The changing travel trends have compelled several travel agents to pull-up their socks and encourage their staff to undergo the IATA/UFTAA Management training which will enable them to look at new avenues to increase profitability of their organization and to off-set the lowering of commissions by airlines which will move towards zero commission in years to come. An article written by IHCTM Director Subhash Motwani had recently appeared in one of Mumbai’s leading daily MID DAY which highlights the growing need of moving from generalization to specialization.

The emphasis of specialized training is highlighted by the achievements of students who recently completed their training at IHCTM for the IATA/UFTAA Management exam in September 2005. IHCTM students excelled once again at the IATA/UFTAA Management exams held on 11th September 2005 in Mumbai – with a 100% success and 60% of students getting distinction, the quality training offered by IHCTM will give the participants the confidence to adapt to the changing trends in the travel and tourism industry. Click here to see the extract of the IATA/UFTAA result sheet.

Survival of the Specialists

The tourism industry is growing and changing. In such a scenario, only those whose specialise will survive writes Subhash Motwani.

Tourism has seen an unprecedented boom. The spurt in the stock market and economy has given the Indian traveller a higher spending capacity - a need to not just spend their discretionary income but also keep up with the Joneses'.

With escalating fuel prices, cut throat competition has led to the elimination of the intermediaries - Click a button and take a print out of your e-ticket and you are ready to travel. Travel Agents have to think hard and think deep to change the mindset of the traveller that an agent today is not a mere intermediary but a tour consultant - a consultant who besides making your money stretching its limit can advise you beyond the regular destinations on offer. Niche marketing and specialisation is in and a travel agent who relies on tickets for his sole revenue will have to change or perish.

The BIG BOOM
The channels of distribution too have expanded - e-sites, portals, holiday packages offered by airlines, joint ventures between hotels and airlines are some of the new emerging distribution channels. And if you do not keep pace with the new age traveller and his needs you will see the boom come and go and will wonder how the escalation is global travel from and into India has not led into a proportionate growth in the levels of revenue and income of your travel agency. Even your trustworthy manager and counter staff is looking at new vistas, be it a trade tourism office, an airline BPO or one of the new airlines coming in.

How do you retain your staff? Haven't you asked more than once, if only I had the right number of people like X, Y & Companies, I could also make it big in the expanding travel and tourism industry. Who is to be blamed? - 

The traveller who no longer wants an agent, is it the company who is short of ideas or are you still in the stone age where you are still looking out for the qualified ticketing staff who knows reservations, ticketing and fare construction and nothing beyond?

Every business undergoes a transformation and the next couple of years will see major changes in the way travel business is being handled. The new era travel agent too needs to change rapidly and this can only happen by educating and upgrading your knowledge.

THE CHANGING TRENDS

The travel agency business has moved on from 9 per cent to 5 per cent and soon to zero commission on ticketing front, visas will go electronic, e-tickets will be issued by all IATA carriers by 2007, internet bookings will continue to grow and the travel agent will move on from being a multi-service provider to someone who is a specialist - a consultant who is conversant with not just the London,Paris and New York, but what special interest tours can be organised for the traveller besides the regular sights that form part of his programme.

He will be an adviser on shopping, sight seeing, hotel properties, best airline deals as well as venture into new areas including the multi-billion dollar industry such as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conference & Exhibition). He will have to learn how to use technology to complement the business rather than see it as a threat, he will have to understand administrative and accounting procedures to meet the challenges of the unlimited data he downloads fro the various suppliers, the Internet, the clients and various consolidations.

He has to learn to negotiate with various suppliers - hotels , airlines, tour operators and at the same time motivate his team to give out their best. There is just one solution to this - he has to educate himself, his team and his entire workforce to be the new breed of specialist agents, that too in a short span of 3 to 4 months as time is the essence.

This is possible and probable and amongst the alert and smart professionals this wave has begun. They have started investing in the new IATA / UFTAA Travel and Tourism Management Programme which goes beyond ticketing and fares into areas that will help them not only survive but grow and become specialists rather than be a mere spectator. The forward thinking agents are already reaping the harvest by educating themselves and their team to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Subhash Motwani is the Director of IHCTM. Reach him at subhashmotwani@rbcsgroup.com