Travel agents are like sales agents of travel agencies to collect commissions. According to Victor T.C. Miiddleton, the system of travel agents in the sending markets has the following basic functions:
- Is a convenient point of sale or access for tourists when purchasing or
Book travel services.
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- Distribute informational advertising publications.
- Display and demonstrate options for tourists.
- Advise and assist tourists in choosing suitable products.
- Perform product sales services through necessary procedures and enter data into the information system.
- Is a source of information for suppliers.
- Participate and complement supplier promotional activities.
- Receive and assist with customer complaints and grievances.
Nowadays, almost all package tours of travel agencies are sold through travel agents. The above functions have ensured that travel agents play an indispensable role in distribution channels. They are the ones who directly interact with and have a profound influence on the decision-making process of tourists. Through a long period of operation, agents have built close, even personal relationships with tourists. No one other than travel agents understands the needs of customers better. A travel agent can sell products of many different travel agencies. Therefore, how they introduce or advise customers about the products of travel agencies has a direct impact on the decisions of tourists. There is always a close relationship between travel agencies and travel agencies (within a country). This link is further strengthened by the complexity of the legal system and the strict regulations of travel business associations (e.g. the British Association of Travel Agents, ABTA). Travel agents
only sell products of the country's travel agencies, or even of that country's business association. Therefore, the ability to penetrate the travel agency system (not to mention tourists) in the sending market of travel agencies from the receiving countries is very low.
1.1.5.3. System of travel agencies in sending markets
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Travel businesses in sending markets (often referred to as
Travel agencies (tour operators) play a decisive role in attracting tourists to these markets. Package tourism products are sold on the market under the brand names of those travel agencies. Travel agencies have the following main functions:
- Research and investigate market needs, build the best products to meet the expectations and demands of tourists. While travel agents have a direct relationship with each individual customer, travel companies must grasp tourism consumption trends on a larger scale because their products are sold not only through one agent but through a system of agents. Their products must attract tourists in a region, a country, or even internationally. Travel companies can use travel agents to research and survey market needs.
- Maximize the value of tourism resources to build attractive tourism programs for tourists. Travel agencies sending tourists must coordinate with travel agencies receiving tourists at locations in both aspects: providing information and organizing implementation. Travel agencies receiving tourists are the main sources of information for travel agencies sending tourists about tourist routes and new tourism resources. At the same time, they are the ones who directly supervise and organize the provision of ground services at tourist destinations. The combination of these two types of travel agencies is essentially a specialized division of labor in tourism.
- Closely cooperate with airlines to get the most convenient flights and the most suitable prices. In addition to their own airlines, travel agencies also use the services of other airlines in package programs. In recent years, the use of charter flights to transport tourists has become more and more popular. Travel agencies always provide international air ticket sales services because they bring in a large source of income.
- Impact on tourists through marketing activities. Travel agencies that send tourists are the ones who directly regulate the market through new products, promotional policies (can be coordinated with tourism suppliers), creating new tourism trends.
As developed countries apply stricter policies to ensure the rights of tourists who are citizens of these countries, the role of travel agencies sending tourists is increasing and they are legally responsible for the rights of tourists when traveling on package tours.
1.1.5.4. The system of travel agencies in the receiving market
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The system of travel businesses at destinations is called a business.
Travel agencies receive guests. These businesses are mainly responsible for organizing and implementing tourism programs that have been sent by travel agencies to sell to tourists. Travel agencies receive guests and perform the following functions:
- Provide information, ideas and products to travel agencies sending customers. Travel agencies receiving customers must have a clear understanding of the system of tourism resources and tourism service providers in order to develop the most attractive tourism programs to provide to their partners, which are travel agencies sending customers. Regularly updating and providing relevant information to travel agencies sending customers is also an important function.
- Organize supervision and implementation of the program. The travel agencies receiving guests are representatives of the travel agencies sending guests to ensure that the commitments on tourism services and goods recorded in the tourist program are properly implemented. The two decisive issues are quality and price.
- Coordinate with national tourism organizations to carry out promotional activities for the country as an attractive destination. This is an important activity in promoting tourism demand to a country. Travel agencies sending guests hardly have the conditions to promote a country or a destination on a large scale. Building the image of the country as an attractive tourist destination is the job of national tourism organizations and travel agencies receiving guests.
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1.1.5.5. Some applications for Vietnamese travel businesses
According to research results, the main distribution channel for international travel products is
The current situation of international tourists coming to Vietnam as well as in the next 5 years is reflected in the coordination between travel agencies sending and receiving customers, which is one of the basic issues of the travel business in the current conditions. Currently, some travel agencies sending customers have established a system of branches and representatives in Vietnam to directly organize and supervise the provision of services to their customers coming to Vietnam. Vietnamese travel agencies are facing the risk of losing their source of customers even though the number of international visitors to Vietnam is increasing. In other words, Vietnamese travel agencies are at risk of being eliminated from the distribution channel of international travel products to Vietnam.
Travel agencies receiving Vietnamese tourists must demonstrate their role in all aspects to ensure that this cooperation brings benefits to the travel agencies sending tourists. According to Coase, in the Theory of The Firms, it is clearly stated that if two entities A and B have a trading relationship on
market, they will exist independently when the cost of exchange through the market is smaller than the cost of exchange if they merge into one entity. Thus, if the travel agencies sending customers have more benefits (lower service costs) when cooperating with travel agencies receiving Vietnamese customers than organizing themselves at the destinations, this cooperative relationship will be sustainable. This depends on the businesses receiving Vietnamese customers. Therefore, they also provide full information, have unique ideas and build the best products for the partners sending customers to create a beneficial dependence between the two sides.
On the other hand, travel agencies receiving Vietnamese guests must also play a more proactive role to maximize their capacity and further strengthen relationships with travel agencies sending guests.
1.2. Position and role of tourism industry in socio-economic development
1.2.1. Applying Marxist-Leninist theory to tourism service research
Initially, tourism activities were only participated by a few people, but gradually the number of participants increased, the duration increased, and the purposes became more and more diverse. At this time, tourism became a national economic sector, belonging to the service sector. It was the result of the development of the social division of labor of mankind.
The development process of social division of labor is the process of dividing and separating social production into different areas, sectors, sub-sectors... and linking them in new ways, new orders suitable to the level of socio-economic development of each period and stage. When studying the development history of social division of labor, Marx pointed out three forms of division: general division, specific division and separate division.
General division of labor is dividing the national economy into large sectors such as: Agriculture, industry, services... That is dividing social production into large economic sectors, level I economic sectors. Specific division of labor is dividing within a large economic sector (level I) into narrower production and business sectors, in the form of
form secondary and tertiary industries. For example, financial services, banking, insurance, tourism, hotels and restaurants and other personal consumer services... while individual assignment is the type of assignment within a production and business unit.
Thus, under the impact of the social division of labor, the national economy of each country will form an increasingly complex economic sector system, including many sectors and fields. In which, each sector and field has a different position and role, performing different functions for the socio-economic development, forming the economic structure of each country.
Considering the consumption structure, as early as the 19th century, Engels believed that the proportion of spending on basic, essential needs in the family would decrease, while spending on cultural and spiritual needs such as entertainment and tourism would increase according to the law of increasing demand.
The product of the tourism service industry is a special economic product, the result of the labor process of workers in the tourism service sector. The tourism service labor process is the process of combining labor, labor objects and labor tools to create tourism products. The necessary social labor time of workers in tourism services is crystallized in goods. It is the specific labor of workers that creates the use value of the product. The product of this labor process is an invisible product, difficult to perceive visually but is the level of customer satisfaction when using the above products. The needs that tourism products and services bring can be discovery, understanding, feeling, reminiscence, health recovery after a period of stressful work... Through enjoying spiritual and material factors... Tourists satisfy the requirements they expect.
Goods, services, and tourism are circulated on the market, they have full attributes: value and use value. The use value of tourism goods and services is its function, as mentioned above, to satisfy certain human needs. Needs
It can be material or spiritual. The more the economy develops, the more the labor income increases, the more the demand for enjoying non-material products increases. Types of eco-tourism, cultural-historical tourism, research tourism, etc. are increasingly developing.
The value of goods and services is the crystallization of abstract labor of workers in goods. In the market, market prices are expressed through exchange and sale. Tourism goods and services follow the requirements of the law of value, the law of supply and demand and the law of competition.
The law of value in economics as well as in tourism activities requires the production and exchange of goods to be based on the necessary social labor cost. That is the time to produce a commodity under normal production conditions of society with average technical level, average skill level and average labor intensity. Competition in tourism services is the process of rivalry between commodity producers, aiming to find favorable conditions in the production and consumption of goods. Competition reduces production costs, increases labor productivity, innovates management methods, forces producers to be sensitive to the market, and increases the quality of tourism products and services.
In the market, tourism products and services are greatly influenced by the law of supply and demand. Market prices are the balance of supply and demand. When the price of tourism products changes, it changes the demand of tourists. Therefore, manufacturers must find ways to reduce prices to stimulate consumption of tourism products and services.
In short, the founders of Marxism-Leninism, with scientific methodology, built and developed economic theories, creating scientific arguments for economic activities, including tourism.
1.2.2. Location of tourism industry
In many countries, tourism plays an increasingly important role in the national economy. Many economists in the world say that the 21st century is the "Century of tourism".
tourism plays a very important role. Today's world is experiencing two major economic restructuring trends:
The trend of shifting from the material production sector to the service sector is taking place mainly in the most advanced industrial countries. In the economies of these countries, the proportion of the service sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) has exceeded that of the material production sector and has attracted the majority of the social workforce. This trend is associated with the conditions of a highly developed economy and especially due to the impact of the scientific and technological revolution and the rapid development of technology in the world.
The trend of economic restructuring towards industrialization is taking place in developing countries. The focus of the transition here is mainly within the material production sector, towards increasing industrial production compared to agriculture. However, this increase is carried out in the context of the trend of internationalization of economic life, the strong impact of the scientific and technological revolution on the economic and social life of countries, so the possibility of implementing two trends of economic restructuring in one country at the same time has appeared. The combination of implementing two processes is considered an attribute of the economic restructuring towards industrialization in developing countries today. The common rule of the economic restructuring process in the world today is: the value of the service industry increasingly accounts for a high proportion of the total social product and of the number of employed people. Therefore, when looking for capital efficiency, businessmen have discovered that tourism is an attractive business sector compared to other economic sectors. Tourism brings high profit margins, investment capital in tourism is relatively low compared to heavy industry, transportation, etc. The technology is not too complicated but highly effective.
In today's era, the tourism industry in the world is developing strongly and the value it brings is not inferior to the oil and automobile industries.