The Decline in the Need for Travel Agencies

The area of ​​commissions and small profitability is an important reason for fierce competition in the travel agency market. In order to eliminate competition, travel agencies have merged and purchased small and medium enterprises to share market share. Thomas Cook and cooperative tour travel will agree to maintain mutual brand promotion by dividing 1,204 stores. While Thomas Cook owns 70% of the shares, the cooperative travel will own 30% of the joint subsidiary. Savings of 35 million euros or 47 million dollars a year will lead to cost savings for both companies.

Overall, 10,000 travel agencies in Germany and 4,000 travel agencies in France are playing an important role in the tourism system. In this paper, we analyze trends in the travel agent industry in both countries and analyze the factors that explain the difference. In this case, France can be regarded as an exception. The number of French travel agents has not decreased compared to many other countries in the past decade. Therefore, the French system challenges the relationship between the rise of e-tourism and the decline of travel agencies (often considered causal). In Germany, the decline in travel agencies depends not only on the popularity of the Internet but also on other factors such as unregulated market access.

For travel agencies, this may be the most fundamental question, that is, when there are many normal travel agencies on the market, they need to use an agency specializing in corporate travel. The following is the importance of a corporate travel agency with an online system that allows business travelers to access their full itinerary. Because corporate organizations tend to work with hotels, car rentals, flights, etc., they can enjoy it at a low price. This can only be used by business travelers who travel frequently. Discounted prices are not the only benefit, as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP registration.

Travel agencies are private retailers or public services that generally provide travel and travel related services on behalf of suppliers, such as events, airlines, car rental, cruise lines, hotels, railways, travel insurance, travel and so on. In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, most travel companies have different departments specializing in travel for business travelers; some travel companies specialize in business and business travel. There are travel agencies that function as overseas travel agencies' general sales agents, and they can have offices in countries other than the country where their headquarters are located.