CU-BBA-SEM-V-Travel Agency and Tour Operations-Second Draft

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SEMESTER-V TRAVEL AGENCY AND TOUR OPERATIONS

First Published in 2021 All rights reserved. No Part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from Chandigarh University. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this book may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. This book is meant for educational and learning purpose. The authors of the book has/have taken all reasonable care to ensure that the contents of the book do not violate any existing copyright or other intellectual property rights of any person in any manner whatsoever. In the event, Authors has/ have been unable to track any source and if any copyright has been inadvertently infringed, please notify the publisher in writing for corrective action. 2 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

CONTENT UNIT - 1: History of Travel Agency and Tour Operation ...................................................... 4 UNIT 2 - Growth and Development of Travel Agency and Tour Operation in India ............ 22 UNIT 3 - Travel Intermediaries in India .............................................................................. 38 UNIT 4 – Travel Agents and Tour Operators....................................................................... 48 UNIT 5 – TAAI and IATO.................................................................................................. 58 UNIT 6 – Factors Responsible for Growth of Travel Sector ................................................ 75 UNIT 7 – The Indian Travel Agents and Tour Operators- An Overview............................ 106 UNIT 8 – Forms and Types of Travel Operation ............................................................... 120 UNIT 9 – Components and Elements of Tour Operation ................................................... 138 UNIT 10 - International Conventions on Travel and Tour Operations................................ 148 UNIT 11 – Linkages and Arrangement With Other Tourism Components ......................... 163 UNIT 12 – Travel Information and Counselling ................................................................ 186 UNIT 13 – Documentation and Ticketing.......................................................................... 199 UNIT 14 – Itinerary Preparation and Tour Packaging........................................................ 207 3 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT - 1: HISTORY OF TRAVEL AGENCY AND TOUR OPERATION STRUCTURE 1.0 Learning Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Evolution of Travel Agency 1.3 Early Stage of Travel Agency Business 1.4 Landmark Period 1.5 Period of Innovation 1.6 Intra- Continental Tour 1.7 Inter - Continental Tour 1.7.1 Second Generation Thomas Cook Business 1.7.2 The Great Episode of John Mason Cook 1.7.3 Merger and Acquisition 1.7.4 Technology Driven Period 1.8 Summary 1.9 Keywords 1.10 Learning Activity 1.11 Unit End Questions 1.12 References 1.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Illustrate the evolution of travel agency business in the world.  Explain the contribution of Thomas Cook to the growth of world travel agency business.  Explain the comprehensive overview of contemporary travel practice since Thomas Cook travel agency.  Analyse the various stages of turning points in the history of global travel agency business. 4 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1.1 INTRODUCTION The use of the term travel trade dates back from the early years of the 19th century, but this should not obscure the fact that what we describe today as travel trade (travel agency and tour operation business) was taking place much earlier in history. Throughout the history, there were travel intermediaries who helped the merchants travelling for trade and others who travelled for religious purposes. Let us trace the historical development in travel trade – in world as well as in India. In 1670, the Grand Tour concept was developed especially for educational purposes. Another major development took place in the year 1730. Health experts suggested that seawater is found to be useful to cure many diseases. The result was that many resorts around the English Coast were established to attract visitors seeking to cure themselves by seawater. In 1815, steamboat services were introduced from London to Gravesend. One effect of this development was the construction in all major resorts of a pier to accommodate the vessels on their arrival. In 1820, European cultural centres were opened to British travellers. The rail link was introduced between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. In 1838, Peninsular and Oriental (P&O) Steam Company introduced steamship services to India and Far East The business of travel agencies has soared high in recent years. The booming industry has generated enormous income and employment opportunities. While studying travel agencies and its development and in different stages, learners can be enlightened largely in gaining knowledge and ideas. Therefore, it is essential to have an insight of the origin of travel agency business in the world. In this unit, we will study the history of travel agencies and the early stages of travel agencies. We will also discuss the landmark period of innovation, intra and inter- continental tour, second generation Thomas Cook Business, The Great Episode of John Mason Cook, Merger and Acquisition, Technology Driven Period. 1.2 EVOLUTION OF TRAVEL AGENCY In the beginning, travel agencies were in a state of experimentation and community help. Gradually, the business grew up in such a scale that competitive travel companies around the world forged into the sophisticated business. The business worked as a third party between the travel services mainly to cater holidays to the client who is away from home. Travel agencies made all possible efforts to ensure the service quality for enhancing the level of satisfaction of the client. In practice, travel agencies are mainly driven by the needs of the customers. It is very strange to see that the travel agency business in those periods operated and made reasonable profit in the midst of certain risks such as confirmation of hotel rooms, security of customers, quality of food, border formalities, political system, ethnic difference, long travel 5 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

time, language, etc. Despite the confrontation of all obstacles, travel to others as other places is a status symbol of society that people pursued in Europe to undertake travel. Severaltravel- simplified mechanisms have been successfully experimented and proved the best options to today in the travel world. Thomas is credited to have recurrent interests among people in England to plan. On June 9, 1841, a 32-year-old cabinetmaker, evangelist, and the Baptist's seller walked as the Thomas Cook of home in Market Harborough to the nearby Leachéster to live a Temperance meeting. It was a milestone day in the annual world travel history. A former Baptist preacher, Thomas Cook was a religious man who had a firm opinion that most Victorian social problems revolved around the consumption of alcohol and that the lives of working people would be significantly improved if people preferred to not drinking alcohol. They can be better educated. As he walked along the way to Leicester, he later remembered his thoughts, \"the thought suddenly had my mind about the feasibility of using the great powers of railways and locomotion for promoting this social reform.\" The introduction of pleasure recess and continental travel around the world through Thomas Cook and other contemporary travel agencies formed a new horizon in international tourism. Travel together with hotel maps, circular notes, credit cards, prepayment of all required services for visitors were from travel findings of those periods. The introduction of pleasure recess and continental travel around the world through Thomas Cook and other contemporary travel agencies formed a new horizon in international tourism. Although certain changes have been made today, the origin of the concept has certain significance in the study of the history of travel business in the world. To make the journey comfortable and relaxed, he designed a creative method to involve a special train hired from the British railway to transfer his friends from Leicester to Loughborough and back to attend a rally. The tour gave birth to the idea of all-inclusive packages. Thomas Cook was so articulate and enterprising that the trip covers a band to fulfil typical hams, a bicycle of Hams, as well as the lunch, a picnic lunch of hams as well as the afternoon tea for refreshment. During the next three summers, Thomas Cook arranged a series of travels between Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, and Birmingham on behalf of Local Temperance societies and Sunday schools. Thousands of people had their first rail experience because of the experiment and soon Thomas Cook expanded his operation in the country. This turnaround has laid the foundation of his future travel business. He later described this period as one of 'enthusiastic philanthropy' since, beyond the printing of posters and handbills. Maybe it was the grace of the Almighty that caused the coincidence of the existence of two giant travel companies in the world. The opening of American Express, a travel agency in the United States in 1841 brought about a significant change in the system of banking transactions. Company equivalent to Thomas Cook Travel Agency and both in the early days 6 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

of doing business on their own continent. During the early years, American Express focused on the freight business and gradually entered tourism and other financial services sectors. That is to say the most important and regular customers are the banks. The core business of the business revolves around the supply and delivery of small packages such as stock certificates, banknotes, currencies and other financial instruments for banks throughout the United States. The company places top priority on smaller parcel service and larger freight. During this period, the company has turned to other financial and travel solutions. One of the first travel agencies was Cox & King. Which has a special distinction of having the longest established travel company in the world? The company was drafted for making travel arrangements for the regiment in India. The company did not have diversified travel business as Thomas Cook used to operate in the beginning period. Cox and Kings were founded in 1758 when it was appointed as the general agent of the Indian Infantry Regiment Order of Lord Ligonier. The first German Travel agencies in the line of modern travel agencies were known as immigration agencies. These agencies were engaged in booking ship’s passages and sometimes group journeys from a collection point to the point of embarkation. The oldest of such agencies was Reisebüro Rominger in Stuttgart in 1842. This agency subsequently extended its activities to the whole range of travel services in Europe. To make travelling simple for the individual, the concept of tickets for means of transport were introduced and issued by these larger agencies in Europe. 1.3 EARLY STAGE OF TRAVEL AGENCY BUSINESS The successful implementation of the tour marked the beginning of creating a modern travel agency in the world. In 1845, Thomas Cook went on his first full-fledged tour inside Britain with a few more recreational activities in the package. The aim is to improve the value of the packaging and create a certain appeal. This train is coming to Liverpool from Leicester, Nottingham and Derby is the first trip to make some profit. As early as the 1880s, a number of tour companies from Germany had been recognized to sell train tickets. However, the railway the government has made no provision to provide commissions to those who agents mean agents who book train tickets for passengers with increasingly higher additional service charges printed fare of the ticket. For example, in 1910, a well-organized tour agent in Germany issued tickets for a round trip on Lake Victoria and organized a trip from Cairo via Aswan to Khartoum. Therefore, the ticket includes porter fees and the age of the tent to walk at the origin of the Nile. In 1851, Thomas Cook made the trip at the great Hyde Park exhibition for 150,000 Yorkshire people and the Midlands. In 1855, Thomas Cook's first continental tour was conducted. He himself made two group visits from Harwich to Antwerp, then Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and finally, in Paris for the International Exhibition. 1.4 LANDMARK PERIOD 7 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Thomas Cook & Son Ltd was benefited from the post-world war holiday boom, which witnessed one million British nationals travelling abroad by 1950. The company set up a Business Travel Service (BTA) and renovated the holiday camp at Prestatyn (which had opened shortly before the outbreak of war). Although Cook has remained the largest and most successful company in the industry, but its dominance in the ravel market was subsequently being contested by the emergence of new travel firms. Those travel companies were able to quote lower prices than the Cook’s package prices and constructed a new strategy to offer cheap package deals. It is considered the first challenge to the Cook’s unrivalled travel business in Europe. It was a big turnaround for Thomas Cook Company in 1965 when the company's net profits exceeded £1 million for the first time. That was remarkable in achieving a huge turnover and profits when there was an increasingly cutthroat competition. Subsequently after, the new rival travel agencies in the organized package tour market chased the Thomas Cook travel agency and company trailed behind them in terms of market share and profit. The vision of Thomas Cook to open potential areas of business opportunities was beyond the imagination of his competitors. By the end of 1850, having already visited Wales, Scotland and Ireland were explored by Thomas Cook towards the Last of the year 1850 and he gained confidence to conduct inbound tours in Europe. He could not succeed in the mission of bringing foreign trips to Europe, the United States, and the Holy Land in the first attempt. He shafted his business expansion plan and got motivated with the Suggestion of Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace, persuaded Thomas Cook to devote himself to bringing workers from Yorkshire and the Midlands to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Thomas Cook with a lot of determination and enthusiasm grabbed the untapped opportunity. There was no such ways that could communicate about the concept of package to the potential buyers or takers. He himself envisioned the printing of newspaper named as Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion Advertiser. He had sleepless nights from June to October to produce newspaper that would give platform to promote tours. He finally made the effort to write exclusive page on various places of tourist interests around the world. By the end of the season, Thomas Cook had taken 150,000 people to London to participate in the exhibition and 3000 children were transferred to London to take part in the merry making function from Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby. With the cooperation of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Railway, Thomas Cook began to issue circular tickets (in both English and French) between Paris and the Alps. Money switching was simply an unimaginable aspect in the nineteenth century. There is no point of discussing the issue of punctuality and safety of transferring money. It remained vicinity, which was now not explored with the aid of the travel organizations citing the purpose of impossibility and unacceptability. The innovative works of the American Express Company have eliminated all uncertainties and threats tied up with the difficulty in 1882 when it took initiative through launching a cash order enterprise in the USA. The noble thinking was clinched in the USA market and humans were greater dependable with the money order scheme launched by the American Express Company. This proved to be an 8 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

immediate success. The agreement of enterprise transactions and charge by the clients had been the primary nature of these transactions. Propelled by means of the large success of money order business, the agency introduced the world’s first traveller’s cheque in 1891. The traveller’s cheque acquired prevalent and appreciated all throughout the humans in the USA cities. The volume of commercial enterprise completed the annual sale up to $6 million within a decade since the notion used to be introduced. Overwhelm success in money order business and traveller’s cheque opened much scope for the company to establish its network amongst foremost European Banks. This expansion design made the business enterprise to achieve visibility in entire European market. The success in freight coupled with the financial transactions helped the agency to capture the large untapped tour market in Europe together with Paris in 1895 and in London in 1896, American Express had multiplied to Southampton, Liverpool, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Naples and Genoa by the end of 1910. Initially foreign exchange transactions had been performed in France in 1895, the company’s distant places banking operation took location in 1904 when the Rotterdam workplace opened in the Netherlands, and the place the company started conducting industrial banking services. 1.5 PERIOD OF INNOVATION Naturally, meeting customer needs is the only motto of Thomas Cook Travel Agency; the company launched a system that provided hotel coupons to customers in 1868. Hotel system Vouchers primarily provide convenience for clients and accommodation. Service provider. This sublime idea effectively reduces the cash payment procedure is cumbersome, adding a trust and confidence of our customers. Home Suppliers greatly benefit from exchanging hotel coupons. Guest rooms and other related services such as food, entertainment, transportation, etc. Ultimately, the company made the system more familiar. The hotelier intends to obtain a fixed room rate at the selected price of Hotels in the main European cities. Thomas' significant contribution Cook's introduction of circular notes greatly reduced a lot of tension and risk. So, at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, the circular concept was successfully launched. The introduction of the circular was in 1874, during which the company had achieved greater influence in Europe and the United States. This Cook's New York circular is considered the invention of the world traveller’s check. Increasing industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century increased the income and consumption per capita of the people. They have created reasonable level larger middle-class communities with large amounts of disposable income and determined to travel regularly. Thomas Cook had the opportunity to design more types of tours Directed to a certain class of people. While Thomas Cook was preparing Leverage, the UK outbound tourism market and set sales targets Custom travel packages for the growing middle class Better stay and stay. There are many middle-class clients. Visits to Switzerland and Italy, the company moves away from work Class clients to middle class clients. Add some functions to these places; 9 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Switzerland is famous for health activities. The pleasant climate and Italy was once the focus of religion and for educational purposes. Therefore, it is recommended to Innkeepers and hotel owners to provide affordable rooms and meals. His professional business relationship with the hotelier is very friendly. In addition, in a short period, it is friendlier than most popular hotels. The destination is happy to honour your reservation and payment. Thomas Cook's relationship with the hotel is getting stronger. Created two wonderful redemption procedures, one is a hotel voucher, the other is the other is a circular. The circular can easily be exchanged for local currency. First was introduced in 1868 to help the client pays for accommodation and food at the destination. The latter is a circular from 1874. What is the burden on travellers to meet emergency expenses? Like purchases, tips, extra services, etc.The innovation period is called A glorious period in the history of the modern travel agency business the world. Thomas Cook Travel Document Innovation American Express allows travellers to plan a safe and Travel hassle-free and ensures service providers provide quality and Provide passengers with a home away from home service. 1.6 INTRA-CONTINENTAL TOUR Thomas Cook continued to expand his business in the UK butdetermined to develop it in Europe too. International Exhibition of 1855 first held in Paris; Thomas took this opportunity trying to persuade the company that controls canal traffic to allow him in. However, they refused to cooperate with him; the only route he can use is between Harwich and Antwerp. This to include Brussels, Cologne, Rhine, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg, and Paris, return London via Le Havre or Dieppe. Along this route, in the summer of 1855, Thomas Cook accompanied his first tourists to Europe. In your first, time a family trip to Switzerland in June 1863. This was a Familiar with the place of interest; contact the hotel and the innkeeper. At the same time, he accompanied 60 elite clients, carrying out a tour to Geneva. Very interestingly, Jemima Morrell is one of the tourists escorted by Thomas Cook. Very fascinated by the magnificent tour arrangement that he used. A trip account that records all activities and events throughout the trip. The donor donated these rare original handwritten documents. Young women can be seen in the Thomas Cook archives. In addition,if people can see the files in the archive, they can feel and believe. Thomas Cook gradually organized more trips of this kind in the north and Western Europe in 1863. Estimating the success of the company organized a group tour to Paris for almost 2,000 tourists who travelled to Paris the season ended in the same year. As mentioned above, Rome in Italy and Paris in France are thriving cultural and educational cities. A large number of Western European people have a great fascination and desire to learn and enjoy culture. Approximately 500 visitors to Paris extended their trip to Switzerland. In the Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railway, Thomas Cook began issuing circular train Tickets (in English and French) between Paris and the Alps. After completing a trip, he went to Switzerland for the first time on a tour. Immediate success:I amsurethe tours are all over the Alps. First trip to Italy Organized in the summer of 1864, during which Thomas Cook escorted two Thomas Cook escorted a large group of 10 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

people. A group of people were taken to Florence and parts of central Italy and another ship was escorted to Rome and Naples. 1.7INTER-CONTINENTAL TOURS Going by his long experience and knowledge in the travel trade business in the Europe, Thomas Cook undertook an exploratory trip to the North America in 1865 for the sake of gathering information about the transport, accommodation, food, sightseeing, safety and security, etc. Finally, he managed to develop a system of tours that covered 4,000 miles of Railways journey. The objective of aligning with the AMTRAK was to conduct a safe and affordable package tour in the USA. In 1869, he hired two steamers and conducted his first party up the river Nile. The climax of his long travel trade career happened at the age of 63 in 1872 when he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that would keep him away from home for almost eight months. It had long been his ambition to travel “to Egypt via China.” Going by his long experience and knowledge in the travel trade business in the Europe, Thomas Cook undertook an exploratory trip to the North America in 1865 for the sake of gathering information about the transport, accommodation, food, sightseeing, safety and security, etc. Finally, he managed to develop a system of tours that covered 4,000 miles of railways journey. The objective of aligning with the AMTRAK was to conduct a safe and affordable package tour in the USA. In 1869, he hired two steamers and conducted his first party up the river Nile. The climax of his long travel trade career happened at the age of 63 in 1872 when he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that would keep him away from home for almost eight months. 1.7.1 Second Generation Thomas Cook Business Thomas Cook was very fortunate to have a dynamic successor to manage company affairs. His Son John Mason Cook was capable of operating the business in his absence. More particularly, during the World Tour of 222 days, his son was tactfully and painstakingly managing the promotion, operation of package tour and other allied services for the clients. While Thomas Cook was travelling round the world, his business firm was shift to a new head office atLegate Circus and the whole exercise of shifting were executed under the direct supervision of his son. There was a sharp difference of opinion on the company’s expansion plan between his son and him that resulted in breaking the historic partnership in 1978. The difference occurred when Thomas Cook disagreed in principle with the international expansion plan mooted by his son. Before the rifts with his father, he acquired proficiency and adequate knowledge to float an independent outfit on his own. 11 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Finally, John translated his vision into action and proved to be a true successor and a better businessperson than his father was. He set about expanding the company across the world in an age when telegraphy was in its infancy and there were no telephones or fax machines to support operation of the business. This was far from easy. John set up Overseas Editions of The Excursionist, the newspaper launched by his father in 1851, to inform and apprise customers about the places such as France, Germany, India, Australasia, America, and the Far East in the package tour. The newspaper was circulated across the world to portray the inclusive services offered to the customers in the package tour. Subsequently, the newspaper was renamed as The Traveller's Gazette in May 1902 and continued to be published until 1939. He also kept up a continuous stream of correspondence with his offices abroad, checking on their work, and complaining if anything went wrong. Like many successful businesspersons, John Mason Cook combined a flair for grasping business opportunities with a remarkable memory for small details. 1.7.2 The Great Episode of John Mason Cook The Gordon Relief Expedition was an outstanding contribution of John Mason Cook to the British Government and that was considered as the biggest social service to the nation. In 1884, the British Government appointed John Mason Cook to organize a relief expedition up the Nile to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum. Arrangements were made for the movement of 18,000 troops, nearly 40,000 tons of supplies, 40,000 tons of coal and 800 whaleboats. To transport the coal from Tyneside to Boulac and Assiut via Alexandria, 28 large steamers and 6000 railway trucks were required. An additional 7000 railway trucks were needed for the military stores, while on the Nile 27 steamers and 650 sailing boats were used to carry the troops and supplies. John and his Egyptian managers acted as overseers of the entire operation, which relied on the labour of 5000 local men and boys and completed their side of the contract in November 1884. Despite all the efforts, however, Gordon was killed. 1.7.3 Merger and Acquisition It was a matter of big loss to the travel trade fraternity that both Thomas Cook and John Mason Cook died successively during the 1890s. A long innings of professional career and lives of two legendary personalities ended when the company was internally recognized. The company was truly in a state of upbeat. Thanks to Almighty, John’s three sons successfully inherited the business: Frank Henry, Ernest Edward, and Thomas Albert (‘Bert’). During the first quarter of the twentieth century, - a period which witnessed the introduction of winter sports holidays, tours by motor car and commercial air travel. The Travel Company of Thomas Cook and Son dominated the world travel scenario. The company was incorporated as Thomas Cook & Son Ltd in 1924, and in 1926 the office headquarter was shifted from Legate Circus to the aristocratic residential area at Berkeley Street in Mayfair. Later, the headquarter of Thomas Cook and Son Ltd was used as the Centre of London Society. 12 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The World’s pioneering Travel Company Thomas Cook was sold to the Belgian Compagnie International des Wagons-Lits ET des Grands Express Européens after the death of the surviving grandsons, Frank and Ernest (Bert having died in 1914) in 1928. The Wagons Lits was a leading operator of most of Europe's luxury sleeping cars, including the Orient Express. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Wagons-Lits headquarter in Paris was seized by British forces, and Cook's British assets were requisitioned by the British Government. To save the legendary company from complete financial collapse in its centenary year, a deal was negotiated and, appropriately, the organization was sold to Britain's four mainline railway companies. Thomas Cook & Son Ltd settled its affairs with Wagons-Liston the basis of retaining a 25% share in Cook's overseas business, what happened that immediately after the end of the world war-II, and subsequently in 1948 the firm was fully owned by Government as the state-owned company and the functioning of company was handed over to the Nationalized British Railways. In 1972, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd was taken over by a consortium private ownership. The profit-making Travel Company was fully acquired by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trust House Forte, and the Automobile Association. There was a radical change in the organization structure and operation and a new standardized corporate logo (the words 'Thomas Cook' in 'flame' red) was conceived and introduced. The world Travel and Tourism Industry got a massive setback due to the world economic recession in 1970. Thomas Cook managed to overcome that period and survived the recession. On the other hand, several travel firms were badly affected and many of them were bankrupt. The survival of Thomas Cook enhanced its reputation for providing excellent service by launching a Money Back Guarantee scheme in 1974. Thomas Cook was also a victim of the 1970s recession and the company underwent many changes that included the sale of its holiday camp at Prestatyn and the relocation of its administrative headquarters from London to Peterborough. The firm also became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Midland Bank Group. In the 1980s, Thomas Cook began to concentrate on its long-haul tours program by acquiring Rankin Kuhn Travel in 1982. Thomas Cook shifted its core business from the short-haul package tours to the long-haul package tour and closed the operation of short haul travel market in 1988. The company made a comeback to the core short hauls package tour market in 1996 after it acquired Sun world. Thomas Cook’s prolonged existence was celebrated in 1991 and that year happened to be the 150th anniversary year of existence in the travel trade. WestdeutscheLandes bank (West LB), Germany’s third largest bank, and LTU Group, Germany’s leading charter airline, again acquired the company’s continued to register much growth and the company in 1992. The acquisition had assured the employees and the shareholders to remain as the leading global player in the corporate and leisure travel, banking and travel insurance sector. Thomas Cook Ltd. became a wholly owned subsidiary of West LB in 1995. During the period of expansion, the company ventured into the acquisition of Sun world, Time Off, and Flying 13 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

succession and the expansion and acquisition plan was culminated with the merger with Carlson Leisure Group’s UK travel interests. In the later time, the company saw the formation of JMC in 1999. In 1981, Thomas Cook introduced ‘Holidaymaker’, a view data system allowing travel agents to access its reservation system. In 1990, Thomas Cook became the world's leading foreign exchange retailer through acquisition of Deak International Inc. In 1994, Thomas Cook acquired Inter payment Services Limited to become the world's largest supplier of travellers cheques outside the US.1995 - Thomas Cook became a wholly owned subsidiary of WestLB. In addition, launches www.thomascook.com 1997. Thus, Thomas Cook became the first UK travel retailer to offer online booking. 1.7.4 Technology Driven Period By 1920s until1940s, the airlines were confronting with numerous challenges of booking airline tickets and scheduling flights. In these early days of commercial aviation, and passengers were relatively less in numbers with each airline routes were being tightly regulated along with the fares. The system for booking flights was totally managed by the manual method. The American Airlines developed a manual booking system at their Little Rock, Arkansas reservations centre in the 1920s. This system employed a rotating file with cards for every flight, which was operated by a team of eight members. Like present manual coach booking, a mark on the card was endorsed when some passenger booked a seat. Therefore, the status of booking was called as manual way of booking. It was an obvious choice of airlines to operate the reservation and issue of tickets. That the process was comfortable and easy when there were limited number of planes. However, the complete procedure in searching for the availability of a flight, reserving a seat, and then issuing the ticket was taking prolonged time and it could take up to three hours in some cases, and 90 minutes on average. The situation became worse when the numbers of airlines were gone up and the frequency of air services was increased. The demand for air travel was also increased. As a result, the system could accommodate only eight operators, as that was the maximum number that could fit around the file. Attending many queries was cumbersome situation with the only solution to add more layers of hierarchy to categorize requests into batches. In the United States, the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1940 published a volume entitled the Official Airline Guide, with that publication, the process of dealing with airlines reservation became simpler and made easier to work out air travel itineraries for both travel agencies and corporate customers. Travel agents or consumers could prepare tentative air itinerary and send the itinerary to airlines either by taking the help of phone or telex and airline agents on receipt of information would mark the reservation on a card and file it. However, the then OAG had similar problems like the manual systems of catering to the needs of a larger number of users. As the demand for and complexity of air travel were expanded, the existing system not only turned to be expensive but also became obsolete largely. 14 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

There was a big boom in travel trade after the world war–II and the flow of foreign currency across boundaries and technological revolution was very much significant. In order to meet the growing money transactions, an innovative worldwide credit scheme was introduced to cater to the travel and related services in 1959. The innovation of the credit scheme provided an opportunity to the service providers in streamlining the payments and reduction in cost of transaction. Service providers subsequently were able to make standardized payments at a regular interval towards the settlement of all intermediate transactions. The history of automated booking system may be dated back to 1946 when, American Airlines installed the first experimental automated booking system named as the electromechanical Reserves. The early-stage computers in this system used magnetic drum for temporary storage, which was soon reinstated by MagnetronicReservisor. This replacement was considered a great aid to the airline industry. The development struck the beginning of an ever-changing technological era. This system proved successful and was rapidly adopted by a number of airlines. In the accommodation sector, Sheraton Hotels also adopted for inventory control of sale of rooms. However, the major drawbacks of the systems were the need for local human operators to ensure and update the ground reality. In addition to this, ticketing agents were required to call into the booking office to make request for booking and in turn, operators would enquire to a small team operating the Reserves and then inform the agent over the telephone. The agents for the booking or enquiry about the airlines schedule and availability directly accessed the system. The University of Toronto invented a software system with remote terminals, which attracted the attention of Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) in 1953. Although it was a major development in the process of making book, but the system itself found certain major input/output related problem. An agency called Ferranti Canada got involved in the project to enhance a new system by using Punch Cards and launched a transistorized computer system in place of the unreliable tube-based Mark I. The consequential system Reset Vec got into its operation in 1962 and captured all booking operations in 1963. Finally, a long-cherished attempt was realized by establishing some terminals which were fitted in ticketing offices of TCA's, where all reservation queries and book he invention of innovative technology to simplify the reservation procedures was deeply realized by major airline industry players in the world. It was American Airlines, which later was inclined to invest in the product innovation by giving maximum priority to technology. The project was undertaken by the sheer interest of the American Airlines in 1953. The CEO of American Airlines C. R. Smith got an opportunity to consult with the R. Blair Smith, a senior IBM sales representative, as IBM was the then leader and pioneer in the invention of numerous software technologies in the world. The need for using the technology was felt when other airlines got an edge over the American Airlines in terms of having a provision of carrying out bookings through the computer. Thus, subsequently the airlines laid stress on adopting the technology from the IBM. Both of them 15 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

nourished an idea of an automated airline reservation system (ARS) that would provide best solution in regard to the complex airline bookings and resulted in bring about significant development in the airlines booking system. In 1959, the American airlines ventured into using the reservation system popularly known as the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment, or SABRE. The SABRE was recognized as the largest non- governmental providers of automatic airlines booking system and data processing system for delivering flawless outputs in the North America and in the Europe. The use of automated airline booking system had a tremendous impact on the world aviation industry. Consequently, other international and domestic airlines were keen on inventing their own systems. For example, Delta Air Lines launched its DATAS in 1968. United Airlines and TWA followed in 1971 with Apollo and PARS respectively. In the same period, many travel agents, which were approved IATA agents, began pushing for a software system that could automate their side of the process by accessing the various Automated Reservation Systems of airlines (ARSs) directly to make reservations. In 1976, United Airlines began offering its Apollo system to travel agents; while it would allow the agents to book tickets on United Airlines’ competitors, the marketing value of the convenient terminal proved indispensable. Gradually, the SABRE, PARS, and DATAS were soon released to travel agents as well. Following airline deregulation in 1978, an efficient CRS proved particularly important; by some counts, Texas Air executive Frank Lorenzo took over bankrupt Eastern Air Lines with a specific objective of gaining control of its System One CRS. European airlines also began to invest in the field in the 1980s, propelled by growth in demand for travel as well as technological advances, which allowed the GDS to offer ever- increasing services and searching power. In 1987, a consortium led by Air France and West Germany's Lufthansa developed Amadeus, modelled on Eastern's System One. In 1990, Delta, Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines formed Worldspan, and in 1993, another consortium including British Airways, KLM, and United Airlines among others formed competing company, Galileo International, based on United's Apollo network. Numerous smaller companies have also been formed, aimed at geographic, industry, or language niches inadequately served by the \"big four.\" 1.8 SUMMARY  The use of the term travel trade dates back from the early years of the 19th century, but this should not obscure the fact that what we describe today as travel trade (travel agency and tour operation business) was taking place much earlier in history.  The business of travel agencies has soared high in recent years. The booming industry has generated enormous income and employment opportunities. 16 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 While studying travel agencies and its development and in different stages, learners can be enlightened largely in gaining knowledge and ideas. Therefore, it is essential to have an insight of the origin of travel agency business in the world.  In the beginning, travel agencies were in a state of experimentation and community help. Gradually, the business grew up in such a scale that competitive travel companies around the world forged into the sophisticated business.  Thomas Cook, (born November 22, 1808  Cook can be said to have invented modern tourism.  In 1841, he persuaded the Midland Counties Railway Company to run a special train between Leicester and Loughborough for a temperance meeting on July 5.  The successful implementation of the tour marked the beginning of creating a modern travel agency in the world. In 1845, Thomas Cook went on his first full-fledged tour inside Britain with a few more recreational activities in the package. The aim is to improve the value of the packaging and create a certain appeal.  It was believed to have been the first publicly advertised excursion train in England.  In the early 1860s, he ceased to conduct personal tours and became an agent for the sale of domestic and overseas travel tickets.  His firm took on military transport and postal services for England and Egypt during the 1880s.  The modern travel agency business originated from its establishment. The legendary Thomas Cook Travel Company was established in the mid-19th century  Many of his innovations in travel and Solutions are used and practiced in great numbers in the world today.  In this unit, you will learn about the evolution of travel agencies in various stages. In the world.  Eventually to the world. The unit also deployed a number of Measures taken by these travel companies to improve their services  This unit further clarifies the growth of travel agencies the operation mainly quotes the example of travel agency Thomas Cook and the main strategic changes in different periods. 1.9 KEYWORDS  Philanthropy : The practice of helping the poor and those in need, especially by giving money 17 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 BTA: Business Travel Allowance. A business travel allowance is a payment made to a corporate traveller by an employer to cover expenses incurred on a business trip. The most common expenses are accommodation, food, drink, and transportation.  Hotelier:A hotelier is a person who runs or owns a hotel. If you stay at a hotel, you may never see the hotelier, who is responsible for hiring and managing staff and keeping things running smoothly.  AMTRAK: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) is a government- owned corporation established in 1971.  Agent: one who acts or has the power to act as the representative of another. Most frequently in travel anyone other than a principal, such as a retail travel agent, receiving agent, ticket agent, local operator, or wholesaler.  Air Coupon: One flight coupon that allows passengers to fly internationally on several airlines.  Infrastructural Facilities: These include facilities like Airport, Roads, Drainage, and Buildings etc. at a destination.  Promotion: All activities such as advertising, publicity, personal selling, and public relations, which are carried out to enhance sales.  Travel Agent: An individual or a firm who is authorized by the airlines, hotels, etc. to enhance the sale of all travel related services.  Tour Operator: company or a firm, which designs tour packages and makes them available to customers through travel agents. 1.10 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Divide yourself in groups as per the strength of your class and prepare a travel package Mysore. Include the expenses per head and all the details about the places the package has. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. What are the major issues affecting the growth and development of travel agency in the post-independence period? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 1.11 UNIT END QUESTIONS 18 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Write a note on Thomas Cook. 2. What are the major turning points of travel agency business in the landmark period? 3. Justify the title of ‘Period of innovation’ by highlighting major Innovations in the period. 4. Write a note on Cox and king. 5. Explain the strategies used by the travel agencies to expand their business in the 19th century. Long Questions 1. What is information technology in the modern travel agency business ? Explain. 2. How can you justify the title of ‘Period of innovation’ by highlighting major Innovations in the period ? 3. What are your views on the future of travel agencies? Discuss. 4. Write a brief outline on the details of your study tour ? 5. Identify the historical background of travel industry? B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. How many people did Thomas Cook take to London? a. 1200 b. 150000 c. 1500 d. 120000 2. Why did Thomas Cook conducted an air tour to New York? a. Boxing tournament b. Cricket tournament c. Tennis championship d. Kabaddi 3. When was Thomas Cook born? 19 a. 1832 b. 1818 c. 1808 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

d. 1823 4. Which year were Cox and king established? a. 1758 b. 1789 c. 1769 d. 1900 5. Who found Cox and King? a. Richard king b. Cox king c. King Cox d. Richard Cox Answers 1-b, 2-a, 3-c, 4-a, 5-d 1.12 REFERENCES References  Angelo, A.,& Francesca Di Virgilioand Isabel, C. [Camillo]. (2017).The Impact of Social Network on Italian Users: Behavioural Intention for the Choice of a Medical Tourist Destination  Mahir Nakip&Aytaç Gökmen. (2018). The Importance of the Destination Choices of Tourists: The Case of Kazakh Tourists Visiting Turkey.International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age.  Nicholas, A. Ramchurjee,& Charles, V. Ramchurjee. (2018).an Evaluation of the Attitudes and Perception of the Local Communities in Mysore: Towards the Impacts of Tourism Development.International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age. Textbooks  Chand Mohinder. (2006). Travel Agency Management: An Introductory Text.New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.  Sinha, P.C. (n.d). Tourism: Transport and Travel Management. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd. 20 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Mohinder Chand Dhiman.&Ravi Bhushan Kumar.(2006). Building Foundations for Understanding the International Travel Agency and Tour Operation. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd. Websites  http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/08/02/stories/0602000n.htm  .http://www.ttsvisas.com/visas.aspx?page=FAQ.  www.igi-global.com/article/an-evaluation-of-the-attitudes-and-perception-of-the- local-communities-in-mysore-towards-the-impacts-of-tourism- development/201104?camid=4v1a 21 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 2 - GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF TRAVEL AGENCY AND TOUR OPERATION IN INDIA STRUCTURE 2.0 Learning Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 An Overview of Role of Travel Agency and Tour Operation 2.2.1 Pre- Independence Period 2.2.2 Post - Independence Period 2.2.3 Post Liberalization Period. 2.3 Summary 2.4 Keywords 2.5 Learning Activity 2.6 Unit End Questions 2.7 References 2.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Define the tourism system.  Explain the elements of travel operations.  Describe the coordination of various elements in tourism operations.  Explain tourism operations of the past.  Describe the tourism operation post liberization. 2.1 INTRODUCTION Tourism Operations have created a space for themselves in the economy of each country, region, or destination- small or big. Various sections of each economy work in a closely-knit fashion. Tourism operations, however, are not an exception. They have given rise to the inter- sectorial linkages as an important phenomenon at a point of time when tourism has been acknowledged as the world’s fastest growing economic activity. Operatingsuch, an activity calls for close linkages between all the players and all those who have stake in it. This unit 22 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

attempts to provide an understanding in this regard along with highlighting certain operational issues. In this unit, the main emphasis is on the operational linkages of stakeholders with the rest of the components and the functional aspects of travel agents and tour operators. For successful operations in hospitality and tourism industry, one has to coordinate with many other organizations or persons providing the required products and services. For example, a tour operator is dependent upon a hotelier for accommodation, a transporter for taxis and coaches and shopkeepers for souvenirs. In fact, these all have to depend upon the tour operator to ensure optimum business. Now all these have to maintain cordial and effective relations to achieve their objectives. This relationship is termed as Linkages and the same has been discussed in this unit. 2.2 AN OVERVIEW OF ROLE OF TRAVEL AGENCY AND TOUR OPERATION In recorded history, there have been instances where one is able to know that man has been travelling throughout the ages. Much of the travel in the beginning was largely unconscious and a simple affair. There were no travel procedures and formalities as there were no frontiers. All human activity focused upon day-to-day survival, they were busy in search of necessities like food, water, and shelter, but it was very difficult and unsafe.It was however, in the Neolithic age that several innovations were made which changed the nature of travel. Around 4000 B.C. sailing vessels were built in Egypt. It was also during this period that animalswere domesticated and trained to carry and transport community members, tools, and agriculture supplies. Invention of wheel during this period was also an important landmark, which made movement of people to distant lands possible. Most early travel, however, was not undertaken for the purposes of pleasure, the primary motive for which the travel was undertaken was related to trade, exchange of goods, commerce and the activities associated with it. The traveller in the ancient past was thus a trader and a merchant looking for merchandise and engaging in trade and commerce. There was, however, another type of traveller and this traveller was pilgrim, a scholar in search of ancient texts and a curious wayfarer looking. Forward to new and exciting experiences. Seeking knowledge was his primary purpose for undertaking travel. 2.2.1 Pre- Independence Period The evolution of modern travel agency and tour operation in India is not as old as the flourishing travel agency business in the Europe and the North American countries. As there was no such formal and organized form of travel related services, overseas travel agents exploited the vast potential of inbound travel markets of India. The framework of modern travel agency business in India was designed on the line of function and activities of earliest group of travel agencies like Thomas Cook, Cox and Kings and American Express. Those 23 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

two UK based travel agents were well experienced to conduct round the world tour and special interest tours to different parts of the world and more particularly, package tours were regularly conducted to India for British officials and their family members and relatives. It was the maiden attempt of Thomas Cook to take a pioneering attempt in commencing the package tour to India during the visit of Queen Victoria to Kolkata after the end of the Sepoy Mutiny in 1858. The success of the tour had made much impact in terms of safety and security in India. Subsequent improvement of sea route connectivity between India and the Europe opened a new avenue for providing safe, comfortable, and affordable journey. It was a matter of renewing relationships between the uprooted families of British officials living in the Europe and their counterpart living in India. Therefore, the prevalence of travel brought people of India and the Europe together. In 1878, Mr. Cook brought the first British Group of tourists to India by taking support of thePeninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. The group landed in Mumbai, travelledto Agra by train to see the Taj Mahal. In the final leg of tour, the group visited Kashmir valley. The tour tuned to become very successful, and Mr. Cook gained confidence to set up offices in India. In The beginning, the Thomas Cook and Sons International continued The inbound operation in India with its main branches and offices in metro cities. In 1880, Thomas Cook and Sons established offices in Mumbai and Kolkata as those two provinces were regarded as significant hubs of trade and commerce. Considering the huge demand of royal families, the Eastern Princess Department was also established in 1887 and that resulted in the rise of outbound travellers to Europe. Thomas Cook took much care and interest to arrange the sophisticated tour for India Princess to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Celebration. The outcome of the tour brought about drastic changes in the perception of elite class people in India to plan leisure trips to Europe. A large chunk of the British, the French and other European nationals had much greater interest to meet their friends and relatives in India and vice versa. Many Europeans wished to undertake travel through sea routes to India for visiting selected tourist places of interest such as the Taj Mahal, Jammu & Kashmir, Shimla, Goa, Ajanta & Ellora, hill stations and beach resorts. The unique attractions of India were blended with unprecedented and exceptional history, exquisite art, architecture and sculpture, natural scenic places above all, a land of wonders. It is in fact relevant to mention that it was Thomas Cook which opened opportunities for taking travel to India and more particularly, the company ensured travel to all places by multiple modes of transport. In the later period, people from other parts of the Europe were motivated with the attractive and well-organized package tours to India. A large number of people in Europe had much fascinating perception and feelings about India and its cultural and natural wonders. Towards the middle of the 19th century, a sizable number of young Indians sailed particularly to England for pursuing higher study and appearing civil service examination and in the later periods, Indian political leaders travelled to England to participate several round table discussions on the solution for socio-economic and political 24 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

issues. More particularly for the British nationals, Thomas Cook got involved more actively in the inbound operation to India for long period. Thomas cook used to book train tickets, reserve government run guest houses, arrange small car, mini coach, book horse carts and animal driven carts to transfer the tourists from the railway station to their places of stays and followed by conducting sightseeing tour in and around the places. Thomas cook used to face the following obstacles for conducting tours in India. To plan leisure trips to Europe. Large chunk of the British, the French and other European nationals had much greater interest to meet their friends and relatives in India and vice versa. Many Europeans wished to undertake travel through sea routes to India for visiting selected tourist places of interest such as the Taj Mahal, Jammu & Kashmir, Shimla, Goa, Ajanta & Ellora, hill stations and beach resorts. The unique attractions of India were blended with unprecedented and exceptional history, exquisite art, architecture and sculpture, natural scenic places above all, a land of wonders. It is in fact relevant to mention that it was Thomas Cook which opened opportunities for taking travel to India and more particularly, the company ensured travel to all places by multiple modes of transport. In the later period, people from other parts of the Europe were motivated with the attractive and well-organized package tours to India. A large number of people in Europe had much fascinating perception and feelings about India and its cultural and natural wonders. Towards the middle of the 19th century, a sizable number of young Indians sailed particularly to and in the later periods, Indian political leaders travelled to England to participate several round table discussions on the solution for socio-economic and political issues. More particularly for the British nationals, Thomas Cook got involved more actively in the inbound operation to India for long period. Thomas cook used to book train tickets, reserve government run guest houses, arrange small car, mini coach, book horse carts and animal driven carts to transfer the tourists from the railway station to their places of stays and followed by conducting sightseeing tour in and around the places. Thomas cook used to face the following obstacles for conducting tours in India. Lack of amenities and facilities such as road, bridges, railway stations, accommodation, money exchanger, public toilets.Lack of trained tour conductors, guides, escorts, and interpreters.Untrained staffs in the guesthouses and other eating-places.Cab drivers without having essential attributes worked for the travel agents. Thomas Cook and other contemporary travel agencies were also confronted with certain issues related with service factors. 2.2.2 Post - Independence Period Even before the world war –II, the importance of tourism was well recognized as a critical segment of economy. The outbreak of war stalled the progress in the direction of tourism. The post-independence tourism development and its bearing on the travel trade in India unveiled a new chapter in the annals of Indian tourism scenario. The great concerned shown 25 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

by the then colonial Government to appoint a committee headed by Sir John Sargent in 1945 was a major step forward to fathom the potentials of tourism products dotted across the country. After a thorough investigation, the committee duly figured out the potentialities of developing tourist traffic in the country. The committee in one its suggestions mentioned about the development of means of travel from nearest railway station, residential accommodation, travel brochures and guide books, provision of authorized guides, etc. that should be provided at places both for the domestic visitors and foreign visitors. The resultant impact was the formation of a separate Tourist Traffic Branch under the Ministry of Transport in 1949 to deal with the task of increasing tourist traffic to India. The tourist traffic section was mostly entrusted the charge for coordinating with the travel agencies and tour operators in India and overseas to augment the internal and external tourist traffic. It also dealt with internal conferences on tourism, coordination with railways, establishment of tourist bureau in States and development of tourist centres and the training of guides. Another most important action was taken to open a chain of tourist offices both in India and abroad and Regional Tourism Offices were opened in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. The tourism offices located at different regions and destinations coordinated and controlled various segments of travel trade and ensured that the foreign tourists would get various services at reasonable cost and would not be hassled at any cost. There was a great leap forward when operation and functioning of eighteen overseas tourism promotion offices formally started to display the tourism potentials of the country. Those offices were based at countries and regions from where maximum inflow of foreign tourists to India was originated. As a result, overseas tour operators were encouraged to design itinerary and package tour for India and in a regular interval, local and regional tour operators held meetings with the India’s overseas tourism promotional offices and sought all kinds of suggestions related to the operation of tours, booking of hotels, safety and security. Foreign tour operators were also encouraged to participate in the familiarization tour program in India and overseas tourism offices and Air India hosted the tour with the purpose of introducing those places of interest to them. Both tourism offices in India and abroad were equipped with colourful brochures. Foreign tour operators were enthusiastic to promote package tours to India and then there was a steady increase in the tourist traffic to India. In 1950, 17 thousands foreign tourists visited India whenthere were no such overseas promotion offices, or any promotional measures taken for the increase of inbound tourist traffic. The Travel Agents Association of India was formed towards the end of the year 1951 by a group of twelve leading travel agents, who felt that the time had come to create an Association to regulate the travel industry in India. The primary purpose was to protect the interests of those engaged in the industry, to promote its orderly growth and development and to safeguard the rights of the travelling public. TAAI represents all that is professional, ethical, and dynamic in our nation's Travel related activity and has been recognized as the voice of the Travel and Tourism industry in India. With a membership database of over 1800 26 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Active; Allied and Associate members, comprising of IATA accredited Travel Agencies; Airlines & General Sales Agencies; Hotels and Tour operators; TAAI is the largest Travel Association of India. Travel agency and tour operation business in India was relatively in the preliminary stage in first phase of independence. Even after also, there was hardly any travel company with full- fledged facilities. With the setting up of the Travel Agents Association of India in Mumbai in 1951, the travel business in India started in an organized manner. The Jeena and Company, the first Indian Travel Agency organized group tours abroad and in India for Indian travellers and it handled the first group of foreign tourists in 1950. However, Jeena and Company and other two Indian Travel Agencies were merged into one composite travel company known as Travel Corporation of India Ltd.In 1961. Moreover, the Thomas Cook, Sons, and The American Express then handled the bulk of International tourists. Followed by the growth, there were a good number of travel companies established in India such as SITA, Thomas Cook India Ltd. American Express, Cox and Kings, India Travel and so forth. As per the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1973, Thomas Cook India was established under the companies Act 1956 in 1978. The Asian games were hosted in 1952 in India made a significant impact on the inbound traffic to India. The scenario of travel trade stimulated by promotional measures underwent remarkable change due to the rising number of tourist traffic. From 1951 to 1961 travel agencies were banking on airlines tickets and inbound operations to limited destinations. Travel agents started operating at Delhi and other destination points like Agra and Jaipur. More particularly travel agencies were resorting to the ticketing business and inbound tours to golden triangle circuit. Travel Agencies were facing the shortage of transport fleets to conduct sightseeing tours in the cities. There was no such means to arrange different transports to conduct sightseeing tours in the lesser-known destinations. It was certainly a challenging moment for travel agents, which had business plan to handle additional demand for the operation of package tour. In those times, travel agencies had to take much time to confirm the booking of hotels, transports, train tickets, guide services, and other ground arrangements to the clients. Scope of business was not expanding owing to have limited operational network. The concepts of tour through ground handling agents were not fully known as there were very limited professionally skilled people to take the responsibility of handling the. Tours. Presently, there are around more than thousand travel agencies and tour operation companies on the approval list of the Department of Tourism, Government of India. . These are located in over 50 cities of the country, and many have promotional offices in abroad. In addition to this, there are a large number of non- recognized travel agencies scattered all over the country. In India, there are more than 400 travel agencies, which have been approved by the IATA, and a number of them have more branch offices. 2.2.3 Post Liberalisation Period 27 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The expansion of business opportunities for travel agency and tour operators depends on the active role of the governments to formulate certain strategic objectives for the tourism development of sector. These strategies comprise five key actions such as to position tourism as a national priority, enhance India's competitiveness as a tourism destination, improve and expand product development, create world class infrastructure and draw up effective marketing plans and programmes. This growth-oriented strategy indicates vast of opportunities for the travel agents and tour operators. While travel agents are profiting from the tourist boom in the past couple of years, a number of them also feel threatened and are worried about the future. Commission cuts by airlines and the rapid technological advancement, especially the increasing penetration and use of the Internet has forced the travel agents community to rethink their business models and strategy for not just growth but their survival in the future. Airlines and hotels have turned away from intermediaries in the past couple of years, preferring to invest heavily in their corporate sites and offer best-rate guarantees in an attempt to woo e-tourists. In face of these commission cuts, the main income generator, many travel agents are attempting to diversify their operations by providing other services and also remodelling themselves as travel consultants, a makeover, which happened in the developed, markets quite a while ago. Another recent trend, which is hitting the minor travel agents hard, is consolidation in the travel distribution network that has significantly reduced the number of travel agencies. Currently the Indian travel industry is in the midst of a transition towards becoming a mature market and the key words for all stakeholders are adaptation and innovation. One way towards the future is adopting the idea of service fee. This practice highlights the advisory role of the travel agent as a professional or a consultant where clients pay for the agent's expertise instead of suppliers having to pay a commission. The role of a consultant dovetails nicely with the trend towards customized travel. Indian tourists today are well travelled and want to enjoy a certain freedom. They want to go beyond the beaten path yet enjoy the benefits of a hassle-free planning and expertise proffered by a travel agent. This means that agents must have the flexibility needed to offer customized travel products. Apart from changing their business models to meet the Challenges of the future, travel agents, and tour operators also have a wider and important role to play in the development of tourism. They can coordinate with the Ministry of Tourism and other related central and state ministries in their endeavour to improve facilities, guaranteeing safety and security of tourists and disseminating information. Case Study 1 Global competition has forced local travel industry to adopt new global business standards to compete in its traditional markets. In return, the local travel and tour operation companies are finding much diversification of business in the new overseas and domestic tourism markets. Travel agencies are becoming increasingly aware and prepared to face the burgeoning growth 28 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

of online travel agents because of Internet. Tour operators have found the dependence on online business to decrease the transactional costs, including the costs for users of tourism services. For the sale of airlines tickets, airlines do take the help of online travel portals and hotels take the help of online travel agents for the sale of hotel rooms. The online travel companies are aware of the consequences of online transactions and are taking the advantage of the information and communication technology for the larger market share. Giving varied discounting is a major trend of online travel agents to increase the sales. The effect of B2B and B2C model has significantly reduced the cost and that results in the reducing the prices of airline tickets, hotel rooms, etc. For example, consolidator like Group on has entered into the market offering discounts of 50 per cent or more when more customers sign up for a vendor’s offer. The range of products and services being sold continues to find better market areas. In addition, hotel chains increasingly rely on the social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to build a network of potential customers. Hotels offer limited-time special offers to sell off the unused room inventory during the off-season. A second key trend is personalization of tourism services. Everyone wants the tailored-made programmes to their needs. Traditional travel agencies still face the big challenges in their shift online. The first challenge is to develop the multi-channel strategy that is not an easy task to accomplish as far as the constraints of travel business is concerned. Travel agencies trace the background of customers and reach them over the Internet, mobile and social media channels. The most important challenge that traditional travel agencies are facing is to find the right mix in their online product and services offers. In order to make their online channel more profitable and alluring, they include additional products such as hotels, holiday packages and flight related ancillary services like airport VIP lounges and fast tracks or priority boarding. Low internet penetration was the major challenge for the online travel companies. Another challenge is the habit of Indian travellers. The habit of buying an air ticket through a travel agent and booking a hotel room through calling the hotel directly takes long time to change. It is essential to change the habit that online travel agents are doing all possible efforts to covert the traditional customers to tech-savvy users of online services. Online travel is the driving force in the e-commerce segment and has brought about revolution in the travel market in India. It has global contribution of 70 per cent of all e- commerce activities. However, the internet availability, broadband penetration and the prevalence of online banking and credit/debit card is very low India. The volatility in the aviation industry not only affects the inventory and pricing, but also the consumer sentiment while buying a travel product. It is reported that that the online travel portals are facing numerous new challenges such as rapidly rising costs, meeting customer expectations and 29 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

enormous economic pressures. At the same time, the challenges of the India Online travel agents are given below.  Problems in deciding the distribution of products through multiple online and offline sales channels while managing inventory.  Pressure to up sell and proper management of the seats sold out.  Difficulty in deciding the charges as a flat fee or a commission.  Changing economic conditions  New financial regulations In view of the above challenges, the online travel agents are still bleeding with losses or many of them are toying hard to reach the breakeven point. In one hand, the users of online purchase of travel services and solutions are becoming more, and the dependence is becoming more. Can these challenges be overcome? How long it will take. Case Study 2 Zero Commission and Diversification of Revenue generation Traditionally, travel agents used to depend largely on the ticket sales for the bulk of share of total revenue. With airlines selling tickets directly to travellers through multiple e-ticketing platforms, travel agents do not have any choice and they are out from their dominant business haven. This direct sales method is a global trend resulting from the need for airlines to maximize revenues or minimize loss while keeping costs down. As such, majority of airlines are facing the challenge of breakeven and other issues leading to the closure of the companies. For example, Kingfisher airlines shut down the services abruptly in 2011 due to the heavy losses. International and domestic airlines used to offer 8 and 5 per cent commission on a ticket sold to travel agents respectively. However, it was gradually reduced to one percent, and it is now zero percent due to overheads cost. It is observed that several airline sites even offer reduced costs and extra incentives for customers ordering tickets online. Zero percent commission and ticket booking through website is one of the 47 recommendations of Prof. Dholakia Committee Report on the cost cutting in Air India. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has accepted all these recommendations. The Zero Commission policy on ticket sales adopted by almost all airlines has forced the travel agencies to switch over to the new streams of revenue along with new services.  To reduce their reliance on airline commission payments, travel agencies are resorting to the following strategic options to sustain and survive in the business.  Streamlining operations and controlling staff costs whilst ensuring the customer feels as little impact as possible 30 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Expanding or moving into the leisure business where commissions on non-air products remain high  Specializing in geographic areas or becoming niche players for specific leisure products  Establishing a service fee driven business model Diversification is a form of growth strategy. Growth strategies involve a significant increase in performance objectives beyond past levels of performance. Diversification strategies are used to expand firms’ operations by adding markets, products, services, or stages of production to the existing business. Many organizations pursue one or more types of growth strategies.  Coffee shops  SMS marketing  MICE  Foreign exchange:  Courier service  Film Ticket booking. Travel agencies are now adopting the E-business revenue models, Digital Content Revenue Model, Advertising-Supported Revenue Model, and Fee-for-Transaction Revenue Model. Questions  What triggered the airlines to stop paying usual commissions when travel agents still play dominant role in the airline markets?  What are the diversified sources of revenue for travel agents now?  What are the business strategies of travel agents to overcome this zero-commission challenge? Case study 3 Impact of International Liberalization on the Indian Economy This paper, using the Solow growth model looks at the impact of liberalization on India’s economic growth. Additionally, using empirical data, it analyses the patterns, processes, and characteristics of India’s economic growth. The Solow model explains the long run economic growth via the change in the Solow residuals. This paper defines the Solow residual as International trade. This paper will show that International trade and fewer regulations on exports and imports have ignited high economic growth in India. After the late 1980s, India saw an immense increase in international trade. Led by low tariff rates, India saw a hike in exports and imports and more importantly, foreign investments. With the backing of data, this 31 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

paper will show that India has actually benefited in terms of economic growth from international trade. With liberalization, India has not only had success in the macro level, but it has also affected people in terms of per capita income in the micro level. This paper is broken down into 4 sections. The first section introduces India and its relevance to the Solow model. The second section explores the theoretical framework of the Solow model. The third section uses the empirical data to examine the impact of liberalization on India. Finally, the fourth section is the analysis and conclusion section, which compares India to other South Asian counties and gives policy recommendation. Table 2.1: Macroeconomics performance post 1991 2.3 SUMMARY  Travel industry has seen a phenomenal growth in the ear of globalization and liberalization. Modern Travel agencies in India have evolved through various stages and contributed immensely to the Indian tourism sector.  The size of the travel market was relatively small, and the numbers of travel agencies were very limited. It is the Travel Agents Association of India in the beginning and in the later, the Indian Association of Tour Operators strived relentlessly to give a face shift to the travel industry by bringing all travel intermediaries to common platform to discuss issues pertaining to the growth and development of tourism industry. 32 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Travel agencies have seen a buoyant growth in the post liberalization period. In this unit, you read about the beginning period of travel agency business in India. The unit also throws light on various issues, which mostly obstructed the growth of travel agency business in India.  Moreover, this unit has also gone further into clarifying details about the role of public sector undertakings in tourism and travel agencies have been greatly supported with the building of infrastructure at the tourism places of interest and port of entries. In this context, the unit also underlined the importance of tour operators in the promotion of inbound and domestic tourism in the country.  Furthermore, this unit discussed the growth of outbound tourism as to how the boom of the outbound travel would be sustained and captured in the near future.  Tourism Operations have created a space for themselves in the economy of each country, region, or destination- small or big. Various sections of each economy work in a closely-knit fashion. Tourism operations, however, are not an exception.  They have given rise to the inter-sectorial linkages as an important phenomenon at a point of time when tourism has been acknowledged as the world’s fastest growing economic activity. Operating such, an activity calls for close linkages between all the players and all those who have stake in it.  This unit attempts to provide an understanding in this regard along with highlighting certain operational issues. In this unit, the main emphasis is on the operational linkages of stakeholders with the rest of the components and the functional aspects of travel agents and tour operators.  For successful operations in hospitality and tourism industry, one has to coordinate with many other organizations or persons providing the required products and services. For example, a tour operator is dependent upon a hotelier for accommodation, a transporter for taxis and coaches and shopkeepers for souvenirs.  However, the complete procedure in searching for the availability of a flight, reserving a seat, and then issuing the ticket was taking prolonged time and it could take up to three hours in some cases, and 90 minutes on average.  The situation became worse when the numbers of airlines went up and the frequency of air services was increased. The demand for air travel was also increased.  As a result, the system could accommodate only eight operators, as that was the maximum number that could fit around the file. Attending many queries was cumbersome situation with the only solution to add more layers of hierarchy to categorize requests into batches. 33 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 In the United States, the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1940 published a volume entitled the Official Airline Guide, with that publication, the process of dealing with airlines reservation became simpler and made easier to work out air travel itineraries for both travel agencies and corporate customers.  Travel agents or consumers could prepare tentative air itinerary and send the itinerary to airlines either by taking the help of phone or telex and airline agents on receipt of information would mark the reservation on a card and file it. However, the then OAG had similar problems like the manual systems of catering to the needs of a larger number of users. 2.4 KEYWORDS  Travel Planning: Did you develop any backup/contingency plans for program bottlenecks, such as cancelled flights, overbooked hotels, and stranded clients?  Itinerary Management: How did you make itinerary management an efficient and cost-effective process? Did you introduce any software solutions to automate routine tasks?  Reservation Management: What steps did you take to ensure quick and accurate price calculations? Did you increase reservations by developing attractive travel and tourism packages?  Philanthropy : The practice of helping the poor and those in need, especially by giving money  Agent: one who acts or has the power to act as the representative of another. Most frequently in travel anyone other than a principal, such as a retail travel agent, receiving agent, ticket agent, local operator, or wholesaler.  Air Coupon: One flight coupon that allows passengers to fly internationally on several airlines.  Infrastructural Facilities: These include facilities like Airport, Roads, Drainage, and Buildings etc. at a destination.  Promotion: All activities such as advertising, publicity, personal selling, and public relations, which are carried out to enhance sales.  Travel Agent: An individual or a firm who is authorized by the airlines, hotels, etc. to enhance the sale of all travel related services.  Tour Operator: A company or a firm, which designs tour packages and makes them available to customers through travel agents. 2.5 LEARNING ACTIVITY 34 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1. Write five lines on the growth and development of the travel agency in the post- Independence period. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. What are the major issues affecting the growth and development of travel agency in the post-independence period? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2.6 UNIT END QUESTIONS A Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Write five lines on the growth and development of the travel agency in the pre- Independence period. 2. Write five lines on the major issues of travel agency business in the pre-Independence period. 3. Compare the situation of Tour Operations in pre independent India and India. 4. What are the major issues affecting the growth and development of travel agencies in the post-independence period? 5. Write five lines on the role of travel associations in the growth and development of travel agencies in the post-liberalization period. Long Questions 1. Explain the role of travel intermediaries in the promotion of tourism in India? 2. What is the current scenario of Indian tourism? 3. Identify the role of TAAI and IATO? 4. Which are the new business opportunities offered by Indian tourism? 5. What is your viewon the success story of ‘Kuoni’? BMultiple Choice Questions 1. What does IATO stand for? a. The Asian Tour Organization b. The Indian Association of Tour Operations c. The Italian Association of Tour Operations d. None of these 35 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

2. When was IATO established? e. 1999 a. 1972 b. 1982 c. 1922 3. When was TAAI formed? a. 1982 b. 1971 c. 1951 d. 1952 4. Which year was the Asian games were first hosted in? a. 1952 b. 1951 c. 1953 d. 1934 5. What does ITDS stand for? a. Indian Tour Department Corporation. b. Italian Tour Department Corporation. c. Indian Tourism Development Corporation. d. None of these. Answers 1-b, 2-c, 3-c, 4-a, 5-c 2.7 REFERENCES References  Francesca Di Virgilio, &Angelo, A. Camillo & Isabel C. Camillo. (2017).the Impact of Social Network on Italian Users: Behavioural Intention for the Choice of a Medical TouristDestination. The Importance of the Destination Choices of Tourists.  Mahir Nakip &Aytaç Gökmen. (2018). International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age. 36 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Development Nicholas, A. Ramchurjee,& Charles, V. Ramchurjee. (2018). an Evaluation of the Attitudes and Perception of the Local Communities in Mysore: Towards theImpacts of Tourism. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age. Textbooks  Chand Mohinder. (2006). “Travel Agency Management: An Introductory Text”. New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.  Sinha, P.C. (n.d). “Tourism: Transport and Travel Management”. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd.  Ravi Bhushan Kumar. (2006). \"Building Foundations for Understanding the International Travel Agency and Tour Operation.” New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd. Websites  http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/08/02/stories/0602000n.htm.  http://www.ttsvisas.com/visas.aspx?page=FAQ.  www.igi-global.com/article/an-evaluation-of-the-attitudes-and-perception-of-the- local-communities-in-mysore-towards-the-impacts-of-tourism- development/201104?camid=4v1a 37 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 3 - TRAVEL INTERMEDIARIES IN INDIA STRUCTURE 3.0 Learning Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Changing Roles of Travel Agents and Tour Operators 3.3 Current Scenario of Indian Tourism 3.4 India’s Outbound and Inbound Growth 3.5 Summary 3.6 Keywords 3.7 Learning Activity 3.8 Unit End Questions 3.9 References 3.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Explain changing Roles of Travel Agents and Tour Operators.  Describe current Scenario of Indian Tourism.  Describe India’s Outbound and Inbound Growth. 3.1 INTRODUCTION Travel agency is the private sector organisation, which plays a vital and crucial role in the promotion of tourism, because in some countries 70 per cent international and 50 per cent domestic is organised by them. The important role of the travel agent in the present world is summarised in the Principles of Professional Conduct and Ethics of the American Society of Travel Agents as follows: “We live in a world in which travel has become both increasingly important and complex in its variety of modes and choices. Travellers are faced with a myriad of alternatives as to transportation, accommodation and other travel services. They must depend on travel agencies and others in the industry to guide them honestly and competently.” 38 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Travel agency business mostly functions in the private sector. The role of the private sector in organization of travel is therefore very crucial. In most countries, which are in any manner concerned with the tourist industry, the private sector plays a very important role. The private sector’s role is not limited merely in selling the tourism product but often also in producing it as many individuals, companies and corporations are involved in promoting, developing and financing tourism. Due to its relative contribution and growing impact in the economy, tourism can play an important role in advancing the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the application of bio economy principles, when governed with social responsibility, following sector specific standards as the ones provided by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. In consideration of their privileged position within the tourism, supply chain the study focuses on tour operators attempting to capture their current efforts toward social responsibility and the degree to which their activities comply with the applicable criteria for sustainable tourism. For three of the most important Romanian tour operators, the study provides an inventory of concrete ongoing activities and organizational governing principles in force, which demonstrates a high commitment toward social responsibility. However, companies recognise that such commitment it seeks to strengthen the corporate image rather than more fundamental sustainability goals. Among respondents, awareness of social responsibility principles and themes is higher than the awareness about specific sustainable tourism criteria. Moreover, the accent falls on the organization in question and only incidentally other supply chain links are involved. Further efforts have to be deployed in order to systematically implement the relevant sustainable tourism code, but companies manifest concern about the financial outcomes of such an investment. 3.2 CHANGING ROLES OF TRAVEL AGENTS AND TOUR OPERATIONS Thomas Cook and the Organization of Travel: The organization and sale of travel, as it is known today, really began in July 1841. A book salesman-cum-Baptist preacher ofDerbyshire was on his way to a temperance meeting in Leicester when he was inspired with “the idea of engaging a special train to carry the friends of temperance from Leicester to Loughborough in England and back to attend a quarterly delegate meeting.He thought that it was a sounder proposition to persuade a railway company to carry a trainload of passengers at a very cheap fare than to run the train at ‘Standard’ fares, but possibly only a quarter full. Thomas Cook’s idea was put into operation with characteristic speed and efficiency. A few weeks’ later 570 travellers made the journey by the Midland Countries Railway at a specially reduced fare. 39 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

This venture was soon followed by excursions to various other places, and in 1843, 3,000 school children were taken on a trip from Leicester to Derby in England. Thomas Cook is real beginning as a ‘mass excursionist’ however was the Liverpool- Caernaryon trip of 1845. The tourists travelled by rail to Liverpool, from where they took a steamer to Caernaryon. The advertisement for the trip caused a sensation and the response was so overwhelming that a second trip had to be arranged. Cook thought of every detail.He made a preliminary survey of accommodation and facilities and produced a Handbook of the Trip to Liverpool. The excursionist’s invasion of Scotland soon followed in 1846 and 1847. By the mid-nineteenth century, holidays away from home had become customary for a larger social group than ever before. Cook’s initiative and organizing genius provided the final impetus.In the winter of 1850-51, Cook was offered the opportunity of conducting excursion trains to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Altogether, Cook conducted 1, 65,000 people to and from the Crystal Place. In 1856, he succeeded in organizing his first ‘grand circular tour of the continent.’ The tour was so successful that it had to be repeated six weeks later.Cook’s conquest of Europe began in 1862 when he arranged with Brighton and South Coast Railway for passenger traffic to the continent. His Paris excursions are the first true ‘package tours’ in that all the details of transport and accommodation were pre-arranged. In 1863, Cook visited Switzerland where hoteliers and railway proprietors greeted his ideas with enthusiasm. His next stop was Italy. Cook first made a personal survey of Turin, Milan, Florence and Genoa, to familiarise himself with their touristic attractions and facilities. 3.3 CURRENT SCENARIO OF INDIAN TOURISM Tourism in India is important for the country's economy and is growing rapidly. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated ₹16.91 lakh crores or 9.2% of India's GDP in 2018 and supported 42.673 million jobs, 8.1% of its total employment. The sector is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 6.9% to ₹32.05 lakh crores by2028. In October 2015, India's medical tourism sector was estimated to be worth US$3 billion, and it is projected to grow to US$7–8 billion by 2020. In 2014, 184,298 foreign patients travelled to India to seek medical treatment. Over 10.93 million foreign tourists arrived in India in 2019 compared to 10.56 million in 2018, representing a growth of 3.5%. Domestic tourist visits to all states and union territories numbered 1,036.35 million in 2012, an increase of 16.5% from 2011. In 2014, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh were the most popular states for tourists. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Agra, and Jaipur were the five most visited cities of India by foreign tourists during the year 2015. Worldwide, Delhi is ranked 28th by the number of foreign tourist arrivals, while Mumbai is ranked 30th, Chennai 43rd, Agra 45th, Jaipur 52nd and Kolkata 90th. 40 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 ranked India 34th out of 140 countries overall. India improved its ranking by 6 places over the 2017 report, which was the greatest improvement among the top 25% of countries ranked. The report ranks the price competitiveness of India's tourism sector 13th out of 140 countries. It mentions that India has quite good air transport infrastructure, particularly given the country's stage of development, and reasonable ground and port infrastructure. The country also scores high on natural resources, and cultural resources and business travel. However, some other aspects of its tourism infrastructure remain somewhat underdeveloped. The nation has many hotel rooms per capita by international comparison and low ATM penetration. The World Tourism Organization reported that India's receipts from tourism during 2012 ranked 16th in the world and 7th among Asian and Pacific countries. Case Study 1 Impact of COVID-19 on tourism sector: a case study of Rajasthan, India Background SARS-CoV-2 or severe acute respiratory syndrome is a virus that causes severe respiratory illness, also known as COVID-19, is a global pandemic caused by a novel corona virus, firstly reported China onDec 2019. In India, Kerala is the first state in which the COVID-19 first case has registered which has risen to three cases by 3 Feb 2020. Purpose The aim of this research is to map the impact and assessment of the COVID 19 pandemic situation using geospatial technology in Rajasthan and suggest various measures to control the pandemic situation. Objectives Assessing and mapping the affected parts of Rajasthan and evaluating the risk of the pandemic on tourism, and initially tracking and forecasting the cases of COVID-19 in the study area. Methodology The methodology consists of four main phases. In the first phase understanding the risk of the pandemic situation at three primary levels i.e., risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk management after that, second step is to identify the target risk zones of COVID-19 cases using geospatial technology based on bulk screening. Assessment and mapping of pandemic risk is the third phase. In the fourth phase, treatment of the risk and evaluation of future occurrence possibilities. Result COVID 19 pandemic is the greatest threat globally. Geospatial technology provides valuable support in assessing and mapping the risk of COVID 19 cases in Rajasthan at the initial level. 41 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Conclusion This study shows that the geospatial technique contributes very significantly to detecting pre and post COVID 19 pandemic conditions and helps in proper decision-making, not only in Rajasthan but also in the entire world. Case Study 2 Status And Scenario Of Tourism Industry In India – A Case Study Of Uttarakhand The main objective of the research paper is to examine the status, scenario, and growth rate of tourism industry in India and Uttarakhand in particular. The socio-economic impact and effect of Himalayan Tsunami on the tourism industry in the state of Uttarakhand has also been covered in the present study. During 2012, the foreign tourist data was just 2.38 million, but it augmented three-fold in a decade to 6.97 million in 2013 with an average annual growth of 28.78%. At present India's global ranking in terms of total tourist, arrival is 42 and in terms of FEE, it got 16th position, which means that India is one of the most favoured nations of the world in top 50 tourist countries. India can increase its standing in the list of most favoured nation if it will take care of negative incidents. The Uttarakhand tourism industry also shows the almost same trend as in case of Indian tourism but instead of continuous increase in the total number of tourist arrival it shows decrease in numberbecause in this hilly state there were so many negative incidents happened like continuous landslides and cloud outburst in rainy season and as it is a tourist dominant state of all the seasons. The total tourist arrival in Uttarakhand is doubled in a decade but if we exclude 2013 then we can observe that it tripled in 2012 but due to Himalayan, tsunami the tourism trend in Uttarakhand is badly affected by a negative growth rate of-28.07%. 3.4INDIA'S OUTBOND AND INBOUND GROWTH Indians have always loved to travel. Even pre-pandemic, India’s outbound travel market has been showing a consistent rise over the past ten years. The growth drivers have been the rising middle-class segment that encompasses 350 Man. of the population, increase in disposable income and a young demographic composition with its heart set on travelling the world Statistics from 2019 before Covid hit, indicates India’s rise to being among the top sources of tourists for several countries: Thailand saw an influx of 1.9 men. Indian tourists contribute to its market growth by about 18%. Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka already have India among their top 10 visitor arrivals every year. Indian tourists are amongst the highest spenders abroad. Outbound tourism expenditure from India totalled to €18.9bn in 2018, registering a growth of 22% over the previous year. At a spending of €720 per departure in 2018, Indian tourists ranked 40th worldwide.Survey June 2020). India: Next Top Source Of Outbound Tourists? 42 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Even though 2020 saw international tourist arrivals decline by 65% in the first half of 2020 over the same period of last year, with arrivals in June down by 93%, the strict 8-month lockdown has further heightened the need to get out and travel among Indians. As destinations opened up India was the first to get out and enjoy the freedom that travel affords! Going with the prevalent sentiments, India’s outbound tourists are looking for a diverse range of vacation types, with wellness holidays acing the charts followed by sports vacations; destination weddings; etc. Top destinations currently include Maldives and Dubai—Indians have been flocking these two countries. According to Indian High Commission in Male—last year, 62,905 Indian tourists holidayed in the Maldives, accounting for 11.3% of the total market share. Dubai saw an increase in arrivals fuelled by an increase of visitors from India, the emirate’s top market. India is one of the fastest growing outbound travel market, standing second to China. With a 1.1 billion population count and a 7 percent rise in GDP, India has enormous potential of growing in outbound travel. The UNWTO had predicted that India will have almost 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. Even with the entry of pandemic, the outbound tourism of India has not suffered a lot. The outbound tourism expenditure of India is 18.9 billion euros in total. The Indian government has grown the Indian tourism over the years. With good connectivity and roads along with proper advertisements and maintenance, India has successfully contributed to outbound and Inbound tourism. 3.5SUMMARY  A tourist visits a place for various purposes, which include recreation, holiday, leisure, health, study, religious belief, business, meeting with friends and relatives without any remunerative job.  All types of tourism in India can be divided into two major categories Natural and Cultural landscapes-based tourism.  Tourism is very dynamic in nature, which varies in spatial and temporal contexts.  The growth of tourism in any area or region depends upon a number of reasons. There are a number of factors like socio-economic, political, natural, epidemics etc., which influence tourism influx.  The growth in the domestic tourism is due to a number of reasons. However,the most significant reasons include increase in income levels, purchasing power, and emergence of a dynamic middle class.  There has been a continuous increase in domestic tourist. Decadal growth rates during 2001 - 2011 were 260% whereas it was 432% during 1997-2011. 43 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Due to its relative contribution and growing impact in the economy, tourism can play an important role in advancing the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the application of bio-economy principles, when governed with social responsibility, following sector specific standards as the ones provided by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. In consideration of their privileged position within the tourism, supply chain the study focuses on tour operators attempting to capture their current efforts toward social responsibility and the degree to which their activities comply with the applicable criteria for sustainable tourism.  For three of the most important Romanian tour operators, the study provides an inventory of concrete ongoing activities and organizational governing principles in force, which demonstrates a high commitment toward social responsibility. However, companies recognise that such commitment it seeks to strengthen the corporate image rather than more fundamental sustainability goals. Among respondents, awareness of social responsibility principles and themes is higher than the awareness about specific sustainable tourism criteria.  Moreover, the accent falls on the organization in question and only incidentally other supply chain links are involved. Further efforts have to be deployed in order to systematically implement the relevant sustainable tourism code, but companies manifest concern about the financial outcomes of such an investment. 3.6 KEYWORDS  Agent: one who acts or has the power to act as the representative of another. Most frequently in travel anyone other than a principal, such as a retail travel agent, receiving agent, ticket agent, local operator, or wholesaler.  Air Coupon: One flight coupon that allows passengers to fly internationally on several airlines.  Infrastructural Facilities: These include facilities like Airport, Roads, Drainage, and Buildings etc. at a destination.  Promotion: All activities such as advertising, publicity, personal selling, and public relations, which are carried out to enhance sales.  Travel Agent: An individual or a firm who is authorized by the airlines, hotels, etc. to enhance the sale of all travel related services.  Tour Operator: A company or a firm, which designs tour packages and makes them available to customers through travel agents. 3.7 LEARNING ACTIVITIES 44 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1. Students use available resources to play the role of travel agent to get clients to designations within budget. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. Make a collection of lessons on the art, culture, geography, and ecology of Africa from PBS. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS A Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. How can we ensure that tourism will be sustainable if resource continues to deplete in the end? 2. Why should a common person prefer a tour operator to plan his holidays? 3. What is the future of tourism in India after COVID -19? 4. What are the expectations of Travel & Tourism fraternity from the government? 5. What major bold steps to be taken or advise by Travel Trade to Government after COVID 19? Long Questions 1. Why do you think that online portals increased market share due to major competition between the tour operator and online tour portals,? Are they providing the best rates and services to the customers? 2. Explain if after COVID 19, is the outbound tourism booming? Considering that the outbound travel market has grown over the past three years. 3. What more do you plan to offer to your customer, considering that some outbound destinations are very economical rather than holidaying in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, or Northeast? With travelling becoming so cheap, people are looking forward to getting more value out of their money. 4. Explain if domestic travel is suffering due to the fact that large part of middle-class India, the definition of holidaying today is essentially ‘travelling abroad’? 5. How Association members help Governments and Tourism Departments for cleanliness at prominent places of tourist significance? 45 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

BMultiple Choice Questions 1. Which is the leading International healthcare accrediting agency? a. Trent International Accrediting Scheme b. Joint Commission International c. NABH – National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health d. UKAF – United Kingdom Accreditation Forum 2. What is T GV is famous for? a. Airlines b. Railways c. Automobiles d. Hotels 3. What is leaving a destination in a better condition than you found it is known as? a. Enhancive sustainability b. Sustainable tourism c. Eco-tourism d. Clean-up tourism 4. How many years since India is a member of the Executive Council of UNWTO continuously? a. 15 b. 17 c. 18 d. 19 5. Which country citizens do not get Visa on arrival scheme on India? a. Finland b. Japan c. Cambodia d. Kazakhstan Answers 46 1-b, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d, 5-d CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

3.9 REFERENCES References  Angelo, A., &Francesca Di Virgilio and Isabel, C. [Camillo]. (2017). The Impact of Social Network on Italian Users: Behavioural Intention for the Choice of a Medical Tourist Destination  Mahir Nakip&Aytaç Gökmen. (2018). The Importance of the Destination Choices of Tourists: The Case of Kazakh Tourists Visiting Turkey. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age.  Nicholas, A. Ramchurjee,& Charles, V. Ramchurjee. (2018).an Evaluation of the Attitudes and Perception of the Local Communities in Mysore: Towards the Impacts of Tourism Development. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age Textbooks  Chand Mohinder. (2006). Travel Agency Management: An Introductory Text. New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.  Sinha, P.C. (n.d). Tourism:Transport and Travel Management. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd.  Mohinder Chand Dhiman.& Ravi Bhushan Kumar.(2006). Building Foundations for Understanding the International Travel Agency and Tour Operation. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd. Websites  http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/08/02/stories/0602000n.htm  .http://www.ttsvisas.com/visas.aspx?page=FAQ.  www.igi-global.com/article/an-evaluation-of-the-attitudes-and-perception-of-the- local-communities-in-mysore-towards-the-impacts-of-tourism- development/201104?camid=4v1a 47 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT4 – TRAVEL AGENTS AND TOUR OPERATORS STRUCTURE 4.0 Learning Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Indian Tourism Offers New Business Opportunities 4.3 Tourism Awards to Travel Agents and Tour Operators 4.3.1 A Case Study of Kuoni. 4.4 Summary 4.5 Keywords 4.6 Learning Activity 4.7 Unit End Questions 4.8 References 4.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Explain how Indian Tourism Offers New Business Opportunities for travel operators.  Describe Tourism Awards to Travel Agents and Tour Operators  Explain the tour operation in India. 4.1 INTRODUCTION A Tour Operator is a person or company that thinks up ideas for holidays, researches the ideas, designs the holiday itinerary and content, contracts the services needed for the holiday, accommodation, transport, guides, tour leaders, or resort reps etc and then markets the resultant package. They either sell the package directly to the consumer or use the services of a travel agent to do so. A tour operator sells the product that they themselves create. They do not sell anybody else's packages; they sell only their own creations. And a tour operator is what in law is referred to as a \"principal\", meaning they take responsibility for the package that they create and cover that liability withan ATOL licence and/or some form of bonding to ensure that the consumer gets their money back if the tour operator fails, or is flown home if they are abroad when a tour operator fails. 48 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

It's worth mentioning that, with regard to bonding for financial protection, the law asks that certain items or services must be bonded; AITO demands that all its tour operators bond anything they sell to the consumer; this is in excess of what the law demands, to the benefit of the consumer. A Travel Agent offers the consumer a range of holiday packages that have been put together by a tour operator. They do not, in theory, put together any of their own packages; they sell many different holidays put together by lots of different tour operators. They do not usually design or create the holidays they sell, and they do not act as a Principal; the tour operator whose product they sell takes the responsibility for the holiday; the travel agent does not. Therefore, the agent usually does not have an ATOL licence or any Bonding in place but relies on the tour operator to cover this. Figure 4.1: tourism service Nowadays it is fair to say, the difference between tour operator and travel agent is blurred. Some travels agents do create some packages, and therefore do act as a Principal and have the required licences, but they will also sell other product put together by tour operators. A good analogy goes like this: if you want to buy a dining room table and chairs, you have two choices. You can go directly to the factory where one particular company makes the table and chairs and buy from the creator of the product. However, you will only, at that factory, see furniture made by that one manufacturer. IF you go to a high street store and browse their furniture department, you can choose from a range of furniture made by several different furniture makers, but none of the furniture has been made by the high street retail store. 49 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4.2 INDIAN TOURISMOFFER AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES India is very diverse and has been a culturally rich country. Many invaders came to India, and they not only left the magnificent monuments but also left their culture here. Nowadays every state has its own culture, and every state celebrates its festivals. Many people from all over the country are attracted to India because of its scenic beauty, which spreads from Kashmir in the North to Kanyakumari in the South and Arunachal Pradesh in the East to Gujarat in the West, and multiculturalism. For e.g., besides Imambara is the not only monument in Lucknow but also, there are many restaurants where Nawabi cuisine is well – served, and it is famous for its Chikan Embroidery work. 10% of the national income comes from the tourism sector. However, because of some reasons, the tourism sector lags behind the other major sectors due to which our country is only “developing”, and others are “developed.” Some Reasons are 1. Lack of Infrastructure – It is a major challenge for the Indian tourism sector. This includes hotels, connectivity with other cities, health facilities, etc. The major reason for this unconcern is a poor allocation of money in the budget. 2. Safety and Security – Safety & security of tourists is the most important factor, which governs whether people will come to that destination, or not. Attacks on foreign tourists, especially on the woman tourists have raised this question. India is placed at 114th position in terms of safety. The tourism sector should become strict and should pass laws against those criminals who cheat the innocent tourists. 3. Inaccessibility – There are many tourist destinations in the country, which are not accessible to poor, women, and elderly because of the high cost of transportation, poor connectivity with cities and around 2% of the tourist cannot access many of the tourist spots in the country. 4. Tourism is the only sector, which not only creates jobs but also provides jobs in the tertiary sector. It is now high time for us to work for the betterment of this sector so that from the upcoming years, the number of foreign tourists may increase, and more people will be able to know about our culture. Case Study New business opportunities in the growing e-tourism industry Responding to the dual pressures of globalization and economic downturn, communities across the world formerly driven by agriculture and industry are increasingly turning toward tourism as an economic mainstay. In order for industry leaders to compete with the efforts of competitors and perceptive marketers, new business models must be defined which allow for the incorporation of e-tourism tools and expansion into the 50 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)