home » Trading » Options and ideas for creating a successful tourism business. How to start a travel business: a travel agency business plan

Options and ideas for creating a successful tourism business. How to start a travel business: a travel agency business plan

Business ideas in tourism and leisure - new hotel concepts, unique travel programs and travel services.

Airports are often the venue for innovative business ideas. These can be socially significant projects, such as, for example, in Japan, or ideas aimed at improving passenger comfort, such as, or. The priority direction for the development of the Dubai International Airport is to improve security and adapt to the growing passenger traffic. Therefore, display tunnels for scanning passengers will soon appear here.

Hiking enthusiasts know perfectly well what troubles an unexpectedly discharged smartphone or GPS navigator can turn into. Of course, there are portable chargers. But all of them, for one reason or another, are far from perfect. A few years ago, we wrote on a site about American ones, which, as a bonus, offer users electricity for lighting and charging gadgets. Progress does not stand still, and now our Russian entrepreneurs have put on sale an innovative tourist stove that can charge electronic gadgets from a fire.

As soon as the Internet and other modern technologies have firmly established themselves in our lives, we did not even have time to come to our senses, as we became their slaves. For example, Internet addiction has not yet been officially recognized as a mental illness, but today it causes serious concern around the world. While specialized centers are being opened in different parts of our planet to help people combat Internet addiction, the most conscious citizens are trying to cope with the problem on their own. Someone introduces restrictive rules for using gadgets at home, someone is saved by meditation and creativity. According to Dmitry Nikitin, an entrepreneur from Kazan, an excellent solution in such a situation could be offline camp for adults to fight internet addiction.

Living in a metropolis, of course, has its drawbacks (traffic jams, turmoil, noise, exhaust fumes), but all this is covered by one big advantage - the number and variety of entertainment. Today Moscow is theaters, cinemas, museums, exhibitions, festivals, lecture halls, excursions, marathons, master classes and, of course, super-popular city quests of late. Spoiled Moscow audiences want to see new forms, and enterprising Moscow businessmen know how to capitalize on this desire. So, for example, for those who do not like to plan and depend on other people in matters of recreation and entertainment, an electronic guide service has recently appeared.

The tourism business is a goldmine. The number of ideas that can interest tourists is inexhaustible - there are those who want to try out strange, extravagant, senseless and even dangerous proposals. Some interesting ideas already appreciated.

We continue to publish reviews of various business ideas from around the world. Previously, we wrote about business ideas based on the production of any product, business ideas for women, ideas with minimal costs and home business ideas.

Today we will talk about tourism business ideas. Moreover, most of which will be, to put it mildly, not quite ordinary and standard. But first things first. It should be noted that tourism is developing quite actively, not only abroad, but also in Russia. There are new directions, new travel agencies. The number of holidaymakers is growing every year, which is good news. Recreation and tourism is becoming an integral attribute of people.

Locals - tourist guides

If we take into account a small town, then there is perhaps no such place where every resident has not been. But if you take a larger city, or a metropolis, for example, Moscow or St. Petersburg, then there are hundreds, and possibly thousands of interesting places where the indigenous people not only have not been, but have not heard about them.

Such places can be abandoned buildings, beautiful places in parks, in nature, perhaps even a beautiful panoramic view from the roof of the house, etc. In addition to local residents, there are many tourists who are much more interested in seeing the city through the eyes of ordinary people, its inhabitants, than to go on standard excursions.

For implementation, you need to find people who know such places, gather a group, take care of safety and send them on an impromptu hike. I assure you that they will be satisfied and will recommend your agency to their friends.

Pizza tours

American Scott Wiener opened a company offering pizza tours. Tourists are taken to different pizzerias, treated to pizza and told about the features and history of the establishment. The cost of the tour is $55, runs on Sundays. Tourists are transported by school bus to almost all pizzerias in New York. The tour lasts about 5 hours. Individual and walking tours are also offered. The business exists and brings substantial profit for more than three years.

Hotel and restaurant in prison

The small town of Volterra, near Pisa and Florence, provides its visitors with a unique opportunity to dine in the most real prison. But getting there is not so easy. First, you need to register in advance. The queues stretch for weeks and even months. If you still managed to reserve a table, you will have to go through a personal search, leave most of the items in the storage room, and only then go to your table.

The hall has a capacity of 100 seats. Dinner costs 25 euros. This price includes one dish, mainly traditional Italian cuisine and a glass of wine. But in Germany they went even further and turned the prison into a hotel. Alcatraz Hotel - this is the name of this hotel, it has 56 rooms of different comfort.

There are deluxe rooms that are not much different from similar rooms in other hotels, and there are budget options - with one bed and a bucket in the corner. Of course, not everything is as bad as in real prisons. The bed, as well as the plumbing, is of good quality, everything is clean. The room has a TV and even wireless internet. Surprisingly, these rooms are the most popular among tourists. The cost of one night is 79 euros.

Free sex hotel

Berth Milton, managing director of Private Media, proposed and has already tested his idea in the field of hospitality. The essence of the idea is to build a 5-star hotel, rooms in which will be provided free of charge.

However, in turn, the guests will be required to make love, the process of which will be broadcast over the Internet, for those who like to peep. It is estimated that one hotel will be able to bring in more than 40 million dollars a year. Bert plans to create a whole chain of hotels throughout the country and possibly around the world.

Walking on a transparent boat

Transparent Canoe-Kayak has developed an unusual, transparent boat, and offers paid trips on the sea to everyone. The beauty of this boat is that the frame is made of aluminum and the bottom is made of transparent plastic. Thanks to this, while walking, you can easily look down, observing the processes taking place in the depths of the sea. Boat trips are especially in demand on coral reefs, where the water is especially transparent and a rich water world is visible to the naked eye.

Travel business to the places of death of celebrities

Dearly Departed Tours is a travel company based in Los Angeles that conducts rather unusual excursions to the places of death of Hollywood celebrities. Tours last for 3 hours. During this time, tourists visit more than 100 attractions, including the place where the most scandalous incident happened to a celebrity and, in fact, the grave itself. Scott Michaels, owner and tour guide, says the business is in high demand. Since the opening of the company, he has conducted excursions for more than 10,000 tourists from all over the world.

Extreme tourism

This type of tourism is in demand among people whose life is quite calm and often even boring. These can be office workers, managers, etc. They, and many others, want to tickle their nerves, test themselves. So, for example, in the Australian city of Darwin, an unusual attraction was opened. Wishing people are put in a transparent cage and lowered into the water with a hefty crocodile. The duration of the whole event is 15 minutes.

Although the thick wall of the box protects a person from a crocodile, adrenaline in the blood rises and tourists get what they came for. According to Michael Scott, owner of the company, the number of customers has been growing since the opening, and at a fairly rapid pace. The price of the attraction is $35. It's not exactly an original idea. As far as I know, something similar has been practiced with sharks for a long time. True, instead of a transparent one, they use a real, iron cage.

Guides from locals

Nectar & Pulse produces travel guides for Europe. At the moment, guides are available for Vienna, Stockholm and London. The business itself is business as usual. The reader will ask the question: well, they say, what is special about guidebooks, boring books with descriptions?

And the beauty of Nectar & Pulse travel guides is that they are written by ordinary people who live in the city you are about to visit. Moreover, besides this, the guidebook for the same city was written by different people ... I will clarify, people with different characters and different interests. Before buying a guide, you can read the description (profile) of the writer and choose for yourself a more "soul mate" who certainly knows what you will like in the city!

The tourism boom is churning out startups serving the interests of tourists. In 2018, the P2P business model is trending, the integration of blockchain technologies, as well as the growth in the number of luxury and economy services.

World tourism revenues are growing faster than global GDP, and the number of international tourist arrivals in 2017 on the planet grew by 7% at once. Such rapid growth, which continues in 2018, is accompanied by a constant increase in the service industry and improvement in the quality of services, and on all fronts and in different price categories. On the one hand, the trends are ubiquitous low-cost, p2p services for tourists that exclude any intermediaries from the chain, and even an increase in the capacity of transport, and on the other hand, an increase in the number of luxury services and services that allow creating a unique and personalized travel experience.

The Vayable platform is built on the P2P business model that is popular today, bringing together users looking for a unique travel experience with locals who are ready to offer such services. It can be individual tours of the night city, design and photography lessons, private dinners, local wine tasting and all kinds of cultural exchange events. The organizers are citizens from such cities as Los Angeles and Istanbul, Vienna and Paris, Amsterdam and London and many others. A model like the Vayable is trending right now. Similar services with unique tours from local residents in more than 30 cities around the world, for example, are provided by the CityUnscripted service.

Zappos and Mamava have teamed up to create mobile breastfeeding booths at airports. Inside these booths there are two benches and a folding table, feeding dispensers, air conditioning, USB outlets for charging gadgets, and trash cans. So that any mother can relax properly, relaxing soundtracks are played inside with recordings of ocean waves and children's laughter.

In room 2425 at the Hilton Panama hotel, you can completely forget about the sandy beaches, the sea and the palm trees that you can see outside the window. The US-based Alienware has packed it with compelling gaming gear, including a 65-inch 4K OLED TV, an Alienware Intel Core i7-8700 PC, a 34-inch monitor connected laptop, multiple Xbox One Elites, and an Oculus Rift VR headset. The Game Room has interactive lighting, two beds with Alienware branded pillows, and costs $349 per night.

Most airlines charge for the carriage of luggage, and therefore compact transformer bags that can be taken with you in hand luggage have become very popular today. Responding to such a need, Solgaard has come up with the Lifepack suitcase, the interior of which transforms into a cabinet with shelves. Thanks to the principle of a portable wardrobe, a person can effortlessly find the right thing, without interrupting everything upside down in search of the right thing.

In China, the construction of the Songjiang InterContinental Hotel, which journalists dubbed the Deep Pit Hotel, or literally “Deep Pit Hotel”, is being completed. The building is being built in an abandoned quarry 80 meters deep and is an artificial continuation of its wall, rising above the ground by two floors. The hotel will create 370 rooms, conference rooms and recreation areas. According to the project, the bottom of the quarry will be turned into a luxurious artificial reservoir with pools. In the center of the Deep Pit Hotel there will be a waterfall, which is planned to be the main feature of the hotel.

Blockchain technology promises to bring great prospects in the tourism sector, thanks to which it will be possible to reduce prices for tourist services by 10-30%, and the entire range of services will become easy to find on one site. One of the services in this area is trying to promote the Indian team Bookingjini, promising to free hotels from exorbitant commissions for booking services. Through an automated booking system and direct orders without the mediation of agents, users, in turn, can be provided with cheaper rental services.

Ubiatar is a service that is an opportunity to earn money on travel by completing orders from other users. A person (Avatar), located anywhere in the world, broadcasts to a viewer (Usar), who pays for it and controls the “avatar”. At the same time, the customer sees and hears everything that happens to his hero on the other side of the screen using the Internet. For broadcasting, the host receives a reward in the form of tokens. By launching the application, you can conduct excursions around your city or country, share experiences with those who cannot afford to travel due to physical or financial restrictions.

Dutch start-up Slow Cabins invites its customers to take the guesswork out of choosing a place for their trip and book a cabana... no one knows where. The feature of the service is that the location data becomes known only after the order is paid. The cottages are located in a peaceful countryside, suitable for an idyllic holiday alone, as a couple or with family. The creators of the service periodically change the location of their houses in order to please regular customers with a new travel experience.

Italian seat manufacturer Aviointeriors has developed stand-up seats for passenger aircraft. The Skyrider 2.0 model, which has been improved for eight years, is a vertical rack with seats in the form of saddles. The seats are made in such a way that the entire flight the passenger is in an upright position, slightly leaning on the back and sidewalls. The innovative solution will increase passenger capacity by 20%: instead of the usual 28 centimeters, there will be only 23 centimeters between such seats, due to which the seating of people is compacted. Low-cost carriers, such as the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, the Colombian airline Viva Colombia and the Russian Pobeda, have already paid attention to the development.

Campr is an online service created for nature and travel lovers. It works like the famous Airbnb, but it is offered to rent not simple housing, but all kinds of camp areas, places for tent camps, tree houses, wigwams and other places close to nature. On the service, you can find both luxury hotel options with impressive eco-design and floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as budget options, for example, parking lots in the backyard of private houses. In addition to renting a place, Campr allows you to book an adventure by contacting local guides, organizers of kayaking tours, horseback riding and even survival tours.

Hong Kong-based Life Travel offers luxury flight services for pet owners. Dog owners can book a private flight to Japan with their pets, who are allowed to be near a person. Small dogs are allowed to be held, while large dogs are allowed to sit on the floor. During the flight, dogs are treated to fried salmon and tender chicken. Customers can collect "petmiles" to receive discounts from the company. In the near future, Life Travel plans to expand the business by arranging flights for dog owners in the United States.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has launched a new Red Banner Express machine that allows you to print welcome posters for arriving passengers. You can find the device in the Schiphol Plaza shopping area, in each of the arrival halls. The machine works step by step and its use is intuitive. Users can choose the style and colors, add lettering or personal photos, and choose the most appropriate print format. The whole process of creating a poster will take a few minutes. Red Banner Express accepts credit and debit cards and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it available to everyone.

Singapore-based Shangri-La Hotel, a luxury hotel chain, has decided to equip some of its family rooms with unique fantasy-themed children's areas. Now little guests can spend the night in unique fortress beds, wooden houses with a second floor, spaceships, submarines and nomad tents. The entire sleeping area has been created in the spirit of the design, including paintings on the walls, carpets and more. The cost of a night in one of the five fantasy rooms will cost from $700. The hotel also took care of children's areas outside the rooms, creating cooking classes, a music studio, a party room, a toddler area and an outdoor playground in the form of a pirate ship.

Walking tours to key points

District Race is an excursion, extreme and exciting race at the same time. Using the application, the user can make an exciting run around Hong Kong, collecting points for passing virtual milestones. The participant of the game has only two hours, during which he must collect 80 checkpoints, and this can be done, of course, only by running. According to the creators of the application, the District Race does not require people to be in good physical shape, but will allow them to improve their physical shape.

Tourism is developing in our country with great speed. This is a fairly profitable industry, which is ideal for starting a tourism business, and how to make it successful, you will learn in this article.

Business registration

Tourist activity is not subject to licensing, it can be carried out by both legal entities and private entrepreneurs. Before you start a tourism business from scratch, you must complete all legal steps established by law.

The tour operator must have financial security or a bank guarantee:

International tourism - 30 million rubles;
Inbound tourism - 10 million rubles;
Domestic tourism - 500 thousand rubles;

It is not necessary to have such an amount in the bank account. It is enough just to insure your activity. The cost of the insurance policy is 0.4% of the total amount. The tour operator must be registered in the Unified Federal Register.

In addition, you need to obtain a certification certificate, which is a confirmation that all services provided by your company meet the established standards. The more different diplomas and certificates you have in your office, the more clients will trust you. These can be diplomas issued for charity, or for participating in various advertising campaigns.

Start-up capital

If you do not have funds that you can invest in a business, at first you can not rent an office space. It is enough to have many acquaintances and friends, a phone and a computer with Internet access. Sell tours offered by major travel companies and earn commissions from this. Collect earned money to accumulate start-up capital.

In addition, you can get a bank loan secured by property. You should not rely on investors, as they are reluctant to invest in tourism activities.

In order for a business to develop, it is necessary to invest a certain amount of money in it.

Scheme: travel agency business plan

Main items of expenditure:

Office rent;
Employee salaries;
Advertising.

You will spend 6-12 thousand rubles on registering a tourism business. If you want to avoid the problems associated with paperwork, you can purchase a ready-made business. An operating travel agency costs 1–1.5 million rubles. For this money, you will get an established business with advertising, an established client base and an office. But this option is suitable for entrepreneurs with fairly serious capital. And, as a rule, no one will sell a profitable business, so be careful before buying.

In general, the organization of the tourism business will require a small start-up capital. Any person can open such a business.

room

As an office, you can rent a small room, with an area of \u200b\u200bno more than 20 square meters. meters. It should be located in an area with good transport accessibility, developed infrastructure and convenient parking. The best place for the development of tourism business is the city center. Usually there are many potential customers there.

Pay special attention to the sign. It should be bright and attractive. You can use volumetric letters or a luminous box for this.

Equipment

Try to make a good repair in the office space, as your future clients are wealthy people who are used to comfort. Place a sofa and a small table in the client's corner. The interior of the room can be decorated in a corporate style and add some tourist paraphernalia. Prepare workspaces for employees.

For this you will need:

Chairs;
tables;
Phones;
Computers;
Office equipment.

Choose a good ISP, because the success of your business depends on it. A slow connection or disconnected connection can be the reason why a client refuses your services.

Employee Selection Criteria

Do not hire your friends or relatives. Friendships are difficult to translate into business relationships. Hire staff that will meet your requirements.

Travel agency employees must know foreign languages and have experience in this field.

Pay special attention to the personal qualities of applicants:

manner of speaking;
The ability to correctly express thoughts;
Ability to highlight important points;
Serious attitude to work;
Ability to communicate with strangers and find a common language with the most demanding clients.

The presence of these qualities is much more important than experience in the tourism business, as employees will communicate directly with customers.

At the start, it is enough to hire 2-3 managers who will find customers and service them. You will have to spend the same amount of money on their salary as on office rent. To increase productivity, incentivize employees with bonuses and free vacations.

There is a high level of competition in the tourism market in our country. Therefore, if you decide to open a tourism business and want to stay afloat, you must follow simple rules:

First of all, develop a competent business plan for a travel agency. Remember that your competitors will be large companies that have been operating in the market for a long time. If you do not have experience in this area, you can complete special courses and work for a while as a tourism manager. Thanks to this, you will be able to get an idea of how travel agencies work;
Decide on a line of business. Work in the area in which you are most competent. For example, if you were organizing tours to Europe, you can continue to work in this direction;
Create connections. Your task is to convey to potential clients that they can fully rely on your agency. Thanks to this, you will save customers time and money that would have to be spent on advertising.

Profit

To understand whether the tourism business is profitable, you need to figure out how much income such a company receives. The profit of a travel agency is the difference between the cost of a tour from a tour operator and the price at which it was sold to a client.

How to create a profitable travel company in Russia

Additional income can be obtained from the provision of advice to clients, as well as from the sale of air tickets. If we talk about the commission that a travel agency receives from the sale of vouchers, then in small firms it is 10-15% of the cost of the tour, and for well-known tour operators - 18-20%. From this it follows that the profitability of this business is very significant. If you sell about 3 tickets a day, you can earn about 150 thousand rubles a month.

franchise travel agency

It should be noted that the tourism business in Russia is subject to serious risks. Many young companies stop their activities in the first month of operation. To avoid this, you can purchase a franchise from a well-known travel company. An aspiring entrepreneur can use its brand, management model and business methods. But you will have to pay a certain amount for this. According to experts, acquiring a franchise is much more profitable than covering losses resulting from independent activities.

findings

Now you know how to organize a tourism business and get started. Do it or don't, it's up to you. Modern people pay special attention to the quality of rest, so a travel agency is a fairly promising area of activity. The most important thing is to properly organize the work and prevent possible risks.