Tourist organisations

You are head of an Emergency Gang. Make a Web-presentation on Oil Spill Response Activities.

UNIT 9

TOUR OPERATORS AND TOUR COMPANIES

TOURIST ORGANISATIONS

As tourism developed so did enterprises-oper­ating between the client (tourist) and the hotels, transportation and other services that the client may require when travelling, such as tickets for museums, theatres, sports, special tours and so on. These companies that integrate travel ar­rangements, accommodation and tours are known as tour operators. Many of these operators specialise in certain areas of the world in order to capture a majority share of one market as op­posed to trying to cover the world. Abercrombie and Kent is a British company that specialises in Africa and the "African Experience". DSR (Destination Services Russia) specialises in Rus­sia and particularly St Petersburg, where they are based. Some operators specialise in certain fields as opposed to areas, for example the organisation of conferences, medical trips, luxury tours, etc

Large companies often form an "umbrella" organisation which unites tour operators, transport enterprises and firms which own a number of hotels. A company like American Express specialises in air tickets and monetary matters to do with travelling. American Express card hold­ers have access to many services, all related to travel abroad and which are all part of the yearly membership fee.

One of the most influential umbrella companies is the Japanese Travel Bureau. It organises gen­erally 11 000 foreign tours a day for clients. It employs over ten thousand people. The company has branches in many countries of the world. In Europe branches are in Geneva, London, Rome, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf.

In Japan tourism has devel­oped rapidly. Already in 1988 there were 5292 travel agen­cies specialising in internal tourism and 548 firms organising tours abroad. These were the main companies, but many of them have a number of branches which increase this number considerably. However, in spite of this, the market is controlled by not more than twenty companies.

Two hotel corporations were united in France in 1983: Novotel and Jaque Borelle Intemacional. They formed a company called Accor. It united 598 hotels in 45 countries. The firm also owns 1472 catering enterprises: pizzerias, cafeterias, express-restaurants, and other catering establish­ments. Accor unites more than 15 tourist firms, the largest of which are Novotour and Jet Eva­sion. It also has a number of wholesale stores and shops within its structure. With a turnover of USD 1.5 billion it employs 35 thousand people and has a centre for training specialists for the differ­ent sections of the market. 40% of this turnover is from foreign branches.

Many tour operators, travel agencies and air­lines carry the internationally recognised logos of ABTA, IATA and BTA. These logos are recognised by all as being signs of security and credibility.

ABTA, or the Association of British Travel Agents, is an important organisation in the British tourist industry. Membership provides some trad­ing advantages but also imposes some restrictions. Companies who join must be willing to have their premises inspected by ABTA officials and there is a code of conduct which members must abide by which includes employing at least one formally qualified member of staff. An advantage of join­ing is the common fund set up to give holiday-makers financial compensation or ex­penses if they suffer as a result of an ABTA member going out of business.

Created two years ago, RATA al­ready has offices in Russia's Far East, Siberia (Novosibirsk) and Krasnodor. Around 20 tourist firms will be join­ing the Petersburg branch. It is hoped that the creation of the regional office will attract more organisations to the RATA which, as a collective, would be able to solve the problems affecting tourism in North Western Russia.

BTA (British Tourist Authority). The BTA is a statutory body created by the Development of Tourism Act, 1969. The BTA is responsible for research into tourism and for encouraging over­seas visitors to Britain.

IATA (International Air Transportation Asso­ciation). Very much like the ABTA, this association governs the code of conduct for the different airlines to follow, particularly with regard to safety. It is also a security stamp for travel agents and customers booking airline seats in that it adds legitimacy to the company.

The EEC holds a 60% share of the tourist business. In recent years 20 to 25% of tours there were organised tours. Every second tourist used the assistance of tourist agencies to organise his tours abroad. The percentage in other conti­nents is higher because tens of thousands of companies are engaged in tourist business.