7 Steps to Start an Online Travel Agency Business
We live in the startup era, where budding entrepreneurs are passionate about turning their dream project into a lucrative business. Launching a travel agency business can be equally rewarding and intimidating in this booming entrepreneurial era. According to a study, 71% of businesses fail within 10 years of their operation. Turning your business idea into a travel company and getting it off the ground might seem challenging. But it would be best to start with proper planning, make appropriate financial and legal decisions, and much more to keep it operational. Online travel agencies or OTAs are the most dominant players in the travel market, with a share of $561 billion in 2021. OTAs are one-stop-shop to search and book everything from flights and accommodations to excursions, making it hassle-free for travelers to book for their upcoming trips. A new research by Statista predicts that by 2025, the OTA market is expected to reach $833.5 billion. 7 Steps to Start an Online Travel Agency Business Owning an OTA business in 2022 is lucrative as 81% of travelers heavily rely on OTAs to search and book for their upcoming trips. Let’s now dive into the top 7 steps that you need to take to start your travel agency business. This post can be a blueprint for launching your online travel agency. 1. Develop a Business Plan Your online travel agency business plan will be a roadmap for establishing your idea. The document will showcase every aspect of your business- company goals, vision, business strategy, financial plan, products or services, your target audience, marketing strategy and strategic partners: These can be suppliers and tech as well. Developing a business plan will keep you on track with your vision. Also, to stay competitive in the constantly evolving travel market, you need to revise your business plan constantly. Read More – The importance of responsive web design for OTAs and its implementation 2. Identify your Niche Market Since the travel industry is highly dynamic and competitive, you need to identify and choose which travel market do you want to target. Start with market research to understand your potential customer needs. In this step, you must focus on: Target audience travel behavior and preference Types of travel products such as hotels, flights, excursions, cruises, etc. to sell Finding niche travel markets Why is it essential to find your niche to start an OTA business? Well, the competition is fierce with brands like Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Kayak, Expedia, and much more. You need to stand out and compete efficiently in the travel market. And this can be possible by being an expert in your niche and answering every trip-related question the modern traveler asks. According to a research some of the booming travel niches that your business can dive into are: Bleisure travel Adventure travel Healthcare tourism Eco-friendly or sustainable tourism Gastronomy tourism Wellness and spiritual tourism Heritage and cultural tourism Recommended: Five Ways World Travel And Tourism Industry Digitalizing Journeys 3. Find the Right Mix of Partners and Inventory Suppliers The next step is to develop fortifying partnerships that can help your business grow. During the early stage of your startup, you need to work with multiple suppliers or providers to sell your travel products and make money through commissions. Let’s say your niche is heritage and cultural tourism in Italy. To sell your travel products and grow effectively, you must connect with a wholesaler with the largest hotel inventory, airlines, and other travel services. Talk to various providers, suppliers, compare their prices, services, and the commissions you might earn and then decide on the partnership. 4. Organize your Tech Platform With a business plan, niche and partners in place, it’s time to build a technology platform. Focus on these five main tech platforms: Search engine for customers to book Booking engine for automation of OTA workflow Back office for business operations Commission engine Recommendation engine to enhance customer experience It is difficult to work independently, and that’s why it’s ideal to integrate booking engine and other third-party APIs (flight search, hotel booking by suppliers, NDC, hotel mapping, car rental booking, payment gateways, CRMs) to your website for a hassle-free user experience. 5. Register your Online Travel Agency Business This is a crucial part of your business. With major tasks off your plate, it’s time to make your travel business legal by registering with the government. Here is the checklist to do so: Choose your business name Apply for licenses and permits as per your local laws Apply for business insurance Invest in accounting software 6. Gain Accreditation Accreditation will make your travel agency business credible. Obtain accreditation from IATA, ARC or any other reputed travel organization, contracts from GDS. This accreditation will review your industry experience, finances and even provide training and support to flourish successfully. Recommended: How Can IATA Travel Pass Help Countries Reopen Borders? 7. Financial Plan To successfully start your online travel business, you will need sufficient capital. There are different ways of funding capital. Some of them are: Personal savings Credit cards Money from family and friends Venture capital Angel investors Crowdfunding Small business loans and grants A combination of these funding sources can help you get off the ground. To secure this capital, you need to have a financial plan of how much money you need to raise and how your business will make a profit. You are now set to take off your online travel agency business with these essential steps. It can be daunting initially, and your startup might have roadblocks, but stay dedicated and remember these steps to start and grow your new business seamlessly.
Room Mapping – A Modern Tech
The turn of the millennium brought with it several technologies that completely transformed the global business environment. Technologies such as the internet and social media provided a lot of advantages to many businesses that were aware of the potential of these new media. As a result, the companies that were able to incorporate these newer technologies like Hotel and Room Mapping into their existing mixes enjoyed a certain competitive edge over the companies that relied heavily on traditional technologies. The travel and hospitality sector is no stranger to such changes having constantly transformed itself through the ages depending on the needs and requirements of society. The advent of the internet and social media platforms enabled travel and hospitality providers with a much-needed platform to showcase their listings. The 2000s saw the rise of several online travel agencies that aggressively expanded their markets in new and emerging markets due to the rapid boom of the travel industry. There were several reasons behind the shift in the industry: Shorter travel time between locations Better communication between long distances Easier access to information New and emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa New opportunities through strategic business ventures Rise of the niche industries A shift in the mentality and psyche of people People are much more open towards online booking platforms today when compared to the general population before the internet revolution. This is because the internet provides people with a direct channel to market their products and services thus leading to better relationships between the provider and the consumer. Therefore, niche industries found their footing leading to a lot of more people travelling regularly for their business needs. The hospitality providers needed to understand the shift in the market and orient their ways to better meet the needs and want of their target market. Several technology companies started operations to meet these growing needs of the business when it came to optimizing their business practices. If businesses were to evolve into the digital era, they needed to do away with their archaic technologies and incorporate these newer ones to reach more audiences and provide better services. The shift towards an online business model by travel agencies was a step in the right direction but since the market was new, these companies struggled to find the most optimal ways to sell their products. What is Room Mapping? Room mapping has emerged in the 21st century as one of the leading services in the field that has more or less become a staple over the years. Mapping in the industry ensures accurate and precise data flow between various nodes thus removing duplicate and erroneous listings on any given platform. With modern cloud-based systems being able to handle thousands of transactions simultaneously, the need for proper, updated and unique listings on one’s platform is greater than ever. When a supplier or an OTA works with multiple suppliers or provides data to multiple other sources, mapping that same data and updating it across all channels can become an extremely tedious process. Hotel and room mapping APIs automate the entire process so that inconsistencies within the system can be removed with a simple click. Online Travel Agencies face the issue of duplication when it comes to rooms listed on their website. Every data provider provides each room of a hotel differently but in reality, the same room is listed multiple times with different attributes. Room duplication is a tedious problem since every supplier has different standards when it comes to offering room data. Room Mapping aims to improve the customer experience while finding the right room and optimizes profitability for the business. Room mapping is a process of identifying room level data via multiple parameters, detecting which room listings are the same and discarding duplicate results. It is carried out to display rooms accurately meanwhile sorting them by various filters according to the user’s preference. It is crucial to uniquely identify categories across multiple providers along with Room type, Description, Room ID, Amenities, Bed type, Policy, and much more for a better customer experience. Why Room Mapping? One of the biggest challenges faced by the travel fraternity is the lack of any global standard when it comes to distributing content. Each channel focuses on its own set of rules when distributing content and this makes it extremely hard for suppliers to consolidate the data that is being sent out. It has been established through years of research and simulation that cross table mapping is a multi-step process, i.e., the travel businesses usually send their data to a data management company which then converts that content into their own set of codes which are then represented in a huge XLS table. This process alone, if not automated, can take up to a month depending on the type of data that is being consolidated. This mapped data that is consolidated is then sent to the various travel businesses for sale on their marketplace. As the number of listings and overall conversions on platforms increases, manually mapping and updating this data is next to impossible. An automated AI dependent algorithm that instantly maps the data that is being consolidated across various supplier points will readily fasten up the process of mapping. Therefore, room mapping is quickly turning out to be one of the most essential and critical technologies in the travel industry, the absence of which can vehemently hamper the overall potential of any given business. If you want to read more about the history of room mapping and the attributes that you need to focus on, you can read our blog here that discusses in detail the role of accuracy and coverage in room mapping and the ways it can make or break modern travel businesses. You can also click here to learn more about us at Vervotech and the ways our AI-based room mapping API, Vervotech Mappings, are helping leading travel businesses worldwide consolidate their content.Vervotech Mappings is a leading Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping API that leverages the power of AI and ML to
Highlights from Arabian Travel Market Dubai 2022
Vervotech had the opportunity to attend Arabian Travel Market (ATM), Middle East’s largest travel and tourism exhibition, from May 9-12, 2022. We were a first-time exhibitor at ATM Dubai 2022 and the four-day event was packed with attendees, clients, and partners. We had one of the best events- filled with high energy, enthusiasm, and positivity. ATM Dubai took place at Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) in collaboration with Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). The 29th edition of ATM hosted around 1500 exhibitors from 112 global destinations and the theme this year was ‘the future of international travel and tourism.’ Marvel Puri, Co-founder and CRO of Vervotech, shares his insights from the four-day event. Q: What was the highlight at ATM Dubai? Marvel: Sustainable initiatives and responsible tourism. We saw a few travel companies launching their sustainable initiatives with an initiative to make the world a greener and better place. One that caught our attention was the Turkish Airlines of use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that is produced from raw materials free from harmful metals and reduces emissions by 87%. The main takeaway was that the travel industry wants to be more socially and environmentally responsible. The industry leaders are getting serious about climate change and are chalking out a net-zero carbon emission plan. Q: During your conversation with attendees what are the challenges with respect to technology? Marvel: Technology migration needs constant support. Talks from ATM attendees revealed that there are still challenges in travel technology platform migration. There is a need for knowledge sharing to bridge the gap between user adoption of new technology and smooth migration. It is inevitable for enterprises not to use technology, but travel tech providers need to offer constant support to their clients for a smooth transition. Q: What technology was trending at ATM Dubai? Marvel: Bitcoin, crypto payments, blockchain, and NFTs were reserved for art and e-commerce, but we see its growing interest in the travel business. At the ATM event, we saw Emirates, a Dubai-based airline, plan to accept Bitcoin payments and release NFTs to be traded on their website. These initiatives reflect how the travel industry progresses towards digital transformation by adopting the latest digital technologies. Q: Any other thing that stood out for you in ATM? Marvel: For the last couple of years, influencer marketing has been flourishing. According to research, 42% of consumers purchase after seeing an influencer post about it. This was highlighted in ATM by different influencer platforms. I came to know that there are various influencer marketing platforms that help brands connect, partner and collaborate with influencers to increase their customer base and sales. Also, at one of the sessions hosted by ATM, there was a buzz of gastronomic tourism or gastro-tourism. There has been a surge in gastro tourists, where travelers plan their trips around food and where they want to dine. There is a demand for unique dining experiences and travel agencies can tap this opportunity and design holiday packages around food destinations to target the gastro tourists. Q: Any suggestions for the travel business? Marvel: I think travel is already recovering very well after Covid. Companies were patient and now they are seeing good traction for their business. They just need to constantly think about one thing – Staying on top of their customer’s minds. The industry should make sure that processes are smooth for reopening and that adequate assistance is available for their customers to help them adapt to new ways of traveling. And most importantly, they should invest smartly and innovatively in technology to streamline their business operations and customer engagement. In-person events have a tremendous impact in comparison to virtual events. After two years, the travel fraternity came together to make this event successful, and the vibe of ATM 2022 was positive and energetic. ATM Dubai’s in-person event helped create meaningful relationships with our clients and partners. The one thing we take back is the zeal to work on our products and keep delivering the best to our customers and their preferences. Vervotech is a leading Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping API that leverages the power of AI and ML to quickly and accurately identify each property listing through the verification of multiple parameters. With one of the industry’s best coverage of 98% and an accuracy of 99.999%, Vervotech is quickly becoming the mapping software of choice for all leading global companies operating in the travel and hospitality industry. To learn more about Vervotech and the ways it can enhance your business in the long run contact us: sales@vervotech.com
