INTERVIEW,THE DAWN OF TRAVEL INDUSTRY
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
Miriam Beard
“During economic recession, the travel and hospitality industry faces the challenges, goes through the highs and lows. However, the concept of recession is in our minds and there is forever growth and progress in this field once a company understands to provide the matchless services, maintain a strong and stabilized large network and move forward with the perpetual force of survival and revival accompanied with modern changes,” Says Gaurav Vij.
Gaurav Vij, Manager at Akbar Holidays, has been handling wide range verticals pertaining to the travel trade like ticketing, hotel booking, VISA requirements, preparing itineraries and specializes in providing holiday packages to the clients. The 25-year-old manager has worked with a variety of travel agencies, including Cox & Kings, Aman Travels and currently has been working with Akbar Holidays.
Recently, he shared his views and spoke about the future of Travel and Hospitality industry and described the in-depth process for offering the services and maintaining relationships with the hoteliers, travel agents and clients. Being in a limelight, he emphasized on the importance of career related to travel industry and what it has in store for the young generation.
1. What is a travel industry and what is the main job involved in a travel industry?
A travel industry is a wide industry under whose umbrella are lying various verticals. Today, with diversification in each and every field, the travel and tourism industry is spreading its wings in each and every direction. The travel industry is continuously involved in providing services to the customers like ticket booking, hotel reservation, route planning, suggesting the holiday packages to the clients, providing bookings to the hoteliers, building cordial relationships with the client, the agent and the hotelier, there by completing the three way chain of providing services to the clients, revenue generation in the concerned organizations and making a record of the potential customers in future.
The main job involved in a travel industry is to provide services to the clients, building up cordial relations with the client, hotelier and the agent.
2. What is the in-depth process by which services are provided to the end customers by a travel agency?
Well, it is a long procedure to describe how services are provided to our clients. In the process of offering services to the clients, one must take into account that the clients are always looking for something top of the line. They have desires and demands; they are directionless and need guidance to travel the maps either for leisure or for business networking. Today, the travel industry aims at providing luxurious stay, modern facilities and innovative, exceptional and individualized services to the clients and thereby making them feel the comfort, a home from home and the best of both the worlds. It becomes crucial for any travel agent to cater to the needs of the clients. Generally, the clients make calls and enquire about a particular destination, the procedure to reach there, the services provided, the kind of hotels and the cost involved. As soon as he is acquainted with all these bare facts and the booking is confirmed, the following process is initiated by the travel agent which leads to a fair and square deal.
· Planning routes: Providing the accurate and relevant information pertaining to a particular destination plays a pivotal role. It aids the client a lot as he gets the full-fledged knowledge of arriving at one’s place in an easier and quicker manner. Information about a particular destination can be like local transport, maps, directions, weather conditions, and other useful destination plans.
· Preparing itineraries and providing the accommodation details: An itinerary is a guidebook to your journey, which outlines the list of places to visit. Suppose, a client wants to visit the Pink City Jaipur, then the itinerary made would incorporate all the details of the various places in Jaipur, the minutest details regarding how each day would be spent there, the different places to be visited, hotels’ category, packages available, transportation medium to commute, the arrival and departure time at hotel, other terms and conditions containing both inclusion as well as exclusion of taxes and so on. The accommodation details of a particular hotel are provided while keeping in mind what exactly the client is looking for. Is he looking for a budget hotel or the luxurious one? Anyone can feel the spectacular comfort of the luxurious rooms, plasmas screen televisions, white marble bathrooms and best view to escape from the dull and monotonous routine. However, each person has his own budget constraint and we have to provide details following this very important criterion in mind.
· Computing thefare and fees: The odyssey to different place starts with the collection of money. The client has a free hand in consulting various other agencies for the amount he is required to pay and if he finds the amount charged by the agency to be fair enough, then the booking is confirmed.
· The best way to convince the client regarding the services you offer is to present the best of both the worlds and then the ball is in your court and there is no mighty power who can cancel the deal.
· After the customer is being convinced, a travel agent prepares the invoice and issues the same to the client. The payment can be made both the ways. Either the travel agency accepts the payment before the client prepares for his departure or the client can make the payment at the hotel at the time of his departure and way back to his own place.
3. Once the travel ticket is booked, what are the other steps to be pursued to keep your customer and the hotelier informed on?
Once the travel ticket is booked, it becomes obligatory on the part of the travel agent to call up the customer and follow up certain important issues. Generally, a hotel voucher is provided to both the client as well as to the hotelier, which keeps both the parties in the clear picture regarding the confirmation of the booking. The hotel voucher contains the number of rooms the client is allotted, the client’s name, hotel’s name, address, meal plan, arrival and departure time and such other important details. The Visa or the passport requirements are cleared up. Other related information like the travel timings, transportation connections, cost, time and other availability, medical requirements and so on are taken care of honestly.
4. What personality traits do you think a person should have to enter into this field?
I opine that a person should possess self-control while entering into this field. This field requires tremendous flexibility and adaptability to adjust to wide range environments. If you reject the food, don’t believe in following the customs, afraid of other people’s religion, avoid meeting people and are quite introvert, then the profession is certainly not for you. Then, it’s a wild goose chase to think of travel industry because this industry is meant for those who want to get down to the brass tacks and go the extra mile to provide services to the clients. Therefore, a person should be an active listener, flexible, adaptable, co-operative, concerned about others, persistent and should be able to bear stress level, which mounts unexpectedly and falls down lightly as air. You have to give a knee jerk reaction and keep your chin up in mounting pressure during the peak season.
5. As a manager, how would you contribute to the productivity of the organization and maintaining a proper cash flow into the organization keeping the budget constraints also in mind?
It is quite important that every organization should consider the importance of providing services to the clients and thereby generating revenue in the organization. If there is a proper and timely collection of payment from the clients, then there seems to be no problematic situations that would crop up. The sales team should focus on increasing the clients’ base in the organization, as that would bring more profit into the organization and also maintain the brand awareness in the external environment. The customers’ eyeballs are always looking for something extraordinary whenever they plan to visit a particular destination. So, we should keep in mind that their leisure pursuits or the business networking requirements are catered of honestly and truly and they should be in the clear picture, which would make them our potential customers in approaching years also. Making sure that the expenses are consistent with the budgets in hand and the payment received covers the cost of the company. By following these simple dogmatic approach, one can ensure that the productivity of the organization can be increased efficiently and the company can sustain and survive itself by strongly grappling with the downturn market also as the trade would never seem to be dull and obscure. Moreover, providing services, fulfilling your commitments, contentment among the client, agent and the hotelier are the prerequisites of any travel industry.
6. What is the scope of this industry for the students who want to enter into this industry?
The industry offers abundant jobs and it’s not like dime a dozen. One needs to develop a strong, convincing and balancing personality to enter into this field. The travel industry is booming, as there are copious number of hotels and restaurants coming up. The tourists across the world visit different parts of our country and as such the scope of job opportunities is crystal clear and would bolster the economy at towering heights. To bask in this bright sector, one needs to develop his/her personality a lot in an unshrinking way. You need to be sharp and active minded at geography and history, update yourself about the current and the past happenings in this field, need to showcase a different conception while selling your services as that are intangible and altogether should possess continuous alterations to sell your services, living up to your customers’ expectations and generate more revenue in the organization. Then, the ball is in your court.
7. In a nutshell, how would you wrap up the travel industry?
To wrap up the travel industry, I would say that the growth of travel industry is ever growing. Today, people look hotels not only for staying rather there are more and more value added services under one roof. From spas to banquets, from academy programs to conferences, from business presentations to business meetings and so on, the hotels have become one stop solution to serve wide range purposes. Consequently, there is rise and shine of the travel and hospitality sector. The authentic services and highly trained personnel in the hospitality industry can break the mould and stand to reason that this industry continuously aspires to grow. I have described my own experience but there are multifarious opportunities once you enter into this field. Develop your self to the fullest, have a thorough grasp of various geographical, historical and economical principles and facts, the requirement to be flexible, have creative bend of mind, headstrong attitude to spring into action and tremendous concern for others. Your co-operative attitude accompanied with persistence and scrupulous efforts would make you shine in this field. After acquiring a degree or a specialization course in the field pertaining to travel and tourism, aviation and hospitality, you would be groomed and acquire traits that are essential for this field.
08-Jan-2010
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