Travel Agency & Services Industry Analysis Report
Introductory Paragraph engulfing entire summary of paper The Travel Agency and Services Industry comprises of businesses that are primarily engaged in acting as agents in selling travel, tour, and accommodation services to the general public and commercial clients. The products and services that are primarily sold in this industry are travel accommodations such as domestic and international airline, railroad, vehicle, and cruise reservation; packaged tour experiences and activities; and lodging reservations in hotels and various types of resorts.[i] The first travel agency was established in 1758, with the first modern agency that packaged tours and had relationships with the individual
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The online travel agency area is very competitive. The barriers to entry for this area are very low and the level of regulation is very light, so there a ton of companies in this market. The top six competitors make up 67% of the market share, some of which will be discussed and analyzed further; the remaining 33% of the market share is comprised of the various other websites. The top players in order are: American Express Company, Carlson Companies, Expedia Inc., Priceline.com Inc., Sabre Holdings Inc., and Travelport. [v] American Express is a global travel, financial and network services company. The Global Travel Services segment of the company operates their travel services through American Express Business Travel, which has a focus on corporate clients of any size. In 2009, they had 26 billion dollars in global travel sales. They have their own network and partnerships links with other companies. Their travel solutions are offered online and offline, with about half of their sales through each. American Express has grown from commission-based fee model to a fee-for-service model.[vi] Information technology has helped them to enhance their customer service greatly. They
Tourism has taken a toll on many Native Hawaiians and is a huge human rights issue today. Most Hawaiians dislike tourism greatly due to the selfishness and greediness tourists bring to their home country. The pastor at a small rural church on the island of Kauai, Reverend Kaleo Patterson, has witnessed and dealt with numerous Hawaiians who struggle with the issues of tourism. Numerous vacation resorts that attract tourists have taken over gravesites of Hawaiians that have passed away. Due to this problem ancient Hawaiians have to partake in reburials. Tourism causes destruction to coral reefs and rivers because of mindless pollution. Reverend Patterson has protested and given public hearings in effort to acknowledge her fury on tourism. Tourism has brought an uncontrollable worldwide business that has no sympathy or thoughtfulness for the original people of Hawaii.
Before the days of the Internet, if a family wanted to travel to a far-off, exotic locale, they would have to either find a local travel agent or call a travel agency and plan their getaway. In the 1990’s, the Internet became a staple of everyday life and began entering many homes. As the availability of the Internet increased, so did the services available to clients. With the increasing availability of the World Wide Web the travel industry found itself faced with revolutionizing changes. All of the tools that were once solely available to travel agents now became readily available to anyone with access to the Internet and a search engine. Websites quickly formed around the idea of providing consumers with quick vacation planning ideas at low costs. Getting
American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), sometimes known as AmEx, is a diversified global financial services company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler's cheque businesses. Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US, the highest of any card issuer. [1]
Our team chose the hotel industry in the United States for our economic analysis. The hotel business has existed since the earliest times, and has influenced the development of the economy since the founding of this country.
American Express is one of the main organizations with a solid, worldwide nearness over the whole installments chain. They are the world 's biggest card backer, with premium system for high-spending card individuals. They handle a great many exchanges every day, and have accomplices that give business-building administrations to an overall trader base. With them having this level scale crosswise over installments gives them different chances to develop their business and drive advancement in the commercial center. It 's additionally a portal to a more extensive exhibit of administrations that further separate American Express. ("Our Company," n.d.)
According to the World Bank, the hospitality industry revenue has been the largest contribution to the world GDP, for the sixth consecutive year, outdoing a total of 10.2% (US$7.6 Trillion) in the year 2016. The hospitality industry currently employs around 292 million of people, and that means that 1 in 10 jobs around the globe is linked to the hospitality industry (Oxford Economics for World Travel & Tourism Council, 2017)
Globally the tourism and hospitality industry is undergoing and evolving the radical changes. From the past experiences are now advancing at greater pace through faster development of skills and knowledge developed to create and adapt innovation in several ways. Therefore, it is important to have greater understanding of current issues and knowledge in order to cope with future challenges effectively.
àAs a result, the number of user-oriented travel tools on airlines’ direct Web sites increased dramatically in just a few short years. Aggregator Web sites : Such as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, and Priceline.com A pseudo-competitive position relative to the airlines' own direct Web sites but also offered services beyond flight purchase, including hotel and vacation packages. The airline paid a fee to the
As most travel agencies websites, Amex Web page offered the customer the possibility to research for flight only, flight with hotel, or flight with hotel and car as well as special offers for their members on hotels, vacations packages, complimentary resort stays. The commercial catch of American Express is that the web site offers customers many products with incentives and rewards with the convenience of a unique card when the travel is booked with them. An internaut can wander through the site without being registered but needs to become an American Express member to look deeper into detailed pages. The future customer has the obligation to detain one American Express cards; the gold or platinum car has an annual fee of 75 dollars, fees that can be waived for the first year as a promotion, or the blue or blue-sky card obtainable without any annual fee. Carrying an Amex card offers customary benefits to the travelers on a large array of services such as offering a no deductible and a collision damage waiver when renting a car as well as benefits in case of accidental death or dismemberment coverage with a very small premium. The web site offers a convenient one stop for reservations, planning, and payment arrangements for prestige travel around the world.
American Express, also know as AMEX, is a global financial services company headquartered in New York City and founded in 1850. With 54,000 employees and a revenue of over 35 billion dollars American Express stands tall on the New York Stock Exchange (Sec.gov). American Express is best known for it’s credit cards, which make up about twenty-five percent of total dollar volume in credit card transactions in The United States of America (Reviews.greatplacetowork.com). American Express’ goal is to maintain a leading and almost elite reputation with as many qualified card holders as possible. American Express does this by concentrating on the customer’s experience and branding that experience. American Express’ key components in maintaining and further exceling into this goal includes focusing on their human recourses, social responsibility, and marketing techniques.
The buyers of the services of travel agencies are consumers, that is, individuals and businesses. For this industry we are dealing with a small degree of concentration, due to the wide range of services.
This paper will be dynamically examining the tourism industry during the 2000s. It will begin by using the PESTEL framework to analyse the macro environment and determine which factors drive the competitive forces within the industry. Following this, Porter’s Five Forces model will be used to analyse the actual competitive forces at work within the industry and determine the relative importance of these forces.
In travel agency industry, we had found many travel agents that provide more similarity service as well as full package of ticketing o the consumer. Therefore, the marketers sometime need to use a portfolio analysis to analyze the market share position and rate the industry growth by using BCG or General Electric (GE).
The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry
Online travel services provide the benefits of large amounts of free information, 24/7 availability and the potential for significant reductions in price.