled less than 24 hours and more than 4 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft. (f) A cancellation charge equivalent to 100 per cent of the ticket price is levied on a ticket if it is cancelled within 4 hours prior to the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft. If the passenger does not turn up to board the aircraft, even then 100 Per cent value of the ticket price is deducted; the inability of the passenger to turn up at the departure lounge is called No Show. (g) Cancellation fees are not applicable if the aircraft is unable to fly due to a technical snag, or if the flight is cancelled due to bad weather.

REFUND

IN

DOMESTIC TICKETING

Refunds are made to the passenger or approved travel agent who purchased the ticket. Tickets purchased in cash from the office of Indian Airlines can be cancelled at the same or any other office of Indian Airlines. Tickets purchased through a recognised travel agent can be refunded only to that agent. In domestic flights, refund administration charges for the ticket of an adult or a child are Rs 100. If the passenger is an infant, refund charges are nil. If the flight is delayed or cancelled,

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refund charges are nil. No refund is admissible if the ticket is lost. An international passenger gets refund in terms of US Dollars. Domestic Operations and their Codes : Please note the following : (a) Airline codes are as follows : (in domestic sectors) -AI : Air India; BG : Bangladesh Biman; CD : Alliance Air; DC : Alliance Air (a subsidiary of Indian Airlines); F5: Archna Airways; G8 : Gujarat Airways; IC : Indian Airlines; JA : Jagson Airlines; KB : Druk Air; RA : Royal Nepal; S2 : Sahara Airlines; Ul : Sri Lankan Airlines; 9W : Jet Airways. (b)

The codes of the types of aircraft used in domestic operations are as follows-747: Boeing 747; AB3 : Airbus 300; 737 : Boeing 737; D10 : DC 10; F27 : Fokker Friendship; D28 Dornier 228; BC9 : Beach Craft 1900D; L41 : L 410; ATR : ATR 72-500; 320: Airbus 320.

DIFFERENT LANDINGS The following landing charges are levied on aircraft by various airport authorities (all figures are in Rs) : (a) India : A 300 B4 : 42,700; A300 B2 : 35,600; A 320: 16,900; and B 737-200: 11,800. (b) Dubai : A 300 B4: 30,300; A300 B2 : 26,400; A 320: 15,000; and B 737-200: 11,300. (c) Sharjah : A 300 B4 : 26,100; A300 B2: 22,500; A 320: 11,700; and B 737-200: 8,200. (d) Thailand: A 300 B4 : 22,700; A300 B2 : 19,500; A 320: 11,000; and B 737-200: 9,200. (e) Sri Lanka: A 300 B4: 32,000; A300 B2: 27,500; A 320: 14,300; and B 737-200: 10,100.

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Navigation Charges : The following navigation charges are imposed on the aircraft for meeting the expenses related to navigation : (a) India : A 300 B4: 21,500; A300 B2 : 21,500; A 320: 17,400; and B 737-200: 8,800. (b) Dubai : A 300 B4 : 2,300; A300 B2 : 2,300; A 320: 1,400; and B 737-200 : 1,400. (c) Sharjah : A 300 B4: 2,300; A300 B2 : 2,300; A 320: 1,400; and B 737-200 : 1,400. (d) Thailand : A 300 B4: 10,900; A300 B2 :10,900; A 320: 10,200; and B 737-200 :10,200. (e) Sri Lanka: A 300 B4: Nil; A300 B2: Nil; A 320: Nil; and B 737-200: Nil.

11 TICKETING FOR FOREIGN TOURS International Flights and Travel Classes : There are two major classes in international flights, as follows. International Class (INR Fares) : Passengers pay in INR for buying tickets in this major class. There are three major classes in this class. In fact, these are the main classes in all the international flights. These are: Y Class, C Class and F Class. Y Class (Economy) : It is the cheapest class. Some airlines or travel agents may also call it Excursion Fare Class. It has reasonably good seats, air conditioning, cushions of seats, music systems, etc. Services provided to passengers travelling by this class are of an average standard. Young people, poor businessmen, students and frequent fliers use this class. There are four sub-classes in Y Class, as follows. Y Class (M) : The letter M refers to Mike or Victory. It is the cheapest class available in any airline. Obviously, it is a cheap class.

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Y Class (L) : The letter ‘L’: stands for Lima. It is a type of economy class. Y Class (H) : The letter ‘H’ stands for Harry. It is also a type of economy class. Y Class (T) : The letter ‘T’ stands for Tango. It is another variation of the economy class. C Class (Business) : This class is the next higher class, ahead of the Economy Class in terms of facilities, legroom, drinks, food and services. The passengers of this class are served well. It is slightly costlier than the economy class. It is a favourite class of business travellers. F Class (Luxury) : This is the costliest class in an airline. It offers the best menu, liquor, cold drinks, beverages, music and service to its customers. Legroom is also more in this class. Rich businessmen, industry tycoons, politicians, VIPs, diplomats and the elite people travel by this class. It may be called by different names by different airlines. Example : Thai Airways has given the name Royal Executive Class to its F Class. International Class (Dollar Fare or PTA) : In fact, it is not a separate class. It is a special fare class for which passengers pay in US Dollars. It is also called PTA. The term PTA stands for Prepaid Travel Allowance. If a person has to send a ticket for his friend or relative from New Delhi to London (so that the latter could come from London to New Delhi), the former would have to buy a ticket in India in terms of Dollar fare. The person, who is sending the ticket from New Delhi to London, would buy this ticket from a travel agency or an airline based in London. He can involve a local travel agent to do so. He can pay in terms of US Dollars or their equivalent INRs. He may get a cheaper or costlier ticket than he can get in India. The travel agency located in London would get the ticket price in terms of US Dollars, however. But the rates prevalent in London would be used to make this ticket. When he procures

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this ticket, he can send it to his relative or friend living or staying in London. That relative or friend would use that ticket on the fixed day and come to New Delhi. The Indians frequently resort to such type of ticket purchase and that is why, we have made a separate category of this class. Finally, note that the classes of travel are the same in this category as well, namely, Y Class, C Class and F Class.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

AND

LEGAL ASPECTS

Please note the following rules and regulations very carefully: (a) All the countries have agreements with other countries to share the air routes of one another. Thus, the official carrier of one country can use the airspace of another in accordance with international conventions and protocols. After the governments of any two countries arrive at an agreement in this context, the airlines of these countries start sharing the airspace of each other. They also start sharing passengers for executing connected flights, according to the convenience of the passengers who travel through either of these airlines. The State-owned organisation, Air India, the official carrier or flag carrier of India, operates its flights outside India. (b) An international passenger must have (i) a valid passport with stamps of visas that are relevant to the journey; (ii) an air ticket or air tickets; (iii) (iv)

travel documents, including transfer vouchers and/ or hotel vouchers; foreign exchange; and

(v) adequate luggage to support him during the itinerary. (c) A foreigner must show his passport (for the purpose of his identification, at every checkpoint in a country to

318

Travel Agency and Tourism which, he goes for a tour, excursion, business mission or any other purpose. An air traveller naturally has to get his documents checked at those airports that he uses for the purpose of arrival or departure. An international passenger cannot travel without his passport. The passport must be valid too. The visa is issued to a passenger subject to the condition that his passport is valid.

(d) If a legal case is pending against an Indian, he can go abroad, provided he comes back to India to appear in the relevant court at the fixed date. If he cannot come back by that date (to appear in the court), he has to get the permission from the court to remain absent. In that event, his counsel files an application for his client in the court and the court grants permission to the (accused) person in question to, leave the country. The guarantor of the person in question is liable in the court if the accused person does not come back after the completion of his foreign trip. Those persons, whose passports have been impounded, cannot leave the country; this rule is applicable on foreigners and Indians alike. (e) If a person is trapped due to theft of his luggage, an act of violence, sickness, lack of funds, etc. in a foreign land, he can contact the embassy, high commission or consulate of his country in the country where he is facing these problems. The officials of such an embassy, high commission or consulate of his country would help him in all possible ways and arrange for his transport, stay and other safe passage to his own country. Thus, the natural corollary of this statement is that the passenger must have the addresses and telephone numbers of the embassy, high commission or consulate of his country in the country, which he is going to visit. Note that sometimes, people do not know a soul in a

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foreign land and their kith and kin (in the countries of origin) cannot send any type of help. Thus, this data comes handy when the traveller finds himself in a precarious situation in a land where he is an absolute stranger. (f) It goes without saying that every passenger is an ambassador of his country in the country that he visits. It is his duty to obey the laws of the land he is in. This would help him present a good image of his country in the eyes of the natives of that land. (g) While in Rome, do as the Romans do ! This is an old adage, which ought to be adhered to while moving in a foreign country, especially in its airports. Every country has different cultural norms, social norms and life-styles. Some of them may appear to be irksome to the visitor while some others may be too offensive to be tolerated. The visitor must avoid untoward and unpleasant incidents, places and activities, lest he should find himself in hot waters. He must note that if he commits a mistake in a foreign country, the laws of that country would be applicable to his case. Rules of his country do not come into the picture. (h) In India, the passport of a citizen cannot be impounded for an indefinite period of time. Example: Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India, AIR 1978 SC 597; Paras 68, 84, 145 and 143. International Airlines and Flight Codes and Identification : All the international carriers have distinct codes of their flights and also, clearly identifiable symbols that differentiate their aircraft from those of others. Airport Taxes : All the airports charge taxes from passengers that are over and above the basic fare of each ticket issued.

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Airport taxes are different for different airports. The IATT is not applicable in international ticketing. Insurance : It is also charged from each and every passenger. Examples have been given in this chpater to make the concept understood.

INTERNATIONAL TICKET PRICES Cost Value for International Adult Passengers : In international air ticketing, there are four major components, as follows. Basic Ticket Price : This is the basic price of the ticket that the airlines takes from the passenger in lieu of the air service provided by it. The airline has to pay commission to its PSAs and GSAs out of this basic price. It has also to bear the costs of staff, maintenance crew, Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), pilots, airhostesses and other support staff at its privately owned hangers. It is required to pay landing fees at international airports. It has also to earn profits out of this basic price after deducting all the operational costs. Example :A ticket for DEL-BKK-DEL has been made according to the details mentioned as follows: 03-11-2002

=

DEL-BKK

06-11-2002

=

BKK-SIN

10-112002

=

KL-DEL

Basic Fare

=

Rs 17,800

Airport Taxes : These taxes are charged by those airport authorities whose airports are used by the carrier. The tax charged at the New Delhi Airport is called OW. All the airports of India charge this tax, though it may be called by different names or codes. All the international airports also charge this tax. Example : A ticket for DEL-BKK-DEL return fare of an airline (continued)

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321

Basic Fare

= Rs 17,800

Delhi Airport Tax

= Rs 500 + 200

BKK-SIN Tax (XT)

= Rs 774

Insurance : This charge is also defined by the government. It is also called YQ Charge. It remains fixed. Example : A ticket for DEL-BKK-DEL return fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

= Rs 17,800

Delhi Airport Tax (FT/OW) = Rs 500 + 200 BKK-SIN Tax (XT)

= Rs 774

Insurance (YQ)

= Rs 972

Total

= (17800) + (700 + 774 + 972) = 17800 + 2446 = Rs 20,246

Payment at the Airport : Some taxes are paid by the passenger at the airport of departure. Example : The authorities at the Bangkok airport charge 500 Thai Baht from passengers who travel from Bangkok to any other destination. This amount is not included in the ticket fare or taxes. Example : A ticket for DEL-BKK-DEL return fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

= Rs 17,800

Delhi Airport Tax

= Rs 500 + 200

BKK-SIN Tax (XT)

= Rs 774

YQ (insurance)

= Rs 972

Total

= (17800) + (700 + 774 + 972) = 17800 + 2446 = Rs 20,246

Tax at Bangkok (paid by the passenger)

= 500 Baht = US$ 12

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Thus, the passenger (adult) pays

= Rs 20246

US$ 12

= 20246 + 12 x 49.25 = 20246 + 591 = Rs 20,837

Cost Value for International Children Passengers : Passengers in the age group of 2-12 years are deemed children. The basic fare of the child’s ticket is 67 per cent of the basic fare of an adult’s ticket. The components of the ticket cost are 4, just like they are in the case of an adult’s ticket. Example : A ticket for DEL-BKK-DEL return fare of an airline (continued) Basic Fare

= Rs 17,800

Price for the Child

= 17800 x 0.67 = Rs 11,926

Delhi Airport Tax

= Rs 500+200

BKK-SIN Tax (XT)

= Rs 774

YQ (Insurance)

= Rs 972

Total

= (11926) + (700 + 774 + 972) = 11926 + 2446 = Rs 14,372

Tax at Bangkok (paid by the passenger)

= 500 Baht = US$ 12

Thus, the passenger (child) pays = Rs 14372 + US$ 12 = 14372 + 12x 49.25 = 14372 + 591 = Rs 14,963

Cost Value for International Infant Passengers : Passengers up to the age of 2 years are deemed infants. The basic fare of the infant’s ticket is 10 Per cent of the basic price of an adult’s ticket. The components of the ticket cost are 4, just like they are in the case of an adult’s ticket. Example : A ticket for DEI- BKK-DEL return fare of an airline (continued)

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Basic Fare

=

Rs 17,800

Price for the Child

=

17800 x 0.1 = Rs 1,780

Delhi Airport Tax

=

Rs 500 + 200

BKK-SIN Tax (XT)

=

Rs 774

YQ (Insurance)

=

Rs 972

Total

=

(1780) + (700 + 774 + 972)

=

1780 + 2446 = Rs 4,226

Tax at Bangkok (paid by the passenger) =

500 Baht = US$ 12

Thus, the passenger (infant) pays

=

Rs 4226 + US$ 12

=

4226 + 12 x 49.25

=

4226 + 591 = Rs 4,817

Rules for the Cancellation and Refunding of International Ticketing Cancellation : There are no cancellation or no show charges in international flights. Refunding : Refunds are made to the passenger or approved travel agent who purchased the ticket. Tickets purchased in cash from the office of Indian Airlines can be cancelled at the same or any other office of Indian Airlines. Tickets purchased through a recognised travel agent can be refunded only to that agent. In international flights, refund administration charges for one ticket are Rs 200. No refund is admissible if the ticket is lost.

KINDS

OF ITINERARY

There are four forms of itineraries, as follows:

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One Way Trip : In this trip, the passenger buys the air ticket and travels to a destination station. He does not come back by the airline that had carried him to that destination. The deal is over, so far as the airline and passenger are concerned. Many people go abroad to study or emigrate. They do not come back. They may come back but it may take them many years to do so. Further, they may also come by any other airline. Circle Trip : It refers to travel, other than a round trip, from one point and return to the same point by a continuous circuitous air route, including around-the-world trips. The circle trip can be made to any number of cities using any routing and return to the point of origin as long as transportation is done by scheduled commercial airlines. It is a journey with stopovers that return to the point of departure without retracing its route. Its abbreviation is CT. It is also called Around the World Trip, which is a small part of its wider gamut. Return Trip : In this trip the passenger returns to his station of origin. Its abbreviation is RT. But he has two options, as follows. Return Trip (Confirmed) : In this trip, the air ticket clearly mentions the date of return journey. Thus, the tours planned well in advance and the date of return journey is also fixed. Return Trip (Open) : In this trip, the passenger buys the air ticket from an airline or a travel agency. But he does not get the date of return specified on it. Instead, he tells the airline or travel agent to give him a “return open” ticket. He goes to the destination station. He stays there for 4,6,9 or 12 months or even longer at that station. This time limit is specified by the airline in advance to the passenger. When he wishes to go back to the station of origin, he talks to the executive of the airline or travel agent. He gets the date of return flight from the office of the airline or travel agent. For this purpose, he has to give the PNR number and show the ticket to the concerned executive. The flight status is checked and a seat is booked for him so

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that he could go home at the earliest possible date. On the decided day, he boards the aircraft of the same airline and returns. Note that this airline may not have any seat to accommodate him. So, it coordinates with another airline to transport the passenger to his coveted station of origin. Open Jaw Trip : We have already described this concept. An itinerary, which is similar to a round trip or circle trip but has a segment that is not transited by air. An open jaw trip comprises a travel activity whose nature is similar to that of a round trip, with the exception that the outward point of arrival and inward point of departure are not the same. It means a round trip itinerary in which, the arrival point is different from the departure point and the trip usually has a surface segment. In this trip, the passenger starts from a station of origin. He covers a long route by the airline (the original carrier). He may use other carriers as well. But such carriers are designated by the original carrier (because it is not able to cover some sectors for the passenger). Finally, the passenger lands at another destination station that is not the same as the station of origin. So, he starts from a point of origin but does not return to that point of origin. Round Trip : It is a journey from one point to another and return to the point of origin by the same air route as the one that was used for the outbound portion.

FARE VALUE The following systems are in vogue. Fare Approval by Authorities : In India, the DGCA decide the airfares of Indian Airlines and Air India. Fare Approval as per Mileage System : This system of calculation of airfare is applied when a desired itinerary between two points is not included in an applicable diagrammatic or linear routing published in connection with a fare. Ten important

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parameters of this system ought to be known. These are as follows : (a)

Maximum permitted mileage

(b)

Non-stop sector mileage.

(c)

Excess mileage surcharge.

(d)

Extra mileage allowance.

(e)

Special mileage provisions stop-overs.

(f)

Limitation on indirect travel.

(g)

Higher-rated intermediate fares.

(h)

Special provisions for OW journeys (called One Way Back Haul Rule).

(i)

Fictitious or hidden construction points.

(j)

The more distant point principle.

The Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM) governs the maximum distance that a passenger can cover between two particular points by paying a direct fare charge. When a through fare is constructed by combining a few sector fares, through maximum mileage (if it is available) from the origin to the destination of such constructed fare may be used unless it is prohibited by rules applicable to one of sector fares. The tenets for computing the fare are mileage and fuel. Use of Mileage System : Please take the following steps: (a) Find out the applicable MPM between two particular points. (b) Add up the non-stop sector mileage between all the points of the route. Use the actual route of travel to do so. Also include scheduled stopovers, intermediate transit points and connecting points. (c) Compare the total of non-stop sector mileage to the applicable MPM permitted at the direct fare between the two points. If the total non-stop mileage is equal to or

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less than the MPM, the itinerary is allowed at the published direct fare, except as provided in the rules that follow. (d)

If the total sector mileage for a desired route exceeds the MPM, a surcharge has to be levied. Use the excess mileage table to determine that surcharge. It is available with all the travel agents and tour operators. The direct fare is subject to a surcharge in amounts varying from 5 to 25 per cent; it depends upon the mileage in excess of the published fare.

(e) Airfare bargains are in vogue, especially after the airlines of the world have been gripped by a wave of recession. The post 9/11 syndrome, the Iraq-US war and global recession have wreaked havoc on the airline business. That is why, airlines are offering Apex Fares, Super Apex fares, Super Sver Scheme, Youth fares, Mid-week Bargains, Golden Eagle Scheme, Budget Fares, Frequent Flier Schemes, AI-Taj Offer, etc. to their customers. These are the bids to woo the air passenger who is slightly afraid to travel by air. Recession has also played a derogatory role in this context. The AI and IA are known to incur losses simply because they are PSUs. Thus, the system of MPM may be given a backseat, at least during the times of recession. (f) Frequent Flier Programme must be given special consideration. A frequent flier is one who uses the air services of various airlines to the maximum extent. Such a person is always on the move. His foreign trips are frequent. He is a valued customer for any airline. Thus, every airlines tries to attract him to its fold. Frequent fliers can be domestic or international passengers. If they travel frequently, which they do quite often, they get some bonus points from the airline. Example: A frequent flier may get 10 bonus points if he travels along the route

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Travel Agency and Tourism of DEL-NY DEL. As he is a frequent flier, he keeps on accumulating these bonus points. If the number of bonus points exceeds a fixed value, say 1,000, he is given one ticket free of cost. The member airlines of the Star Alliance use this scheme. The IA has also started this scheme. The passenger must use only one airline to avail this scheme.

Fare Point-to-Point : The passenger is not charged for travel to a destination that is not his coveted destination. This rule is followed on a universal basis. Example : A passenger wishes to go from Delhi to Bangkok but the airline takes all the passengers from Delhi to Colombo and then, takes them to Bangkok. Its flight course is such that Colombo must arrive after Delhi. The passenger in question does not pay the fare of DelhiColombo and Colombo-Bangkok. He pays only the DelhiBangkok fare. Further, another airline, which takes care of a part of the itinerary of the passenger (as the original carrier is not able to do so due to flight limitations), takes a fee from the original carrier. Example: A passenger wishes to go from Delhi to Bangkok and then, to Kuala Lumpur. But the airline does not have any service from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur. So, it appoints another airline, called YY Carrier, to take the passenger from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur. This airline can be Thai or MAS, to quote most probable examples. The original carrier (say Air India) would have to pay US$ 50 as Sector Fare to Thai Airways or MAS that takes the passenger from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur. The passenger has to be charged the lowest possible fare for a route. This rule is applicable in all the airline operations. A desired itinerary may be constructed over fictitious construction points. The passenger is not travelling to such points. The lowest possible fare is calculated after taking such fictitious points into consideration. The destination of the passenger is important and not the route.

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Example : Let us calculate airfare from Bombay to Bangkok via two routes, as follows; Option I: MUM-NYC

=

US$ 450

NYC-SFO-BKK

=

US$ 524

Total

=

450 + 524 = US$ 974

Option II : MUM-NYC-SFO

=

US$ 604

SFO-BKK

=

US$ 448

Total

=

604 + 448 = US$ 1,052

Clearly, the passenger would be charged US$ 974 and not US$ 1,052. The lower combination of fares has been accepted but the passenger does not go through the fictitious route. This route is created for the purpose of fare calculation only. Rulers for Baggage : The following rules are in vogue. Rules for Indian Carriers Economy Class (Adult)

: 30 kg in Cargo Hold.

Economy Class (Child)

: 30 kg in Cargo Hold.

Economy Class (Infant)

: 10 kg in Cargo Hold.

First/Executive Class (Adult)

: 40 kg in Cargo Hold.

First/Executive Class (Child)

: 40 kg in Cargo Hold.

First/Executive Class (Infant)

: 10 kg in Cargo Hold.

Concept of ‘Piece’ : In the USA and Canada, this concept is in vogue. Passengers can take a fixed number of pieces of luggage. Over and above this limit, they are required to pay a fee. It is advisable to contact the airline to get the exact rates under the piece rate system. Normally, a passenger can carry two pieces of luggage free of cost in the cargo hold. The weight of these two pieces must not exceed 30-34 kg; different airlines may have different rules in this context. If the weight is more

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than this limit, then, EBR rules are applied and the passenger has to pay according to the EBR rules of the airline. The passenger can carry a bag or small suitcase along with him in the aircraft. This system is popular in the USA and Canada. EBR : Every airline charges different rates from its passengers for excess baggage carried by each and every passenger. In the time table or schedule published by the airline (or by a travel agent on its behalf), such rates are printed. These are called EBR/kg Rates or EBR/kg. Passengers can locate this term in the schedule where the rates of tickets are also printed. In case of doubt, the passenger can contact the executive at the desk of the airline in the airport premises. The charges are to be paid on per kg basis. Rules for International Carriers : A passenger can take a baggage of 20 kg that would be put in the cargo hold of the aircraft. He can also take a small briefcase, suitcase or any other piece of luggage, which should not weigh more than 5 kg. This baggage must not be bulky and ought to be fitted in the compartment above the seat of the passenger. Obviously, its size and weight should not pose any problems while it is being handled. Some passengers carry liquor and wine along with them. That is permissible but they should not carry more number of bottles than the permissible number. Every passenger can bring (import) one 2-litre bottle of wine or liquor; it would not attract customs duty. Due to its liquid nature, the passenger would like to keep it with him and carry it along with him in the aircraft and not in the cargo bay of the aircraft. Similarly, a passenger can also import a camera without paying any duty at the customs department of the airport of his own country. If he buys more cameras, he would be required to pay the duty. Adult passengers going to the USA can carry baggage weighing 40 kg (maximum). Children going to the USA can carry baggage weighing 20 kg (maximum). The EBR per kg for the USA is Rs 700-800 per kg.

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Liability of Baggage : Liability for loss, delay or damage to baggage of the passenger is limited unless a higher value is declared in advance and additional charges are paid by the passenger to the airline. For most of the cases of international travel (including travel in domestic sectors of international journeys), the liability limit is nearly US$ 9.07 per pound (US$ 20 per kg) for the checked baggage. This liability limit is US$ 400 per passenger for unchecked baggage. For travel wholly between the points within the USA, federal rules require any limit on the baggage liability of an airline to be at least US$ 1,250 per passenger. Excess evaluation may be declared on certain types of articles. Some airlines refuse to accept responsibility for fragile, valuable or perishable articles. Items not to be Carried Out : The following articles or objects cannot be aboard the aircraft or in its cargo bay : (a) Compressed Gases : Deeply refrigerated, inflammable, non-inflammable and poisonous gases such as butane, oxygen, liquid nitrogen etc. cannot be taken aboard the aircraft in any form or packing. Aqualung cylinders are also not allowed to be carried aboard the aircraft. (b) Corrosives : Chemicals like acids, alkalis, mercury, appliances containing mercury and wet cell batteries cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (c) Explosives : Ammunition, fireworks, crackers and flares cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (d) Arms : The passenger cannot carry handguns, pistol caps, pistols, rifles and knives aboard the aircraft. A few years ago, the Sikhs had raised a hue and cry in this context. They had requested the airlines to allow them to carry mini swords (kirpans) aboard the aircraft. However, the airlines had refused to give them the permission to carry kirpans due to reasons related to safety.

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(e) Radioactive Materials : All such materials as are radioactive cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (f) Inflammable Liquids : Cigarette lighters, lighter fuels, matches, paints and thinners cannot be carried aboard an aircraft. However, the passenger can carry matchboxes on his person. (g) Luggage : Briefcases and attache cases having installed alarm devices cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (h) Oxidising Materials : Bleaching powder and peroxides of all types cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (i) Poisons : All types of poisons, insecticides, weedicides, herbal preparations and germicides are not allowed to be carried on board the aircraft. (j) WMD : Carrying the weapons of mass destruction would amount to commitment of a serious crime. Germs, strains of viruses, bacteria or other chemicals that can spread widespread destruction cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. (k) Narcotics : The passenger cannot carry narcotics of any kind along with him. If he does, he is likely to be arrested as and when it is found that his luggage is having such types of drugs. Example : In Singapore, if a passenger is found to be carrying narcotics, he is awarded Capital Sentence. (l) Other Items : Pointed needles, aqualung cylinders, compressed gas cylinders, cutters, hammers, fireworks, magnetic substances or appliances thereof, irritating materials and all those items that have been banned by the airline or the concerned national or international authority cannot be carried aboard the aircraft. Items to be Carried Out : The following items can be carried by a passenger aboard an aircraft : (a) Life Saving Medicines : The passenger can carry such

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life-saving medicines and drugs as are needed by him to save his life in the case of an emergency. Medicines having alcohol may be carried aboard the aircraft. (b) Personal Effects : He can carry perfumes, stationery items, wallet, biscuits, snacks, chocolates, toffees, reading material, handbags, ladies’ purses, umbrellas, overcoats, walking sticks, fully collapsible wheelchairs for invalids and/or braces, a small camera, food for infants, baskets carrying food and other items of infants and other personal items (like cosmetics) aboard the aircraft. (c) Cellular Phones : The passenger can carry his cellular phone or PDA along with him aboard the aircraft. But such devices must be switched off while they are in the aircraft. That is because the signals of cellular phones and PDAs interfere with the communication signals of’ the aircraft. The Government of India has prohibited the use of cellular phones aboard the aircraft. (d) Clothes : The passenger can carry clothes along with him aboard the aircraft. (e) Gifts : The passenger can carry gifts and souvenirs for his kith and kin aboard the aircraft. But these should not carry drugs and other banned ingredients. The Indians can carry sweets onboard the aircraft.

MANAGEMENT

OF

PASSENGERS

In this section, we shall explain how airports function so that passengers could be transported safely and in time. We are also discussing cargo handling procedures in this section because they are intertwined with the management of passengers, aircraft and airports and above all, human beings. Let us proceed in a stepwise manner to enhance the understanding of our valued readers. Passenger Enters into The Departure Lounge : The first thing a passenger does after arriving in the premises of an

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airport is unloading of his luggage from a car or taxi. The luggage porters are not available at airports. The passenger has to put his belongings on a trolley and move to the departure lounge. His passport and air ticket are checked by the security personnel. His relatives or friends are not allowed to enter into the departure lounge. Passenger Pays Airport Taxes : Some airports charge airport tax as and when the passengers arrive at such airports. The passenger has to pay such taxes in terms of US Dollars. When he pays the fee, his passport is marked and he is allowed to enter the departure lounge. But in most of the cases, airport taxes are included in the ticket price. Passenger Get His Luggage Scanned : Passengers get their luggage checked in the departure lounge. It is checked with the help of automatic scanners. The large suitcase is put inside a machine, which scans its contents. Contraband goods, arms, bombs, sharp weapons, metallic detonators and gold are easily identified by these scanners. However, it is difficult for these scanners to identify RDX. After this operation is over, passengers get their bags and suitcases and move top the counters of airlines. Passenger Shows Documents at the Airline Counter : All the airlines have their own counters at almost all the airports of the world. Passengers move their trolleys towards such counters. They form queues in front of economy class counters or executive class counters, according to the categories of tickets they have bought. The official at the counter checks their passports and tickets. He passes the passport through an automatic scanner machine and the data of the passenger is recorded in the computer. The official also tears the original ticket from the ticket booklet. The rest of the ticket, along with the passport, is handed back to the passenger. The last copy of the ticket, called Passenger Coupon, is retained by the passenger.

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Getting of Boarding Pass : The airline official issues a boarding pass to the passenger while he returns the ticket and passport to the passenger. The latter has to use this boarding pass to board the aircraft. The number of the flight is TG 416, class of the passenger’s ticket is Y (economy); date of departure is November 10, 2002, time of departure is 13:20 pm, gate of departure (or terminal of departure) is C12, boarding time is 12:20 pm and seat number of the passenger is 32K. The name of the passenger can also be seen on the boarding pass. Payment for Extra Baggage : When aforementioned procedures are going on, the luggage of the passenger is weighed. If it weighs more than the specified weight limit, the passenger has to pay according to the EBR rates in vogue. Also read Excess Baggage Rules in this context. The passenger has to pay the amount in INR. He must pay at the time of his interaction with airline officials, else he is not allowed to take the luggage along with him. There is no charge for carrying a small bag, suitcase or purse, which is to be carried inside the aircraft; its weight must not exceed 5 kg. But all these items are also scanned by X-ray machines before these are allowed to be taken into the aircraft. Note that at some places, the EBR is also called Xs Bag. Leaving of Luggage at the Counter : The passenger leaves all those items of luggage at the airline counter that are supposed to be put in the cargo hold of the aircraft. The assistant of the airline official attaches a label to each and every piece of luggage and puts it on an automatic conveyor belt. It is taken by the belt to the departure terminal where the aircraft crew is waiting to load it in the aircraft. The passenger takes those items of his luggage that he would like to carry along with him inside the aircraft. Passenger Gets the Immigration Check Done : The emigration officials check the passports at counters located within the departure lounge. The passport of the passenger is

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scanned with the help of a scanner. Passengers get their documents checked one by one and then, move toward the departure terminal. At this juncture, they leave their trolleys and have to carry their bags in their hands. The immigration check of the passenger is done. His visas, which are given in the back pages of the passport, are checked. His passport is scanned by a scanner at the airport on arrival as well. This scanning system is automatic and does not take more than 2 or 3 minutes. Passenger Heads Towards Departure Terminal : The departure terminal is a large lobby whose end takes the passenger towards the vast expanse of the airport. He can see the aircraft crawling, landing and flying from the large windows of the terminal. He may have to wait for sometime before he finally boards the aircraft. Passenger Moves Towards the Turmac : The passengers gather at the departure gate. They are told to move to the turmac, which is a part of the airport. They are told to board a long coach. The coach takes them to the entry terminal or tunnel, which is connected to the aircraft that they are required to board. The coach stops at the entry level gate of the building from which, the passage or entry terminal is accessed. At the new airport of Kuala Lumpur, the passengers are taken aboard a rapidly moving electric tram. This tram takes them to the departure gate from which, the aircraft is within a stone’s throw. Passenger Boards the Aircraft from the Terminal Gate : All the passengers enter into this terminal’s gate and covers some distance (through a tunnellike passage) to finally arrive at the entry gate of the aircraft. The airhostess and flight steward welcome them in their native language. They speak English too. They see the boarding cards of passengers and help them arrive at their seats. Passenger Switches off his Cellular Phone and Ties his Belt : When the aircraft is about to crawl on the runaway, all the passengers are informed that they have to tie their belts.

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They are also required to switch off their cellular phones. That is because the communication control signals of an aircraft can interfere with the signals of the cellular phone and damage the former. In fact, passengers take these actions on their own and the airhostess may not make an announcement in this context. First-time passengers are helped by experienced ones. Aircraft Takes Off : The aircraft is not on the runway when the passengers are boarding it. It has to close its door and then, move on the runaway from which, it supposed to take of. The doors of the aircraft are closed and its captain drives it like an automobile. The aircraft’s engines are working but they are not in the full-throttle mode. The aircraft crawls at a moderate speed and heads towards the designated runway. It may take 3 to 5 minutes to do so. Finally, when the aircraft arrives at the starting point of the runway, its engines are put on full throttle. The aircraft rushes at a very high speed on the ground. After hurtling for about 10-20 seconds on the runway, it suddenly leaps into the air. It continues to move in the trajectory defined for it; it can never leave its designated path. It continues to gain height. During this time, the passengers remain inclined; that is why, they are tied to their seats with the help of seat belts. At a height of 5.5 - 6.0 km above the surface of the earth, the aircraft becomes stable in terms of its altitude. It flies parallel to the earth and passengers can also feel that they are able to sit properly in their respective seats. Then, the airhostess of the aircraft calls on the PA system and welcomes all the passengers. It also tells them about the date of arrival at the destination station. The electronic display unit starts displaying the vital data related to the flight; in fact, it starts doing so even when the passengers are boarding the aircraft. The flight data includes important details, namely, date of departure, date of arrival, station of departure, station of arrival, distance between two stations, speed of the aircraft, temperature outside

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the aircraft, air pressure outside the aircraft, graphical depiction of the position of the aircraft on the map, (which shows stations of origin and destination) etc. Procedures for Airport Handling : The following steps are taken by the officials of the airport and the staff of the airline to transport cargo by air. Cargo is Received by Airlines and Airport Officials : There are three types of air cargo-passenger cargo, commercial air cargo, mail cargo and courier cargo. Passenger cargo is carried in the same aircraft in which, the passenger is being flown. Commercial air cargo is the cargo booked by those people or firms who are not flying along with the cargo. They want this cargo to be delivered in a destination city where it would be picked up by their agents. Those agents or representatives must arrive at the customs godown of the destination airport and get the goods release after submitting the airway bill to the airport/ customs authorities at the destination airport. These are typically commercial transactions. Mail cargo comprises all the letters and packets that are to be sent by air mail. Courier cargo comprises the goods that are to be carried by the courier firms. It could include goods, documents and letters too. But courier services cannot be used to send animals, narcotics, gold, jewellery and other contraband items. Airmail and courier cargo is sent according to the previously-specified agreements between nations and airlines. Not all the air carriers carry mail cargo; the same fact is true for courier cargo too. In general, courier companies arrange their own aircraft to transport their cargo from one station to another. Examples: DTDC and DHL. Passenger cargo is received by the airline officials at their counters in the departure lounge. The luggage is X-rayed first; we have explained this procedure in Section 7.17. Passengers leave their luggage at the airline counters after getting it weighed

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and paying the EBR charge (only on excess baggage). When this is done, the official of the airline attaches a baggage identification tag to each and every piece of luggage. The counterfoil of this baggage identification tag is attached to the air ticket of the passenger. For the sake of understanding of our valued readers, we are appending the scanned copy of an actual baggage identification tag that is handed over to the passenger. Let us use one example here the baggage identification tag mentions that the name of the passenger is A Kumar. It further mentions that the carrier is Malaysian Airlines (MAS), the passenger is going from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to New Delhi (KUL - DEL), its flight number is TG 0315 from KUL to BKK (it is a connecting flight), its flight number is TG 0416 from BKK to DEL, the passenger has 1 bag (suitcase) that weighs 15 kg, the date of both the flights is November 10, 2002 and the bar code of the MAS is 0232951356. This number can be scanned by a barcode reader as well. Cargo is Packed and Hauled to the Conveyor System : Some type of packing may be necessary. Passengers and consignors are required to pack their goods in airworthy packages. Sensitive and fragile items may have to be repacked. The airline is not responsible for breakage of luggage while it is being handled. Every airline has its own terminal for loading and unloading cargo. Normally these terminals are fixed. The officials of the airline spread along the length of the conveyor, which is a sophisticated automatic logistics system. It works with the help of electric power. When the passenger gives his luggage to the airline official at the counter of the airline (in the departure lounge). The official puts this luggage on an automatic conveyor belt. This belt takes the luggage to the conveyor system of that particular airline. The receipt terminal is located inside the airport premises (i.e., beyond the airport building, which cannot be

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accessed by passengers). At this terminal, the officials of the airline are ready to receive each and every piece of luggage. They keep on lifting the luggage till all the pieces of the same have been received. Cargo is Loaded in the Cargo Hold : The airline staff are always on duty along the entire line of transport of cargo. They have a complete list of the luggage that the aircraft is supposed to carry. They use forklift trucks to pick the luggage. They can check the identification of the luggage at any point of time by reading its baggage identification tag. They can also read the bar code printed on it with the help of a bar code reader. This bar code is useful when the bag is lost; in such a case it can be easily identified and its flight details can be found out. This forklift truck takes the luggage to the aircraft. There, the luggage is loaded in the space in the lower part of its body. It is a large space that can accommodate large numbers of suitcases and bags. It is called Cargo Hold. All the loading procedures are automatic; in some cases, these may be semiautomatic. Other types of cargo can be transported with the help of large delivery trucks. Many of these trucks are capable of moving containers and other bulky types of load. Finally, the cargo hold is closed. Courier companies employ their own fourwheelers to transport cargo from the airport terminal to the aircraft. DHL has a complete infrastructure to handle cargo at the airports of the world. Flies of Aircraft : The load of an aircraft cannot exceed a specified limit. Thus, the officials accept only that much of the load, which can be made airborne. Excess load is rejected by airline officials. Normally, the load limits are not exceeded due to reasons related to safety. But in exceptional cases, some excess luggage may be taken aboard the aircraft. These are rare incidents, however.

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Aircraft Lands at the Destination Airport : The aircraft lands at the destination station. The passengers are allowed to leave the aircraft. The cargo hold is opened. Luggage is taken out of it. This lugagge is taken to the conveyor belt of the airline. For this purpose, forklift trucks may be used. Passengers Receive Luggage at the Conveyor Belt System : Luggage of the passengers of the first class is sent to the conveyor belt first. The passengers of the economy class are the last ones to be served. We have already stated that every airline has its own conveyor belt system at almost every airport. If it does not have, it can have a tie-up with another airline in this context. At the destination airport, the officials of the same airline handle the cargo. It is their duty to move cargo and deliver it to the passenger who are waiting in the arrival lounge for their respective suitcases and other items. If the luggage is lost, the officials of the airline see the code number of the baggage identification tag (customer’s copy). They trace the luggage by referring to that number. If the luggage is found, its baggage identification tag is scanned with the help of a bar code reader. If it is the one that is lost, it is restored to the passenger. If it does not have a baggage identification tag, the passenger is told to describe and identify it. After completing some formalities, the bag or suitcase is given to the passenger. Thus, the passenger must keep all the documents and slips intact while he is airborne. This would save him from many a problem. Computerised Preservation System (CRS) : The full form of CRS is Computerised Reservation System. It is a system for booking airline seats, hotel rooms and taxis for a passenger or tourist on a global basis. It can be operated with the help of Internet browsers. Computers are a must for operating a CRS package. It makes booking processes faster and efficient. Data are automatically updated in a CRS database at regular intervals. A modern travel agency or tour operator cannot succeed in the

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dynamic national and global markets of the new millennium without the assistance of this unique invention, which is a byproduct of Information Technology (IT) revolution. Before we give the details and applications of a CRS, we would like to give the format of a comprehensive booking chart. It is used to manually get the air, rail and hotel reservations for a client. Bookings are done for all these three services by a travel agent. This is an actual format and can be extended to include other types of services. But it is quite tedious to fill up and maintain. The passenger wants quick service, many options of hotels, several types of airline bookings to choose from and above all, confirmed seats. If the travel agent performs these operations manually, he would not be able to serve his clients. If at all he does so, he would be able to get only far and few bookings. Thus, there was a need to overhaul the reservation system in the parlance of tourism administration so that tourists and travellers (especially, international travellers and frequent fliers) could be the chief beneficiaries. The advent of computers,. Internet technology and high-speed data access and transfer systems ushered the travel agency business into a new era. This era is better known as CRS Era. In this section, as well as in those that follow after it, we shall discuss the CRS in detail. But we must remember that we have graduated from the manual reservation chart to the CRS; the former is the building block for the latter! Background : In the parlance of tourism administration, the following tasks are to be executed before the tourist leaves his station of origin to start the tour : (a)

Booking of air tickets.

(b)

Booking of hotel rooms.

(c)

Booking of cruise line tickets.

(d)

Booking of train tickets.

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(e)

Arrangement/booking of taxis or cars on hire.

(f)

Travel insurance.

(g)

Planning of journey and preparation of the final itinerary.

(h)

Financial/economic aspects related to the tour.

The tourist-to-be cannot handle these tasks on his own because many firms, transporters and carriers are involved in the preparation of the tour programme. Further, he also does not know about the addresses of such hotels in a tourist spot as would fit into his budget and tour itinerary. In all probability, he is new to the tourist spot and strangers can find it very difficult to survive in foreign lands. Thus, we can conclude that the tour itinerary must be planned in a professional manner, lest the customer should neither complete the tour nor enjoy it. This calls for deployment of professionally qualified people in travel agencies. Such people must be good communicators, meticulous and aware of all the types of products and services that the customer may ask for during the tour. These people must also have an updated database of those suppliers who would provide such products and services at the destinations chosen by their clients. The success of every system associated with tourism administration depends upon the quality of information that is being used. After all, a tour executive does not give any “real product or service” to the tourist. He only plans the tour according to the data available at his desk. His world is virtual; he does not deliver goods or services to the tourist but the latter goes to the tourist spot to get those goods or services. So, travel agencies and tour operators manage information and not tangible products and services that the tourist is actually buying from them. The efficiency of a travel agency is determined how quickly and carefully he defines the tour programme of its customer and ensures that this programme is executed in the same manner in which, it was supposed to be executed. So, the tour manager or travel executive defines a set of documents

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that helps him understand the precise requirements of the customer. We have given the formats of many such documents in this volume. These are manual documents. The executive fills them up and acts according to the wishes of the client. He calls tour operators, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, coach operators, insurance agents, etc. to get the bookings or seats for the client. It takes him nearly 25 to 30 days to finally get air tickets, coach bookings, hotel bookings, visas, etc. Remember that this is a manual system. It may be useful for domestic tourism operations only. Many firms in India are using manual systems to get bookings of hotels, airlines, cruise ships, coaches, resorts and other places in which, the tourist shows interest. But it is not an efficient and time-saving procedure by any norm. Add to this the need of the tourist to travel to a foreign country and we have a plethora of problems. The travel executive has to contact a foreign airline. He has to get the bookings done in airlines, book hotel rooms, arrange insurance documents, get visas, arrange coaches for excursions, etc. for the client in question. His work load is several times more when he books seats for a tourist going on a foreign excursion. How would he cope with this stress ? The answer lies in the realm of information management. Information has to be collected, analysed and re-processed (for the benefit of the customer) through computerised systems, satellites, optical cables, Internet and networks like MAN and WAN. A system that integrates all the types of booking and execution procedures of a travel agency through a well-defined computerised system is called Computerised Reservation System or CRS. With the advent of this system, the travel and tourism industry has become efficient, high-end performer and profitable. Our valued readers must have learned a lot about Information Technology (IT). The CRS is a complicated extension of the IT revolution. Its focus is the travel and tourism industry. Its users are travel agents, airlines, hotel chains, coach operators,

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cruise lines, etc. All the members of the travel and tourism industry can use the CRS to their advantage. Efficiency, fast data transfer and user friendly software tools are three advantages that any CRS offers to its clients/users. Fancied Computerised Reservation System Around World : There are many popular Computerised Reservation Systems. These systems use satellites, Internet technologies and WANs to reach thousands of their customers around the globe. These systems help these users make bookings for their clients through computerised packages that are menu-driven and easy to operate. There are two popular and successful CRS systems, though there are many other CRS systems operating in different parts of the world. The commonly used CRS systems are being provided by two renowned organisations, as follows : (a)

Galilieo (www.galileo.com).

(b)

Amadeus (www.amadeus.com).

We shall discuss the CRS product made and marketed by Amadeus.

ORGANISATIONAL WORK Amadeus Global Travel Distribution was founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS. It became fully operational in 1992. In 1999, Amadeus became a public limited firm and its shares were listed on the bourses of Madrid, Paris, Barcelona and Frankfurt. In December, 2001, Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa held 59.52 per cent of the shares of the company. The rest of the shares were in the hands of financial institutions and, individuals. The number of employees of the firm (worldwide) is 4,000. It has presence of 200 markets in the world, according to the list of territories published by the ISO. The firm has three major business lines, as follows : (a)

Travel distribution (to travel agencies and sales offices of airlines).

346 (b)

(c)

Travel Agency and Tourism E-commerce (being marketed by the name of e-travel and with operational sites in the USA, Europe and AsiaPacific). IT services.

Currently, Amadeus is providing 19 products in the global markets. These are : (a) Agent Net; (b) Travel Assistance; (c) PQC; (d) Proweb; (e) Amadeus Vista; (f) E-mail; (g) PNR SMS; (h) Learning City; (i) Automated refund; (j) Ticket Quota; (k) Travel Choice; (l) Seat Buster; (m) Ticketing Scripts; (n) Negotiated Fares; (o) Cruise; (p) Cruise; (q) Ticket Writer; (r) Satellite Ticket printing; (s) Central Ticketing Solution; and (t) Rail Software. The headquarters of Amadeus are located in Madrid, Spain. The address of its headquarters is as follows: Amadeus Global Travel Distribution Salvador de Madariaga 1 28027 Madrid Spain Phones: + 34 91 582 0160 Fax : + 34 91 582 0188 E-mail : [email protected]. Its regional offices are located at the following places : (a) Bangkok (for Asia pacific, Australia and New Zealand). (b) Buenos Aires (for South America). (c) Miami (for the USA, Canada, Central America and the Carribeans). The company has a full-fledged network of National Marketing Companies (NMCs). Regional offices, mentioned earlier, provide support to these MNCs for marketing, help-desk support, customer service and coordination of commercial relations with the providers of Amadeus products in their respective regions. On December 31, 2001, the Amadeus System was being used by 57,600 travel agencies around the world. It is the only GDS that offers airlines the possibility to externalise their sales

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and distribution efforts. This GDS has ISO 9001 : 2000 certification. It also has obtained Standard 2000 through Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI) for the quality of its management practices. Mr. Jose Antonio Tazon is the President and CEO of Amadeus Global Travel Distribution. Mr. David V Jones is the Executive Vice President (Commercial) of the firm. Amadeus is known for its Global Distribution System (GDS). It is a multinational firm that provides travel industry technology to various members engaged in the travel and tourism industry. The firm provides marketing, distribution and IT services to the travel industry. The computerised GDS of the firm is being used by (a) airlines; (b) hotels; (c) car rental companies; (d) insurance firms; and (e) travel agents throughout the world. This system links providers with subscribers (including travel agencies and corporate travel departments), Airline Ticket Offices (ATOs), City Ticket Offices (CTOs) and corporate/private customers (through web products). Beginning of Amadens in India : In 1994, Amadeus launched its Indian branch in New Delhi. Mr. Ankur Bhatia is the Managing Director of the Amadeus India. This firm is responsible for operations in the Indian subcontinent. Amadeus has 26 branch offices across the subcontinent. It has software installations in more than 72 countries. Its offices are located in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The headquarters of Amadeus India are located in New Delhi, India. The address of its Indian headquarters is as follows: Amadeus India D 4/4 Vasant Vihar New Delhi-110057 Phone: + 91 11 2614 6633 Fax : + 91 11 2614 4161 E-mail : [email protected]

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Contact Persons : Mr. Karan Buddhiraja/Ms Sapna Anand Amadeus Tollfree : 1600 111 200 Sales (Delhi Office) : 2335 2266 Amadens Vista : The latest product offering by Amadeus is Amadeus Vista. It is the first fully browser-based front-office booking system. It allows the user to work in the graphical page or cryptic environment. It has productivity-enhancing features such as Smart keys, Speed Mode, Scripts, Split Screen, etc. It is easy to learn and operate. The transaction time in securing a booking is greatly reduced, if the travel agent uses this system. It is one of the most popular CRS packages of the world. This CRS increases productivity and has become synonymous with excellent customer service. Its installation by the travel agency leads to the generation of additional revenues for the agency. The system is Internet-based. It is easy to install and operate. All the utilities are menu-driven and can be used with the help of the click of a mouse. The pop-up menu system helps the user move to any part of the booking programme through Amadeus Vista. Processing is also fast and efficient. That is why, Amadeus Vista is being accepted by a large number of travel houses and tour operators around the globe.

PRODUCTIVE FIELDS Amadeus Vista increases the productivity of the user and hence, that of the organisation in which, it is installed. In the context of its operations, the following key productivity areas have been identified (a) Summary PNR : Full view of all the booked items at all the times. (b) Travel Choice : Automatic processing of policies and preferences. (c) Value Pricer : Easy and fast access to the best available prices.

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(d) Smart Keys : Eliminates keystrokes by programming repetitive tasks. (e) Speed Mode : Booking time reduced by clicking on highlighted host displays. (f) Command Line Recall : Saves time by re-selecting previously-sent commands. These areas are the ones that require high productivity and maximum efficiency, if the operations of a travel agency are under focus. USP Set : There are three distinct parts of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of Amadeus Vista. These are the areas in which, Amadeus Vista excels and has an edge over other products of its genre in the market. Let us explain each one of these, albeit briefly: USPI : Revenues : Bookings like cars, hotel, rail can be done on line with the help of Amadeus Vista. Cruise booking and insurance booking services have also been provided. Printing of data of bookings related to rail, cruise, airlines, etc. is possible. Thus, travel agents have new opportunities to earn revenues when they install Amadeus Vista because it is user-friendly. USP II : Technology Edge (1) : The system is deviceindependent. It gives quick access to all the products through a single window. It supports multi-tasking environment; this feature of Amadeus Vista allows the user to complete many booking jobs in a short duration of time. The software package is automatically updated through Internet. Thus, new market upgrades can be marketed and distributed pretty quickly. Finally, it is possible to set up multiple terminals and enable one package to be used by many users. USP Ill: Technology Edge (2) : The package is easiest to learn. It is in fact, the most user-friendly front-office package in the markets of today. It has easily identifiable icons and tool dip displays. It allows the user to get complete booking options by using pull-down menus. It can be used by first-time and experienced users with unequalled finesse.

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Amadeus Vista and Customer Service : Amadeus Vista has created new landmarks in the context of provision of excellent customer service. It processes customers’ preferences for air, taxi and hotel bookings. It uses on-screen prompts, which are displayed from the customer’s profile, to ask the right questions. It gives easy access to all the providers. It creates PNRs at a fast rate. Finally, it is also proactive for non-air products. Amadeus Vista and Cost Reduction : Amadeus Vista effects cost reduction that is ultimately reflected in the operations and revenues of its users. Training costs are reduced when the travel agent uses this system. There is no need to use telephones to book non-air products. Communication costs come down as a result. The package can be installed at nominal costs to the travel agent. And what is more, he does not have to spend fortunes on its upgrades. Amadeus Vista and Critical Business Issues : There are four critical business issues that Amadeus Vista proposes to address. These are as follows: (a)

Improving employee efficiency and productivity.

(b)

Improving customer service.

(c)

Harnessing revenue generation opportunities.

(d)

Reducing costs.

Clearly, these are the areas in which, most of the corporate firms and travel agencies are trying to generate results. Hence, the focus area of Amadeus Vista has absolute continuity with those of the firms (especially, travel agents and tour operators) of the new millennium. Preliminary Operations of Amadeus Vista : Let us study how we can use Amadeus Vista to book seats of airlines, rooms of hotels and cars/taxis. We shall also learn how insurance bookings are done through Amadeus Vista. Accessing Amadeus Vista : As stated earlier, Amadeus

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Vista is an advanced browser-based booking tool. This package can be accessed through the Net. Amadeus provides full support to its valuable clients in this context. They can contact the firm at the office address mentioned in this chapter. In order to access Amadeus Vista, please proceed as follows: (a)

Get the URL provided by your NMC.

(b)

Get connected to the Net.

(c)

Go to the URL provided to you.

(d)

Go to the Welcome Page of the URL.

(e)

Click on the Vista button.

Requirements of Hardware and Software for Amadens Vista : You have to be an authorised Vista user to make use of its various utilities. You would be given an Office ID and Password to get access to Amadeus Vista. Contact Amadeus India at the office address given earlier, if you are based in India. International buyers can contact at the Madrid address of the firm. In order to use Amadeus Vista, the user would have to procure a computer with a minimum of RAM of 128 MB or more, a HDD with a minimum of 250 MB of available disk space, a CPU of a minimum speed of 700 MHz (ie, a P-III system) and a laser printer. The SVGA video monitor must have a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and it must support 16-bit colours (65535). The system must have a video memory of 1 MB. The aforementioned Recommended Specifications have been notified by Amadeus India. The minimum support configuration of the computer system, to run Amadeus Vista is as follows-Pentium II computer system having a CPU speed of 500 MHz, a RAM of 128 MB, a HDD with 250 MB of available disk space, a SVGA video monitor (of a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels) and video memory of 1 MB. The aforementioned Minimum Support Specifications have been notified by Amadeus India.

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If the user wants to use the software package in Command Page Environment only, then the hardware to support the package should have the following (minimum) specifications—Pentium II computer system having a CPU speed of 300 MHz, RAM of 64 MB, a HDD with 250 MB of available disk space, a SVGA video monitor (of a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels) and video memory of 1 MB. The aforementioned Specifications for Command Page Usage have been notified by Amadeus India. Other peripherals would also be needed, namely, a CDwriter, a CD-writing software (like Nero CDburn) a small FDD (of a copying capacity of 1.44 MB), an efficient scroll mouse, a modern, a USB bus port, etc. Internet connectivity is mandatory. The recommended Operating System (OS) for Amadeus Vista is Windows 2000 SPI or Windows XP Professional. However, Windows XP Home, Windows ME, Windows 98 (Second Edition), Windows 98 (First Edition) and Windows NT also support it. All these products are sold by Microsoft Corporation. The recommended Internet browser for Amadeus Vista is MS Internet Explorer 5.5. SP2 or MS Internet Explorer 6.0. However, it is also supported by MS Internet Explorer 5.0I SP2 and MS Internet Explorer 5.0. Please take the following steps (ensure that the hardware is right for your needs and you are an official user of Amadeus Vista): (a) Switch on the AC mains of the computer and its CVT (b) Boot the computer. (c) Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer. (d) Launch Amadues Vista through the following URL http:/ /amadeusvista.com (e) Feed your user name and password in the relevant command lines.

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(f) The Welcome Page of Amadeus Vista would be displayed on the screen. (g) Move to the next page with the help of the click of the mouse. The next page would be the main menu of the graphic page. This main menu is also referred to as The Amadeus Vista Desktop. (h) The user can switch between the graphic mode and the cryptic mode. In order to do so, he should click on the Globe Icon, which is a globe-shaped symbol on the top left corner of the main menu. Use of Amadens Vista Amadeus Vista for Expert Users : Those users, who are adept at using the package, can use the Cryptic Format. In order to avail this facility, they can click on the globe icon, as explained earlier. It would lead them to the Command Page Environment of Amadeus Vista. New commands can be written on the Command Page. The at a much faster pace. The graphic feature of Amadeus Vista increases productivity; it is also user friendly. In this chapter, we are discussing the graphical operation mode of Amadeus Vista. Icons of the Graphic Screen (Desktop) : Normally, the main menu of Amadeus Vista contains 10 icons. However, the number of such icons can be changed. Different users demand different features in Amadeus Vista. Their demands are fully met by the package. At the top of the screen of the main menu, we have the following line Amadeus Vista- Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by Amadeus s.a.s. Below this line, there is an icon bar. It contains, 10 crescent-shaped icons, as explained, earlier. The icons shown can be explained as follows. PNR Icon : The icon on extreme left of the icon bar is the PNR icon. It holds and maintains the basic reservation file. PNR stands for Passenger Name Record. Click on it once and you

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would be able to get a full view of the data of passengers according to their PNR numbers. DOC Print Icon : This icon is placed next to the PNR icon. It helps the user print documents on the printer. Profile Icon : It is a red-coloured icon, which, when clicked once, would give the details of clients’ data. AIS Icon : This is a blue-coloured icon which, when clicked, would give details of weather. It is updated on a weekly basis. It also displays data related to festivals, fairs, tourist spots and places that are important from the viewpoint of sightseeing. The user has to go to sub-menus to get these sets of information. Printouts can also be taken, if the user wishes to download some data and make its hard copies. AIR Icon : This blue-coloured icon is in the shape of an aircraft. When clicked, it enables the user to arrive at the airline booking menu. The user feeds the data in various rows of the menu that pops up before him on the screen. Thus, he can get bookings done online by using this icon. Car Icon : It is a green-coloured icon in the shape of a car. When clicked, it leads the user to a menu that has vital input lines. The user feeds data into these lines and gets the reservations of cars/taxis for the customer. Hotel Icon : It is a red-coloured icon in the shape of a hospitality man. When clicked, this icon leads the user to a booking form. The rows in this form have to be filled up by the user to get hotel reservations for his client. Fare Icon : This icon is next to the hotel icon. When clicked, it leads the agent to the database of airlines. This database contains the names of airlines, their codes and fare structures. This database is used by Amadeus Vista to make online bookings of airlines. The details of ETD, ETA, station of origin, destination station, class of travel as well as other important data are also appended in this database.

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Queue Icon : This icon is placed next to the fare icon. It stores messages received from airlines and other providers. It is an important icon in the sense that the user remains informed about the latest data related to his day-today operations. Insurance Icon : This is an umbrella-shaped icon. It is next to the queue icon. It is used to get insurance for the client. Getting Outputs from Amadeus Vista : In the parlance of tourism administration, we shall concentrate on five major operations-airline bookings, hotel bookings, car/taxi bookings, insurance and data management on the basis of PNRs. Let us discuss these one by one. Hotel Bookings : Click on the Hotel Icon. A screen would appear before you. It would have command lines in which, you would be required to fill data. This data would have such items as the name of the guest, place of stay, choice of double bed or single bed, pick up point, etc. Feed the data in these command lines be sure to fill the correct data as wrong data would not be accepted. This data would be processed by Amadeus Vista. We presume that you already have a database of hotels; which ought to be updated on a regular basis. The hotels would be selected on a random basis. The data of a hotel selected by the programme would appear on the screen as soon as you feed data and press the Sell icon; in the cryptic format also, the command is Sell. After you feed data, information related to the service in question would appear on the screen. It would be a randomly-selected data set out of the data sets present in your database. It would be somewhat similar to the set of information. PICK-UP: 23 JUN 07:05 Heathrow Airport Pick-up Telephone: 020/8 897 08 11 DROP-OFF: 10 JUL 08:50 Rate Guaranteed: GBP 295.00- .00 UNL WY .00- .00 M XD Car Type Or Make Subject To Availability /

356

Travel Agency and Tourism Conditions Subject To Change Reservation Requested Hotel : 23 JUN Comfort Inn Vauxhall Comfort Inn : 10 JUL 87 South Lambeth Road London, Sw81rn United Kingdom Telephone: (44) 0207 735 9494 FAX: (44) 0207 735 1001 1 Person -Double Bed Rate: Pro Gbp 71.25 Dly Guarantee Given Meal: Includes Breakfast Reservation Requested

Output Displayed for Hotel/inn Booking through Amadeus Vista : Hotel Comfort Inn (London) is offering a double-bed room for GBP 71.25 on a daily basis (breakfast is included in the rent). The guest would be picked up from Heathrew Airport on June 23, 2003 at 07:05 am and dropped at the same airport on July 10, 2003 at 08:50 am. If you wish to opt for a costlier hotel for your client, you can change the information fed by you. Use the option Modify to do so (in the graphic mode). If you want to book the hotel room in the cryptic mode, use standard commands (not explained here). If you wish to change the data, use the command Cancel Old. Now, start a new booking procedure. Booking of Car/Taxi : Your client may like to hire a taxi at the station of destination. He may also like to hire a car that he would like to drive. In order to effect such bookings, please proceed as follows. Click on the Car Icon. Another screen would appear before you. It would have command lines in which, you would be required to fill data. This data would have such items as the name of the guest, vehicle information, pick-up time, pickup telephone number, drop-off time, rate, etc. Feed the data in

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these command lines (be sure to fill the correct data as wrong data would not be accepted). This data would be processed by Amadeus Vista. We presume that you already have a database of car and - taxi operators, which ought to be updated on a regular basis. The car/taxi service that is randomly selected by the program would be selected first. Its data would appear on the screen as soon as you feed input data. The name of the agency is EUROPCAR. It is based in London. It has offered Fat Punto 85 SX to the passenger. It would pick him up on June 23, 2003 at 07:05 am from Heathrew Airport (London). It would drop him back at his hotel/airport on July 10, 2003 at Amadeus India

Date 27 May 03

D4/4

Booking Ref Y4DMTB Vasant Vihar

New Delhi-110057

Ghosh/RMR

FAX :26144161 EML.:[email protected] *Training Document* CAR - EUROPCAR (LONDON) VEHICLE INFORMATION:

ECMN - FIAT PUNTO 85 SX

PICK-UP:

23 JUN 07:05 HEATHROW AIRPORT

PICK-UP TELEPHONE:

020/8 897 08 11

DROP-OFF:

10 JUL 08:50

Rate Guaranteed:

GBP 295.00- .00 UNL WY .00- .00 M XD

Car Type or Make Subjec-F To Availability / Conditions Subject To Change Reservation Requested Output displayed for car/taxi booking through Amadeus Vista

08:50 am. The rate quoted by the agency is GBP 295. If you wish to opt for another car or taxi for your client, you can change the information fed by you by using the option Modify (in the graphic mode). If you are in the cryptic mode, use the command Cancel Old and then, restart by typing Sell on the cryptic screen.

AIR TICKET BOOKING Your client may like to fly to a particular destination. In order to book an air ticket for him, please proceed as follows.

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Click on the Airline Booking Icon. Another screen would appear before you. It would have command lines in which, you would be required to fill data. This data would have such items as the name of the passenger, date of flight, date of departure, date of arrival at the destination airport, names of airports, details of meals to be provided onboard, class of travel, etc. Feed the data in these command lines (be sure to fill the correct data as wrong data would not be accepted). This data would be processed by Amadeus Vista. We presume that you already have a database of airlines, which ought to be updated on a regular basis. The selection for this data is done by the program on a random basis, as already explained. Its data would appear on the screen as soon as you feed data. The name of the airline is British Airways. Its flight code is BA 143. The passenger would fly from Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport (London) to Terminal 2 of the IGI Airport (New Delhi). The date of flight is July 10, 2003. The flight would originate from London at 09:50 am and arrive at the Delhi at 23:00 pm. The Boeing 747 (400-seat) aircraft would accommodate the passenger in the First Class. One meal would be served during the course of this flight. The rate quoted by the airline is GBP 747.4. This would be a non-stop flight. This is a confirmed reservation. If you wish to opt for another carrier for your client, you can change the information fed by you by using the option Modify (in the graphic mode), else you can use the option Sell to get the booking. The commands for the cryptic mode are also the same as have been explained in the previous sections. Booking of Insurance : Your client may like to get himself insured while he is on a tour. Please proceed as follows: Click on the Insurance Booking Icon. A screen would appear before you. It would have command lines in which, you would be required to fill data. This data would have such items as the name of the passenger, date from which, insurance is required, date of end of insurance, insurance fees, etc. Feed the data in

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these command lines (be sure to fill the correct data as wrong data would not be accepted). This data would be processed by Amadeus Vista. We presume that you already have a database of insurance firms, which ought to be updated on a regular basis. The offer for insurance with the lowest possible rate would be selected first. Its data would appear on the screen as soon as you feed data. The selection for this data is done by the program on a random basis, as already explained. As already mentioned, the name of the insurance firm is AIG. The passenger is to be insured from June 23, 2003 up to July 12, 2003. The name of the passenger is Mr. R Das. This insurance is not valid in the Americas. The beneficiary of this insurance claim would be Mrs. D Das, in case of a mishap. This is a confirmed case of passenger insuranc. The firm would charge INR 760.19 plus INR 60.81 (insurance tax), which would be equivalent to INR 821. The word OK informs you that the case has been accepted by the insurance firm. This insurance has been done in Delhi. If you wish to opt for another insurance firm for your client, you can change the information fed by you. Use the Modify command in the graphic mode. If you are keen to get the booking, use the option Sell in the graphic mode. Alternatively, use the Cancel Old and Sell commands in the cryptic mode. PNR based Comprehensive Data Management : Click on the first icon on the left of the top menu bar. When you click on it, you would be able to access data of all of your clients by feeding their PNR numbers. You can also access the data of any client by feeding his or her name in the relevant command line in this utility. When you feed the PNR number of your client (or his name), you get information about all of his bookings. This data includes all the details that are relevant about the bookings of the client in question.