Online sales of tour operators will reduce the number of travel agents. Experts give them survival advice

Against the background of the reorientation of the giants of the world travel industry from agency sales to sales of tours via the Internet to direct buyers, experts of the Russian travel market are confident that in our country the services of travel agents will remain in demand for a very long time. However, the global trend to change the distribution model of tour operators will still reduce the number of travel agencies in Russia, so to survive, they need to adapt to the new realities of the market.

According to the results of sales in 2011, the management of the giant of European tourism - the TUI concern, decided to radically revise its development strategy, transferring up to 40% of its sales to the Internet over the next 2-3 years. This is reported by the Austrian magazine TAI. To achieve this strategic goal, among other things, TUI launched its own tour search engine iExplore, which collected offers from almost 20 companies within the holding.

It is noteworthy that in Russia, the process of leaving tourists from travel agents on the Internet is also gaining momentum, albeit with some lag. Internet sales have long been growing in Russia. Tourists themselves now get visas at visa centers and book hotels. This market is growing rapidly. If in 3-5 years they cancel visas to the EU, the tourist flow will flow there. But Moscow tour operators already miss 20-30% of tourists in advanced destinations – ski Austria, Paris and Prague. There many go and book flights and hotels without excursions themselves. This is a trend of the last 2-3 years, said Tatiana Wand, General Director of the travel company “Vand International”. The expert is sure that if there are more visa centers in Russia, then tourists will be able to visit the country. traveler It'll get even smaller. However, excursion tourism, as well as exotic tours to Southeast Asia, Latin America and some other regions will remain offline. Online reservations will not be popular here – language barrier, security nuances, etc. Tourists without the help of travel agencies can not do here. And with the intellectual growth of the population, the need for excursion tours is growing, so travel agencies will remain in demand in this segment. By the way, travel agencies are also needed for visits to high seasons - you can book the most popular hotels for such visits only in six months or a year, which does not suit all tourists, the expert added.

However, the lag of the Russian tourist market from the Western one is not quite correct. The Russian tourism industry is only 20 years old, and the European one is much older. However, our tourism business is growing faster than the Western one. However, the development of the tourist market is organic, it meets the needs of tourists and legislative restrictions, as well as how the consumer is formed, said Taras Kobishchanov, General Director of the Russian Express travel company. So, according to the expert, in Germany 6 years ago there were 17 thousand travel agencies, now there are only 10 thousand. “Remained the strongest, professionals, offering tourists additional service. The same is likely to happen with us: some customers will go online, some will remain with travel agencies that provide additional services and support, support. In addition, different attitudes of tourists to rest play into the hands of our travel agencies: in Germany, although they plan in advance where to spend the holidays, for the average German this is not a super significant event, because vacation is a smaller part of the salary. We have a different - many save for a tourist trip for years, so the risk of making a mistake when choosing a holiday for a client is much more weighty and when buying such tourists need live advice from a real professional, the source said.

At the same time, experts believe that TUI is doing the right thing, focusing on the global trend in travel sales. “From a business perspective, online sales for TUI is the right move. They will focus on direct consumers, which will bring them additional profit. As for Russia, the Germans came here with their samovar, which was certainly their mistake. However, in Russia, direct sales from a financial point of view will also help them, said Tatiana Vand. In the office of TUI Russia, the correspondent of the Turprom information group was promised to talk about its new strategy in Russia in the near future.

P.S. After writing this material from the Russian branch of TUI came a response to a request from the correspondent of the information group “TURPROM” about the prospects of transferring most of the business to the Internet. Here are the most interesting fragments of this answer:

This year, the volume of online sales of TUI Russia will be up to 4% of the total. It is probably a mistake to consider the active development of this sales sector only as a competitive relative office sales: more than 6,000 travel agencies in Russia provide more than 70% of TUI tour operator sales. It is obvious that not only in the near future, but also in the long term, the demand for travel services will be able to provide volumes for both office and online sales. Especially considering our personal purchases. At the same time, the overall online services market is growing rapidly, an increasing number of our customers are taking advantage of Internet access anytime, anywhere, and the travel services market is no absolute exception. Developing the online sales sector, the tour operator TUI simultaneously affects sales in retail offices: statistics show that having received online telephone consultations on the TUI tourist product, a significant part of customers complete the purchase process in the nearest office operating under the TUI brand. Supporting the level of sales of retail offices is one of the main goals of the TUI e-commerce directorate.

Anastasia Makhova

Source: tourprom.ru