Product Design of a Travel Agency
Role of a travel agency is to perform as an intermediary between the producers and consumers of tourism services. Suppliers in tourism industry such as airlines, tourist transport operators, tour operators, hotels etc work with travel agency for distribution of their services. Tourists also avail the services of travel agency for buying the services of the major suppliers. This does not mean that the travel agencies follow the strategies of the principal suppliers for marketing purposes. They have to chalk out their own strategy for promoting themselves.
Travel agencies make effort to add value to the products/services of the major suppliers. They go for their own market research to set the target market. They have to decide on discounts or service charges and finalise their product mix as well as sales and promotional strategies.
Understanding the Market
A travel agency has to take decision which market segment to target. The prospective market needs to be properly segmented. This segmentation could be done on the basis of the motive of travel or their budget. Timing of the travel decisions or services required by the customers could also be the base of segmentation. A customer could require services like tour packages, travel consultancy, ticket booking, handle travel documents (visa, passports etc), airport transfers, hotel bookings etc.
Product Design
Travel agency business is more or less confined to sole proprietorship or partnership firms. Majority of businesses are of small level. A travel agency has to decide on the target market, determine on customer requirements and generate ideas to develop the product. One also has to do the business analysis considering costs, estimate future sales, and profit potential.
A travel agency could have product oriented or market oriented approach in the business. It could emphasise on products and services of tourism supply, disregarding customer needs. However, in a multi-player market, this approach will not work. A market oriented approach would always be better for an agency. It must look at the customer needs and accordingly design its products. Market survey has to be conducted to understand the customer needs and get information about the practices of other agencies. Only when a manager knows about market needs, he can take a decision on the product design of the company. For example, services provided to walk-in customers could be different than those offered to repeat customers.
Time Travel – The 10 Things I Would Go Back In Time & Do But Not Impregnate Eve Of Adam & Eve Fame!
My favorite science fiction theme is time travel. I’m obsessed with it. I love all the paradoxes and possibilities, specifically about going back to the past and solving mysteries or changing the present. If time travel were possible and you were allowed to go back in time, what 10 things would you do? For arguments sake, your only limits are you can not bring any physical objects from the past back with you and you can not knowingly try to change historical events. IE, You couldn’t be the father of Eve’s first child! You also can not store objects in the past and reclaim them in your present. You are allowed to carry back a digital camcorder to record things as long as you bring it back with you to the present. You can go back in time any amount of years.
The 10 Things I Would Go Back in Time and Do in No Set Order:
1. Solve Crime Mysteries: I’d secretly observe and video Lee Harvey Oswald to see if he really killed Kennedy and find out what happened to Joan Bonet & Nancy Holloway & bluesman Robert Johnson. Note, I am not allowed to change their fate as this would alter history (world events).
2. Be the first lover before they became famous of Marilyn Monroe, Sophie Loren, Raquel Welch, Jane Mansfield, Lynda Carter & Ursula Address.
3. Buy Domain Names: I could purchase internet domain names before they skyrocketed up in price and have my identity be a secret and make a lot of money when I collect in the present.
4. See and hang out with the great rock groups and legendary blues musicians before they made it big. Imagine seeing the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hendrix in Small Clubs and sharing a joint with them and seeing Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Magic Sam and other blues greats in small dives and drink with them. I’d also video everything.
5. Hang out with Babe Ruth and pitch batting practice to him & go to a 1927 Yankees game
6. Watch the lost film, Lon Chaney’s “London after Dark” and make a Camcorder shot of it.
7. Look up my beautiful ex-girlfriend before she became jaded & be her first boyfriend.
8. Spend time with my deceased father & my deceased best friend.
9. Go to Roswell and video what really happened.
10. Go to a play featuring John Wilkes Booth.