THE VISIT

This was a very intense day!

Our teacher invited two travel agents to come to the school for a talk. During their time with us, they told us everything about their job. It was really interesting, we want to thank them because we were able to really learn more about what they do and how travel agencies work.

This is a summary of what we learnt:

A travel agency is a business that provides travel and tourism related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways and package tours.

Types of travel agencies:

• Wholesalers (Tour operators): Agencies that sell their products only through other travel agencies.
• Retail travel agencies: Agencies that sell travel services directly to the public, and act on their behalf to book and purchase holiday packages, travel, accommodation, tours and so on.
• Wholesale/Retail agencies: Agencies that function as both, a wholesaler and a retailer.

Another classification would be:

• Outgoing: Agencies whose customers want to go out of their own country.
• Incoming: Agencies whose customers (non-resident visitors) come to our country, so they organize ther visits and activities.
• Outgoing/Incoming: Agencies that take care of both.

• Specialized agencies: Agencies that focus on specific types of trips (English courses, sport events...)

A third classification would be:

• Online agencies: Agencies that operate through an online booking service, without a physical office.

• Implant agencies: Agency’s division located directly at a buyer’s premises.

Functions of travel agencies:

1. Travel Information: A retail travel agency provides necessary travel information for the general public.
2. Preparation of Itineraries: A tourist journey involves preparation of different types of itineraries. There are different means of transport with their respective advantages and disadvantages. A travel agent advises the potential tourist to choose the most convenient itinerary.
3. Coordination with Service Providers: A travel agent should maintain constant contact with the providers of various services like transport companies, hotel managers and providers of road transport like vehicles to and from the airport, to the hotel, for sightseeing purposes...
4. Ticketing: Selling tickets to tourists for different means of transport.
5. Provision of Foreign Currencies: The travel agent will arrange for the purchase of foreign exchange on behalf of his intending travellers.
6. Insurance: Personal insurance in case of accidents or luggage loss.

The documents that the travel agency usually work with are:

• Train tickets (Different discounts, golden card...)
• Plane tickets (Boarding pass, first class, business class, economy class...)
• Cruise tickets
• Hotel reservations (Full board, half board...)
• Insurance documents
• Car rentals
• Paperwork (such as invoices, contracts...)

Finally, we would like to show you only a few of the many questions we asked them:

Q. What percentage of commision do agents usually receive?

A. A very small percentage, depending on the destination.

Q. What is the most popular destination?

A. Cruises are very popular nowadays. Ten years ago, it was very expensive to go on a cruise, but now, it is much cheaper.

Q. How many trips do you usually sell per year?

A. About 700-800.

Q. How many people work at your travel agency?

A. We have nearly 700 offices working with lots of destinations: Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, South-America, Mexico, Miami... We might be about 4500 workers there.

Q. What do you do when a client isn't satisfied with the final trip?

A. Two things may happen:

• They can make a formal complaint at the end of the trip or during the trip.
• They can ask for a solution to their problems or ask for a full refund.

Research

Hi there!

For the past two weeks, we have been researching about the work that travel agencies do.

The class was divided into different groups. Each group had to look for information about them and think of possible questions for the interview we were going to have with the travel agents that our teacher had invited to the school. It was a way of asking ourselves about their job and what it involves, and the more we learnt about travel agencies, the more questions that came up!

We discovered that travel agents have a very interesting job, they sell trips and create special offers for the clients. We read about the different types of travel agencies, their functions and the documents they work with.

After that, we voted for our two favourite questions out of almost thirty, so the chosen ones would be part of the interview that we would prepare for the visit. But we will tell you about this later!

See you soon!

Mind Map

Hi everyone!!

Today we are going to explain what a mind map is:

A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information that includes a central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics.

How to Mind Map

1. From a main idea, create branches.

2.Then, create sub-branches.

Recommendations:

1. Use colours, drawings and symbols. Be as visual as you can, and your brain will thank you.

2. Keep the topic labels as short as possible.keeping them to a single word.

3. Vary text size, colour and alignment. Vary the thickness and length of the lines. Emphasize important points.

Our teacher asked us to create a mind map about travelling. We worked in groups, and we all had different ideas with regard to the branches (means of transport, budget, places to visit...). Of course, all the mind maps have lots of coloured branches and the class looked like a rainbow!!!

So, remember: Get It Out of Your Mind Mind Map!!

These are our beautiful pieces of artwork:

It was lots of fun!! :)

Intro

Hi there!!! 

We are students in our first year of Secondary School, class 1ºA, at La Grande Obra de Atocha in La Coruña. We are all between the ages of 12 and 13.

In the subject 'Interdisciplinary Project' we are learning how to plan a trip. The first part of the project consists in studying how travel agencies work. We started this blog to share our ideas and reflect on what we have learnt.

We hope you enjoy it, feel free to leave a comment!!