How to Start a Travel Agency?

Starting a travel agency will be so much fun, fulfilling, and most profitable career. The start-up costs are relatively low and there are plenty of opportunities for someone with a passion to sell travel. Starting any business is not easy, but it certainly helps you if you have someone to advise you and give out a path. In the travel industry, there is a huge option to earn also the travel and tourism industry plays a major role in the country's economic development. This is because people always want or need to go to places.

There are several resources available today, anyone with a passion for travelling can easily start a travel agency. In this article, we will talk about how you can start a travel agency by following some important steps. So without any further ado, let's get started.

Find a Travel Agency Niche
Choose Your Travel Agency’s Name
Choose a Business Structure
Find Some Great Partners
Build Your Marketplace
Adapt to Your Target Market
Promote Your Company

Find a Travel Agency Niche

A niche is your friend. When you start a travel agency a niche will help you establish your brand, create your travel agency name, and navigate the world when you get to that point. Starting a travel agency without a niche is like travelling without a smartphone.

If you can confidently say that you have found a travel niche that you are passionate and knowledgeable about, then you have made a first step on the road to setting up a successful travel agency. You finding your business idea is one of the most important steps in starting a business.

Choose Your Travel Agency’s Name

Choosing a company name for any kind of business is a difficult and tricky task, so you need to take some time to do some research to come up with a creative and effective name. The company name ideas that you select for your travel agency should not only be functional, but they should be catchy and noteworthy too.

When naming your agency, you will want to sit down and give some time to think about your business’s niche; how will you make your travel agency different and how can you set yourself apart? Before you start using the name that you have selected for your travel agency, make sure that it is still available and not already in use by some other company or business.

Choose a Business Structure

A base step in your travel agency business is to create a business structure. Let’s start from the ground up. You need to decide what type of business are going to have. Your options include:

• Sole proprietor - Starting a sole proprietorship is easy. You can use your name and Social Security number to get started. You can use this information to get the permits and licenses that you need to start your business. When you are a sole proprietor, you can decide how you want to run your business. You can choose the job that you want to take. When you are a sole proprietor, you get all of the income that you make.
• Corporation - As soon as your business becomes a corporation, you gain credibility. People are more likely to work with businesses that are a corporation than those that are not. If you are going to need help financing your business, you may need to start a corporation. When you start a corporation, you can have silent partners, who will help with financing. Corporations can offer benefits for their employees, such as health insurance.
• Partnership - It is easy to set up a partnership because it is formed with an agreement between the partners. Just like it is easy to get started, it is easy to dissolve a partnership. As long as one partner is ready to stop, the partnership can change or dissolve depending on what everyone wants.
• Limited Liability Company(LLC) - It is much cheaper to start an LLC than a corporation and it still gives you plenty of the same benefits. If you have a business that has plenty of risks, you may start San LLC to protect your assets. You can control your business, the way you want. Many believe that having an LLC behind your business name can make your business more official. People are more likely to work with you because your business looks more serious.

Find Some Great Partners

It makes a great value add for the customer making the booking, and the business involved gets their product in front of a large market. As travels fast in the industry, your travel partners will refer clients to your business once you have earned their trust. In return, you will do the same for them. You need to realise what type of tourism business you want to operate and what your objectives are for setting up the right partnership.

Your travel partner network needs to be a good fit for your business, and have values that align with your own. For the active participation of all parties within your travel partner network to continue, each must see some direct benefits from the relationship. You never want to end up in a situation where one is doing all the work and another enjoys the benefits.

Build Your Marketplace

Nowadays people travel a lot around this world to see the unseen and to know the unknown. As a marketplace owner, you work as a middleman and your marketplace brings lower costs to the customers by letting them purchase directly from the sellers. Travel and tourism startups can only function if they are aware of their marketplace. It is natural to think that the marketplace can get thousands of users. It is the main task of a successful marketplace to facilitate communication between the suppliers and the customers. Understanding the trends that are out there, can allow marketplace owners to decide the best tools and tactics to use for that the company’s objectives.

Adapt to Your Target Market

To develop a successful marketing technique you need to define your target audience. This is important for new businesses looking to establish their presence within the market. Analyzing the market is also about researching competitors to-be. Look out for other travel agencies, who their audience are and how they are managing them. Different regions and different suppliers may have varying profit margins. First, you have to know the situation on the market, what deals are presented, and how you are being ranked compared to your competitor travel agencies.

Promote Your Company

• Instead of trying to compete with competitors, focus on pointing out the unique benefits of your service.
• Travellers of all age groups are using social media networks where they talk about travel products, share experiences, or express their preferences. Use images, videos, questions, or statuses to promote and motivate potential clients to follow you.
• Suggesting additional products on top of a standard package is the most straightforward method of increasing your revenue per customer. Explore and test to find out what your customers want, and use travel agency software to easily track and manage special offers and complementary products.
• Combine different products into a unique travel experience. Create a package and try to offer a better price by setting a hotel, flight, and activity together.
• One way to be a successful travel company is to establish your business in a niche market. The travel niche doesn’t need to be complicated or rare – but the more unique it is, the better. Niche travel means you are selling something that no one else sells, and that your product is different in some way.
• The internet has changed every aspect of life and it has also affected how travellers book trips and how agencies can sell packages. Your customers can book 24/7 because the system receives and processes the reservations automatically.
• A good way to stay ahead of your competitors is by offering the best possible prices on a worldwide range of high-quality travel plans.
• Promote your business in Social media, when it comes to travelling, social media is the best option. Apart from that digital marketing strategies can also help you in achieving your goal.

Conclusion

While starting your travelling agency, you need to understand what can set your business apart from other travel agencies, and what you can offer that others cannot offer to the clients. If you are still in the planning stage of starting your travel agency, you need to keep in mind and follow all these steps. As everything is opening up once again after a big break because of Covid-19, the travel industry is once again back in action.

FAQs

Is tourism a big industry in India?

Travel and tourism is one of the biggest industries in India.

How much does the travel industry contribute to the Indian economy?

The tourism industry contributes over $247 billion to the Indian economy.

Which are the most popular travel agencies in India?

The most popular travel agencies in India are:

• Cox & Kings
• Make My Trip
• Yatra.com
• Goibibo
• Travelguru