Falling market will destroy not only the Amateurs and partisans.
the Pandemic continues to change the established rules of tourist business. The principles that he previously worked as a travel agent in the era “after the virus” will be ineffective. Flexibility and ability to transform is the answer, ignoring change will lead to the collapse. “Izvestia” found that occurs in the market of tourist services.
“habitat” significantly cleaned up — in one voice say experts. “The market will take in the order of 30-50% of the travel agencies,” — says Rashad Mammadov, head of the TBS Group.
“Yes, the crisis will clean the area from inefficient structures because of the falling market does not forgive the amateurism. And this process I think is positive. But the fact is that once the industry starts to recover, companies will again begin to appear like mushrooms after rain. And here we return to the issue of licensing of travel agencies. After it was cancelled in 2007, the input threshold in the business was the chair and computer, and on the market there are many companies that don’t have a clue how to properly run a business. It is necessary to develop rules that would help to restore order in this segment. First of all the tour operators should be interested in the fact that travelers are catered to professional distributors,” said Rashad Mammadov.
George Pogosov, managing Director of the network of travel agencies “Marceline travel”, I agree with my colleague, and focuses on another critical factor — the so-called travel agents, homeworkers, of freelancers, the number of which in the current situation will increase. “The majority of homeworkers unprofessional, working in black and destabilisateur the situation on the market. Because they don’t have costly parts and can maneuver a price. This is their only “value”. Such work can’t be civilized, and risks of tourists in this form of reservation is very high,” says George Pogosov.
Another thing that now can grow the share of sales made remotely, as tourists during the time of the forced vacation has got used to the communication channel with the agent. There is an opinion that a permanent office is no longer needed for efficient operation that became apparent in a situation of quarantine. “We worked in the office, but we had to refuse him because for more than three months we have no income. Reduction of costs in the form of rejection of the office is important. I don’t think we will return in the summer to the office, but this does not mean that we will go the way agents-partisan, selling tours for a penny, and it upsets the balance in the market”, — said Vladimir Kuleshov, General Director of the company “Hottest”.
“Look, online-services growing by leaps and bounds. Us online, of course, no one is waiting. But perhaps the travel agents could be travel consultants which would give independent travelers, searching tours to various aggregators, their expertise.
Another likely problem is the departure of tourists directly to the tour operators. Do not rule out that the tour operators will be able to serve volumes falling market through its call centers — says a representative of a travel retail, on condition of anonymity.
Irina Butov, General Director of the Agency “Travel room”, optimistic and not inclined to predict the demise of the classical model of the retail industry: “Ability online booking appeared on the websites of major tour operators yesterday, however, the proportion of bookings to total sales is small. Tourists in this respect conservative.
moreover, the pandemic has revealed all the disadvantages of self-reservation, whereas package tourists were more secure. This means that the likely growth in the segment of organized recreation. As for the call centers that the tour operators are cheaper in every sense to sell your product forces travel retail”.
Angela Galkin, the head of the Agency Committee of the Russian Union of travel industry, no doubt: now is the time smart and strong. Companies that can catch trends quickly to adjust, to learn, able to actualize its role in the market, will be able to resist and will continue to work. The position of those for whom all work was to select the most affordable of the proposals even before the pandemic was shaky, and this crisis will only bring them closer to the finals.
But how to be strong, if sales are zero, and terms of opening foreign destinations so vague that it is time drowning in sadness? So in one sentence you can voice the fears of the lion’s share of the Russian travel agents about its future.
Alexan Mkrtchyan, Director of the network of travel agencies “Pink elephant” gives the answer: “it’s Time to stop waiting and count the losses.”
Mkrtchyan know that more than 80% of agencies specializiruetsya in the sale of outbound destinations and the shift to the Russian product is not so easy. But those travel agents who are now able to understand the product, study it, will be, according to the expert, in an advantageous position.
Mkrtchyan says that to sell domestic tours are quite scary. “About eight years ago, the volume of Russia in our network is 5%, last year the figure was already at 40% — about 70 thousand tourists. About 150 travel agencies of our network is engaged only in domestic tourism, and believe me, they are not a disaster. Sell five tours to Kamchatka, and you will receive a return similar to that as if youruled 40 people in Turkey. And when I hear that the Russian market is capacious, then pay attention to the doubters on statistics according to which for last year the resorts of Krasnodar region hosted about 17 million tourists”, — said the expert.
travel Agents pay attention to such a feature of domestic tourism, as an independent booking, hotel discounts for direct customers and low level of service.
“Certainly, there are unscrupulous hoteliers, give us one price, and directly below. Of course, the tourist will lose interest in the tour operator. But such properties are not more than five, a maximum of 10%. And once we learn this, we will stop working. There are still horror stories: holiday in Russia is always a low level of service and accommodation in the old private sector. Such stereotypes are formed due lack of knowledge”, — says Sergey Romashkin, the General Director of “Dolphin”.
the Large tour operators, which this year increased its presence on the Russian market or debuted, said that the interest of agents to new products appears. “With Russia do not all work the travel Agency. But in a new environment for domestic flights began to pay attention much more and agents, and tourists. Every major tour operator have already submitted packages for Russia, and travelers are actively interested in it. Perhaps many people prefer to travel around the country independently, but is more of a stereotype than actually practical. For nearly a year now is a good time to explore new products, including Russia”, — said Alena khitrova, PR Director tour operator ANEX Tour.
point of interest for its new products, including Charter flights to Sochi and Baikal, as well as weekend tours, and “TUI Russia”. “We not only teach, but give them a good motivation in the form of increased Commission”, — reported in the press service operator.
Trying to attract to new products and the agents themselves, primarily preferential payment terms. “We offer agents to book Russian resorts on the action “pre-order”, with zero advance payment for the tour and pay the tour a month before the departure”, — told Lyubov Kuchmaeva, marketing Director of tour operator PAX.
