The tourism sector mobilized 1.4 billion international tourists in 2019, equivalent to almost one-fifth of the world’s population. In total, global tourism spending was US$5.85 trillion. This high demand makes tourism a highly competitive industry.
Offering a package that meets travelers’ objectives in terms of price, quality and itinerary functionality is complex. It must be designed by operators capable of assembling diverse tourism services and working directly with suppliers. Who are the people behind the organization of these travel tours offered by wholesale travel agencies?
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What are wholesale tour operators?
Wholesale tour operators are responsible for finding and combining tour services such as airlines, hotels, transportation, etc. to create attractive and convenient travel packages.
How does a wholesale tour operator work?
Wholesale operators usually formalize contracts with service providers in the travel industry, so they can obtain more competitive rates by purchasing or booking in higher volumes. Once they put their packages together, they offer them to travel agencies for them to sell to travelers at competitive prices.
The retail operators make a profit in the form of a commission. Customers save while the tour operator gets a small commission for each package they sell to a large number of people.
What is the difference between wholesale and retail tour operators?
The wholesale tour operator does not sell to the end customer; its main clients are travel agencies, which act as intermediaries. On the other hand, a retail tour operator’s clients are the travelers, whom it helps to organize their trip and offers tour packages created by the wholesale agency.
The main characteristic of wholesale tour operators is that they generally do not deal directly with travelers, but organize their packages with them in mind. They create options considering various factors such as the seasonal nature of tourism or the types of tourism that a destination can receive: young vacationers, business travelers, sportsmen, cultural tours, for domestic visitors, adventure tourism, religious tourism, etc.o .
Other factors that must be taken into account when creating these packages are: the life cycle of a tourist destination, i.e., if the destination is popular and on-trend, if it is an emerging niche, new travel technologies and making sure that good practices are complied with, for example, ensuring that biosecurity measures are taken to protect travelers’ health, or that alternatives are available in case, for whatever reason, the initial conditions of the trip are modified.
Wholesale travel agencies make these packages available to travel agencies so that they can choose the ones that best fit their market segments and meet their clients’ travel expectations.
One of the questions most frequently asked by professionals in the travel industry is how to sell tour packages, a process that is directly linked to the customer’s buying cycle. This cycle is divided into 3 different phases: pre-purchase phase, consumption phase and post-purchase phase. Today there are many channels through which retail travel agencies can promote and sell their tour packages.
Currently, digital channels such as travel agencies’ social networks are the most popular when it comes to selling tour packages since they are used to directly and visually present photos of the destination, provide information about the package and offer the possibility of booking the product on the spot.
What are dynamic packages and opaque pricing?
Over time we have seen the product assembly process evolve, and undoubtedly the pandemic has accelerated everything, which is why today wholesale operators have technological tools that are fundamental, such as the dynamic package. This tool allows them to build a tailor-made package by selecting Flight+Hotel+Service or Flight+Hotel or Hotel+Transfer, etc., which allows their clients to make quicker choices for the final passenger, which is very important in these times where access to information and costs quickly and effectively is imperative.
We often do not understand why a tour package is cheaper than the cost of purchasing the services separately, and this has to do with the existence of “Opaque pricing”, which is specially designed for wholesale operators and has the following conditions: It can only be used for the assembly of tour packages and these prices cannot be published separately or be made available to the client individually. This is because they are slightly cheaper than the usual wholesale rates and are distributed both online and offline.
Examples of wholesale tour operators
Here are some wholesale tour operators, these are from Latin America recognized for their performance, rates, commissions, variety of their products and the excellent service they provide to travel agencies.
Travel Impressions
One of the most recognized wholesale operators in the USA, founded in 1972, Travel Impressions offers a dynamic range of products, along with training programs for travel agents through its TI University, and its renowned “price match“. The company is part of Apple Leisure Group, one of the most prominent global travel groups
Ágil Perú
Founded in 1996, and part of the Nuevo Mundo group, it is one of the largest wholesale agencies in Peru, with a number of major clients worldwide. Ágil Perú is also involved in providing consultancy and training to the retail agencies with which it works.
Ágil Perú focuses its efforts on developing state-of-the-art technology to optimize the distribution of information with its clients and suppliers. It also offers online tools so that its clients can reach their target audience and track their sales metrics.
OLA Mayorista
This tour operator has more than 20 years of experience. In the last few years it has experienced significant growth in the Argentine market. Its online offering is varied through its Ola Click tool and in 2019 it was acquired by the CVC Corp group (one of the most powerful tourism conglomerates in the region with headquarters in Brazil).
ADS Mundo
This is a wholesale company in Chile with a great dedication to tourism. It has a team of professionals with the necessary knowledge and creativity to meet the requirements of its clients.
ADS Mundo focuses its travel experiences in a destination as complete as Chile is: the northern region, the islands, Santiago, the Central Valley, Patagonia, lakes and volcanoes, sailing trips, as well as trips to neighboring countries such as Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. Its team knows the infrastructure, coordination systems and logistics of these fascinating places to perfection.
Agaxtur Viajes
Agaxtur Viajes is a Brazilian agency with offices in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, Argentina. It specializes in serving incentive groups, cruises and special events, packages for Disney parks, other theme parks in Orlando and beach tourism.
In addition to serving and advising travel agencies, its website provides a search and booking system for individual tourists, whether for hotels, cruises, airplanes or car rentals.
Euromundo
It is today one of the leading Wholesale Operators in Mexico, with more than 25 years of experience since its foundation, it sets trends through its technological innovation and product. They have an excellent online service, and a great diversity of both national and international offerings. In 2019, Euromundo acquired the company Ofertas Turísticas (Ofertur), thus expanding its product portfolio for its customers.
Other examples of wholesale tour operators in the region are listed below:
Jade Reps
This wholesale agency focused mainly on Peruvian tourism, offering travel packages to destinations within the country, such as Cusco, Trujillo, Tarapoto or Puno; as well as international destinations, such as the Mexican Caribbean. An important market for Jade Reps is beach tourism. They also offer special promotions on domestic and international flights. Jade Reps provides online training to its allied travel agents so that they can learn more about the destinations and hotels with which they have agreements, such as Arnawa or Casa Andina.
Terramar
This is a wholesale agency in Paraguay that has agreements with more than 800,000 hotels around the world. Terramar works closely with its clients, the travel agencies, to offer interesting destinations every season and according to their needs. Its main services are the booking of flights, hotels and packages, mainly in outbound tourism to the Caribbean, the beaches of Brazil, theme parks in the U.S., New York and Europe, among others.
Eurovips
Founded in 1987, they offer tourist services only to wholesalers through travel agencies all over Argentina. Pioneers in charter flights and group trips, which contributes to the development of the sector for millions of travelers.
Julia tours
This company has more than 75 years of experience in the European tourism market. In Argentina, they currently have 3,700 national and international travel agencies, which rely on Julia Tours to market the wide range of destinations they work with.
Aero
Founded in the city of La Plata, Argentina, they have 50 years of experience in the sector. They operate in destinations such as Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico and USA.
Sevens
Seven es un operador mayorista que fue fundado en 2011, cuenta con una importante trayectoria en el mercado uruguayo.
Liberty Uruguay
Liberty Uruguay is a wholesale operator founded in Uruguay that works mainly with the Central European market.
It is also worth mentioning the following tour operators for reference: Euroandino, Tourmundial, Expan Tours, Cielos Abiertos, Turivel, Mega travel, Trend Operadora, E-HTL, Carrusel, Westoperadora, CIC, Tower travel, Europlus, Maral turismo, DTP
How is revenue management carried out in a wholesale agency?
For the future of travel agencies, it is essential to implement Revenue Management technology. Thanks to the use of these tools, results are obtained much faster and more efficiently, as is the case of Hotelmize, which has developed a tool based on AI that increases the profit on all existing hotel bookings automatically, without any risk to the operation. This automated process not only allows companies to increase margins by more than 35% per booking, but also to improve customer service and operation during the process.
