Will the selection of tours in Russian agencies be paid?

Situations become common when future customers calculate the tour from professionals, and purchase it in "discount" agencies or online tour aggregators. Most often there is advice to complainers in the comments – to take a fee “for consultation” from the traveler who asked for help in the selection of the tour.

 

In the West, travel companies have allocated consultations in a separate paid type of services. Experts say they cost between 200 and 300 euros.

 

Anna Podgornaya, director of tour operator Pegas Touristik: Any work must be paid. And if a legally competent contract is concluded between the travel agent and the tourist, which spells out the condition of paid consultations, then no difficulties should arise.”

 

Opinions of representatives of tourist retail are different.

 

Viktor Akulinin, Director of BMMT Sputnik Tambov: “It is simply difficult to provide paid consultations to tourists, because we cannot impose a service on the client or provide it to him in the load.”

In his opinion, I would like to introduce a fee not to increase income, but to work with the client was not wasted.

 

Alexander Iosifyan, director of BMMT Sputnik Domodedovo, is sure that people will not want to pay for what they can do on their own in an online aggregator.

 

The Legal Service of the Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) reports that “Consultations and the provision of paid services for the selection of a tour are not a violation of the law.”

 

There are no approved tariffs for services of “tourist consultants” on the market, and there are no general rules for their provision. The cost of consultation can be affected by the reputation of the company, the specific manager, the lack of competitors and the salary in the region. The price of one consultation from 300-500 rubles to 2000-2500 rubles.

 

The main competitor of the offline agency in Russia is not online aggregators, but another offline agency that can give a serious discount.

 

Internet aggregators help to select a tour, taking into account various filters, but their number is limited. Offline “colleagues” in the tourist retail market use the results of the selection of competent specialists, and they themselves make ready-made tours.

 

Different quality of consultations and the price of the final product are obtained due to the fact that there are many agencies, the threshold for entering the business is low.

 

Experts believe that the tourist market is waiting for changes. Perhaps in the new individual package will be marked consultation, which will be a tangible part of the revenue.

 

Tour operator TUI Russia has developed a project of “travel agent Uber”, a remote call center in which each telephone consultation that led to the purchase of a tour will be rewarded with a commission of 3%.

 

Some experts believe that it will not work to make money on the flow, and you can become real travel consultants. But this can be done by the most outstanding agencies and managers with a proven database, knowledge and experience.

 

Agencies need to understand that the most important thing for them is a living person with their own needs. If the needs are met, the tourist will not go to competitors, even technological ones.

 

According to information: atorus