Travel Agencies And Tour Operators And Its Roles In Tourism Development

ABSTRACT

 The travel agencies play an important role in tourism development. Lagos state can be considered an important touristic destination in Nigeria. Purpose – The purpose of the work is to underline the role of travel agencies and tour operators in sustaining tourism development in Nigeria. Design – A survey was conducted to find the opinion of these companies managers regarding the role they plays in the valorisation of touristic potential. Methodology – The survey that was carried out was going to be a quantitative type of research. The means of communication with the investigated unit: interviews based on a questionnaire administered by the operators. The primary data was collected out of a sample of 16 travel agencies operating in Lagos State, from a total number of 20s. The sample for the target group has been identified using purposive sampling method. Purposive sampling method was applied to travel agencies managers’ participants because this sample was considered to meet the objectives of the research, though it did not represent the whole population. The questionnaires were administered by face to face interviews with representatives of the participating travel agencies at the FESTAC Tourism Fair, but also at the agencies’ headquarters. Approach – Travel agencies operating both locally as well as nationally and internationally, should be encouraged to provide tourism products in the county. It is necessary to find solutions to improve the quality of tourism services in Lagos. Findings – According to the acquired results, the most important factors affecting the implication of travel agencies in Lagos state tourism development are the insufficient development of tourism resources in the area, lack of financial resources and poor general infrastructure.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Tourism can simply be defined as the movement of people outside the borders of their current residence, for leisure tourism or business tourism, but not for a longer period than 12 consecutive months (Wearne&Baker, 2002). Similarly, tourism involves a series of diverse activities carried out at the tourism destination (including visiting relatives or friends, shopping or one-day city tours). According to Holloway (2012) defining tourism with precision is an impossible task. From his perspective (like a truth being told as a joke) the definition of a tourist is someone that travels to seek something different, and afterward complains about coming across things in a manner that was not expected. The relationship between the suppliers of tourism services (transport, hotels, restaurants, entertainers) and tourists is an intermediary (most of the time) coming from tour operators (the creators of tourism packages) and the retail travel agencies (which sell the tourism products created by tour operators for a commission).

A tourism package usually includes air transport, accommodation, transport services from the airport to the hotel and back. Tour operators purchase beforehand a large range of services, for example airplane seats from different airline companies, hotel rooms, and other facilities regarding transfers from/to hotels or airports (Marin-Pantelescu, 2009). Tour operators buy in bulk and then sell the created tourism packages individually. Travel agencies handle all types of travel such as holiday and business travel on individual or group based.

Tour operator is an organization, firm or company who buys individual travel components, separately from their suppliers and combines them into a package tour, which is sold with their own price tag to the public directly or through middlemen, is called a Tour Operator. More precise tour operators are primarily responsible for delivering and performing the services specified in a given package tour. They can provide these services themselves as some have their own cars and coaches, hotels and other travel related services or can obtain these from the other suppliers. That is why they are called manufacturers of tourism products.

Tour operators are sometimes called as wholesalers but this is partially true because a wholesaler buys goods and services in bulk at his own account to prepare a tour package and then retails it through the travel agencies or directly to clients. However, a tour operator who has his own one or more tourists products components, (SOTC, TCI, Thomas Cook, Indo Asia KUONI formulates a new tourists product for example ‘inclusive tours.’

Tour operators generally offer a variety of package tours to cater to the needs of different kinds of travelers.

Regarded as an economic and social activity, tourism represents, through its content and role, a distinct field of activity, a highly important component of the economic and social life in a growing number of countries, and implicitly in our own country.

Tourism is a specific phenomenon in modern civilization and it is deeply rooted in the life of the society and, as such, it has influenced its evolution. Thus, being responsive to the dynamic changes in contemporary civilization, tourism evolves under their impact, joining the general process of development. Tourism also acts as a stimulating factor for the progress and evolution given the vast human and material potential engaged in its development and given the beneficial effects on the area of interference.

1.2     Statement of Problem

The shift toward a more sustainable economy pattern, including application of bio-economy and circular economy concepts and related principles and processes, require changes in the set of economic incentives and adjusting of interdependencies between economic sectors. The increasing economy wide impact of tourism justify the assumption that tourism value chains can play a significant role in paving the way for the transition to bioeconomy. Recent data published by World Travel &Tourism Council (WTTC) estimate at 3.2% the direct contribution of tourism to the world GDP in 2018, and at 10.4% its overall economic impact (cumulating direct, indirect and induced economic effects). Tourism is expected to grow faster than the average global economic grow, with 3.6 per annuum in the next decade. It means that the importance of tourism in the economy is expected to become even higher in the future (WTTC, 2019).

On the other hand, the concept of bioeconomy is considered to bear at least three different meanings. Through a professionally conducted bibliometric analysis Bugge, Hansen and Klitkouhave (2016) found that the term bioeconomy is used by some authors with strict reference to biotechnology, by some other authors with an accent on bio-resources valorisation, while a part of the literature gives to the term the meaning of bioecology. In this last conception, bioeconomy encompasses sustainability, biodiversity, conservation of ecosystems and promotes integrated production systems with territorial identity. This is the meaning embraced by the authors of the present paper, as well. The role of tourism in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was emphasised by the United Nations by declaring 2017 as the UN International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. “The underlying rationale for linking three SDG targets with tourism development objectives is based on the intrinsic local character of tourism activities, as tourism is driven by the attractiveness of local communities (culture, heritage) and the environment (natural assets and facilities).” (OECD, 2018).

1.3     Objective of the Study

The present study undertakes an investigation of roles the tour operator and travel agencies in Tourism development. This approach is motivated by several aspects:

1. first, by the observation that tour operators deploy significant efforts to improve their organizations behaviour;
2. second, by the fact that tour operators can play an important role in promoting sustainable practices both upstream, toward suppliers and downstream, toward tourists;

• third, by the implementation of tourism Code can speed up the transition to more sustainable business models in tourism, by comprehensive and systematic integration of sustainability criteria in every decision-making process.

1.4     Significance of the Study

The study, first and foremost, provided knowledge to a researcher who wished to know more about information technologies specifically the internet and the way it is used in tourism in marketing context. Also, it will provide a basis for the Nigeria’s tourism board and other tourism organizations on the impact of the utilization of the tour operators in strengthening tourism industry. This would involve compatible activities regarding the empowerment of the industry of tourism through the help of tour operators and travel agents maintaining their respective websites for the City.

Moreover, the study will be helpful to the tour operators and the travel agents since there will be a specific study on the performance of their internet marketing tools, which includes websites and their conventional Medias. This study will be the basis on what area they should improve on their internet marketing tools. Moreover, this study will aid in the progress of the emerging tourism industry .

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study

The scope of this study was the role of tour operators and travel agencies where by the researcher assessed the reality of the field situation. The success depended much on the thoroughly content analysis of the tourism companies and organization websites and respondents’ true answers on internet applicability to tourism marketing with particular reference to Calabar City. Also the study was limited by inadequate Time where by the researcher who is a student had to adhere to the University timetable by doing all required activities including studying effectively while at the same time collecting data efficiently and at a required time. However, the researcher coped with the situation by well utilization of time to accomplish the research report.

Pages:  32

Category: Seminar

Format:  Word & PDF               

Chapters: 1-5                                          

Source: Imsuinfo                                     

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.