How to open your own travel agency from scratch. Step-by-step instructions for opening a travel agency

12.10.2019

Of course, if you do not have the necessary funds and you cannot open a travel agency, then you have an excellent chance to try your hand at tourism. Moreover, regardless of whether you are a beginner or an experienced tourism manager. This article will talk about.

At the time when I opened my travel agency, I had a competitor who worked from his home. He had his own base of regular clients (history is silent about where he acquired them), and he worked quite successfully with his clients. When I asked how he concludes his contracts, I was told that he almost “walks out into the entrance in slippers” and gives the contracts to tourists. Nevertheless, he still managed to intercept some clients.

But still, he needed to open an individual entrepreneur, enter into agreements with a numerous list of tour operators, pay taxes and pension contributions, do accounting, etc. And all this requires, as you understand, additional resources - time and money. Do you need this red tape? Another option is to work “under the table”, as some do. Which I strongly DO NOT recommend to you (there are many serious reasons for this, one of them is the article “tax evasion,” but this is not even the worst thing). But I have a much better, simpler, more profitable offer for you, and this is what it is.

How to open a travel agency at home

What do you even need to open a travel agency at home? Everything is very simple - you need a computer, a phone, a printer and an Internet connection.

Fortunately for us, today a unique service has appeared, which was approved by our President V.V. Putin. And now in the field of tourism services and legal advice, you can be officially employed. Deductions will be made for you pension fund, pay taxes, and, at any time, you can get yourself a 2NDFL certificate.

What kind of service is this anyway?

I'm talking about a service like workle (link to resource https://www.workle.ru). After registration, you will be given a short presentation in which they will tell you how to work at workle.

If you already have experience in tourism, great! This means you already have your own customer base. Then you can earn a good commission from the tours you sell. And it will be more than what they offer you at the travel agency (about 8%). If you do not have experience in tourism, then do not despair! Workle has you covered and has created free materials and courses to help you master this craft quickly. And to test your knowledge, you will be given special tests, after which you will no longer doubt your knowledge and will be able to start practicing.

Moreover, you will have career growth. The more tours you sell, the higher your commission will become. Plus, workle has its own system of rewarding users and bonuses for the “best user”. Just think how many advantages you get from such a service:

you don’t have any paperwork, you don’t need to “reconcile debit with credit”, everyone does it for you;
you are officially employed, payments to the pension fund and taxes are made for you, you can receive a 2NDFL certificate (for example, for a loan or visa);
you do not depend on anyone, you work for yourself and at the same time you do not need to go to work in the morning, you can work where you want or where it is convenient for you;
you don’t need to rent your office and pay employees for work, this significantly reduces your costs;
you receive a larger commission than working for an agency;
you have career growth, thanks to which you increase your income, you don’t need to be someone’s relative, flatter your boss, etc., everything depends only on you;
you do not have any risks, you do not risk your funds and property (in the case of an individual entrepreneur);
you have the opportunity to improve your skills thanks to the courses that you will find on the service;
you don’t need to fulfill your sales plan, you earn and work as much as you need;
you can use this service as additional income, etc.

And many other advantages that you can get by working in the workle system. Plus, I will give you several Skype consultations that will help you: negotiate correctly, attract tourists from the Internet, and many other useful tools that will make you a good tourism manager. I will do all this completely free of charge if you join my team at workle.

To do this you need to click on the link https://www.workle.ru/?code=ACADA5D3 and register on the site. After registration, you need to write to info@site, and indicate in the subject line “I joined your team at workle”, and write your skype username. After verification, I will send you a Skype invitation and we will discuss a time convenient for you.

I hope we answered your question how to open a travel agency at home.

I wish you have a great day and big sales!

Develop your personal qualities. To become a successful travel agent, you must be sociable, confident and have good internet skills. You must be able to convince clients that you are offering them the best best vacation, whatever it can be.

Be bold and adventurous. Part of your job may involve selecting and exploring sometimes dangerous and exotic locations.
Sharpen your communication skills. Your work involves not only field research, but also office duties where you will have to communicate frequently by phone or email. Your level of success depends on your ability to communicate with other people.
Pay attention to detail. Each person has their own perception of the ideal vacation. Make sure everything from the curtains to the air conditioning on the bus is up to standard, and your customers will return to you again and again.
Stay organized. You will be dealing with dozens of different routes at the same time. The ability to keep everything in order and meet deadlines will lead you to success.
Make useful connections. To make money, you need clients. Offer your services to friends and family when it comes to travel and travel agencies. Start making connections today.

Travel a lot. You cannot sell a product well that you are not familiar with. Traveling will help you see things through your clients' eyes and prepare you for unexpected challenges.

The ability to present information first-hand is priceless. Clients are more interested in first-hand advice, be it questions about service, accommodation or geographical features. For this reason, many travel agents receive a discount when traveling (after all, for example, hotels benefit from being recommended).
Knowledge of at least one foreign language will greatly simplify the work.

Check out the data. Before starting your business, familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the market in which you intend to operate.

Become an expert in a particular field. To help your business thrive, you must become a local expert. Have you ever wandered through the bazaars of Istanbul? Or cracked coconuts in the Mekong Delta? Choose a region close to your liking.

You can include in the list of services visits to specific geographical locations, cruise and group tours, tours based on price level (from luxury to the cheapest and most affordable), certain group tours specialized in hobbies or lifestyle (for example, for vegetarians) .

A travel agency is considered a relatively easy business, even if it is run by a beginner in this field. By opening a business as a franchise () or on your own, you can grab your market share even with a superficial analysis of the competition. But advertising and thinking through a system for working with a client to return them is a significant part of the costs.

Choosing the scope of work of a travel agency

There are two areas of tourism services:

tour operators;
travel agents.

The former's job is to deal organizational issues travel:

Reservation of tickets in one or two directions for specific periods;
Hotel or hotel reservations;
Delivery of goods and escort of tourists to their destination;
Organization of excursions;
Additional services.

It is obvious that operators are large-scale businesses that often cannot withstand competition. Another thing is travel agents. Their work includes:

Sale of ready-made services;
Cooperation with tour operators;
Communication between tourists and tour operators;
Providing discounts to tourists.

Travel agencies may well be a one-person business, which is why the investment required is significantly less compared to opening a tour operator company.

Opening an independent company

The simplest agency format is an independent company. Usually this is an enterprise of two people and a visiting accountant. It is enough for a travel agency to:

Develop a logo and corporate identity;
Establish connections with suitable tour operators;
Select an office;
Hire employees;
Run advertising.

Depending on the size of the city, you can do it on your own and periodically invite an accountant. The manager, who is also the manager of the company, receives calls, registers tours and controls the trips of tourists, being in touch with the tour operator.

Opening a franchise company

The work of a franchise organization is the registration of a company according to the template of a large-scale network business. The peculiarity of a franchise company is that the entrepreneur enters into an agreement with a travel network and acts according to the agreement. A quick start and network connections provide easier profits, but at the same time they limit independence of action - everything, right down to the design of the office and the course of advertising, is subject to the contract.

Despite the limited choice in doing business, using a franchise network is convenient and often the right decision.

The advantages are too obvious and suitable for beginners in the field:

The company immediately has a brand that does not need to be spent or thought through, which means that the company is easy to recognize, and it already has a certain trust among clients;
The travel agency will immediately have promotional materials for advertising, and this is also a significant part of the costs that can be avoided by using a franchise brand;
The network provides software for registering trips, which facilitates and automates the process;
The company will always have online information support if questions arise.

If you choose a franchise, the chain usually has courses that you can take before registering as a business, which is useful if you need to learn about the pitfalls of the business.

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

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

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

Opening a profitable travel agency from scratch

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

What do you need to open a travel agency?

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

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

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

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How to open a travel agency from scratch and succeed

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Opening a travel agency in a third world country

Business idea: opening a travel company in one of the third world countries. Who is it suitable for: everyone. Necessary resources: premises in which the company will be located; qualified guides who speak foreign languages.

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

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

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

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

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

How to get started

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

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

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

How much does it cost?

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

Staff:

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

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

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

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

Opening a travel agency

Develop a plan

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

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

Define a Niche

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

Create connections

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

Travel agency profit

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

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

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

How to open a franchise travel agency

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

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

How to open a tourism business

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to become a travel agent

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

Business idea: opening a travel agency from scratch

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

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

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

How to become a tour operator

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

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

How to open a travel company without starting capital

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

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

How to open a travel agency working with corporate clients

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

Responsibilities

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

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

Nature corporate model business is such that many services may be required with very short notice.

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

Potential clients

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

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

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

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

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

Before you open a travel agency you need to know:

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

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

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

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

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

Detailed business plan for a travel agency and travel agency:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Not a little important factor, when choosing an operator, there will be his time in the tourism services market, as well as customer trust and, of course, reputation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel agency

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

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

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

In addition, according to Art. 4.1 of Law N 132-FZ organizations carrying out excursion service on the territory of the Russian Federation for no more than 24 consecutive hours, are not required to have financial security in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

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

According to the provisions of the Federal Law of May 22, 2003 N 54-FZ “On the Application cash register equipment When making cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards, organizations and individual entrepreneurs carrying out cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards are required to use cash register equipment included in the State Register. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs , in accordance with the procedure determined by the Government of the Russian Federation, can carry out cash payments and (or) payments using payment cards without using cash registers in the case of providing services to the population, provided that they issue the appropriate strict reporting forms (clause 2 of article 2 of Federal Law No. 54-FZ).

A tourist voucher is a strict reporting form, and its form is approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 9, 2007 N 60n “On approval of the form of strict reporting form.”

Forms of strict reporting forms approved before the entry into force of the Government of the Russian Federation Decree No. 359 of May 6, 2008 “On the procedure for making cash payments and (or) settlements using payment cards without the use of cash register equipment” are used by organizations and individual entrepreneurs providing to the population such services for which these forms are approved by orders of the Ministry of Finance of Russia.

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

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

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

M. R. Zabelina

Auditing company LLC "INSEI"

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In Europe and America, people have long been refusing the services of large agencies and companies in favor of independent consultants. Similar trends are observed in our country.

Becoming a tour operator is an opportunity to create an excellent launching pad for further development own business.

What attracts people to this work? High salaries, constant travel... To many, the life of a travel agent seems like a real fairy tale. But at the same time, almost no one dares to take any decisive steps towards fulfilling their dreams. Don't want to be one of them? Then this article is for you!

Step 1. Training

If you are interested in how to become a tour operator, you first need to figure out where and how you will undergo training.

There are two options here: regular colleges and universities, as well as special operator training schools.

The first option is attractive because you will study in depth all disciplines related to tourism and hospitality and gain a huge base of theoretical knowledge. However, it will take several years to complete the entire course of study. Alternative – distance learning. Actually, in the very educational institution you will appear 2-3 times a year, and the rest of the time you can use to prepare the ground for further work.

If you want to get the most useful practical information and start working as soon as possible, it would be more logical to enroll in a special operator training school. Here you will learn how to become a tour operator, get general idea about tourist destinations, sales and reservation systems, marketing, etc.

Step 2: Obtain Certification

Working as a tour operator is impossible without obtaining certification. For your future clients, this will be proof of your competence and deep knowledge of the specifics of your activity. Consequently, they will trust you much more.

As a rule, relevant certificates can be obtained at the place of study. But some people turn to CLIA International, which offers well-known and respected certification programs in the travel industry.

Step 3. Obtaining a license

If you want to have your own travel agency, it is better to register your business on legal entity(CJSC, LLC, etc.). But for those who want to become a travel agent (that is, an intermediary between a travel agency and its clients), it will be enough to register as individual entrepreneur– PBOYUL. To obtain a license, you will need to pay a state fee of 1,300 rubles.

You should be aware that the sales license and pre-booking of air travel are issued separately. Certification conditions are dictated by Federal Aviation Regulations. At the same time, certain requirements are imposed on the premises, personnel, security and reservation systems. If you intend to sell not only travel packages, but also air tickets, you will need to enter into an agreement with the airline and obtain this certificate.

When deciding to become a travel agent, it is very important to choose the right OKVED codes. The most commonly used code is 63.30 - “Activities of travel agencies.” In addition, it is advisable to apply for inclusion in the All-Russian Register of Travel Agencies.

Step 4. Selecting a tour operator company

Perhaps this is the most important stage. A travel agent can independently choose which of the many operators to cooperate with. When choosing, you should take into account the size of the remuneration, the company’s reputation in the market and ease of work.

An important question that almost everyone who is interested in becoming a travel agent faces is: “Where to look for these same operators?” The easiest way to do this is by visiting specialized tourism fairs, exhibitions, etc. It is best to “catch your luck” in Moscow, where similar events are held annually (MITT, MITF, Intourmarket, Otdykh). Hundreds of representatives gather here various companies and organizations. As they say, there is plenty to choose from. In addition, you can visit similar regional exhibitions.

A variety of conferences and fairs are also held in workshop format by professional travel publications (Tour Business, Banco, Turinfo, Travel Expert consulting group, etc.). The atmosphere at a workshop is usually calmer and more business-like than at exhibitions. There are more opportunities to meet partners, discuss important issues and get ready for work.

Step 5. Conclusion of an agreement

But now we get to the most important thing. How to become a travel agent? Once you have decided on the choice of tour operator, you will need to sign an agency agreement. According to the terms of such a document, you will receive a reward for each tour sold. The size of the reward may vary, but on average it is about 10-15% of the cost of the tour itself. If in the future you establish yourself well in the eyes of the tour operator and successfully sell tours, the percentage you receive from each transaction may increase.

In addition, partners of travel agencies that are part of agency networks (for example, Kuda.ru or the Last Minute Travel Chain of stores) receive an increased commission. Due to powerful corporate support, agencies that are part of such networks (which, by the way, are not so easy to get into) have the opportunity to deduct a fairly large percentage of their income.

Step 6. Advertising

Let's say you have already found a suitable company and entered into an agreement. Done: now you are a tour operator in Italy, France, Greece or Russia. It would seem that everything is going well, but... But no, for some reason in a few weeks you managed to sell only a few trips. And then to my friends. This is where the lack of advertising of your services comes into play.

First of all, we would recommend that you pay attention to the numerous publications, catalogs and applications that publish tourism advertising. Of course, standing out among hundreds and thousands of other offers is not easy. Therefore, first of all, you need to decide on your target audience.