subject: Why The Travel Industry Is A Lucrative Home Business [print this page] Global travel is a mammoth industry that generates revenues in excess of $7 trillion a year. Travel has traditionally been an industry that uses traditional storefront travel agent to distribute their products. The proliferation of the Internet has however impacted travel hugely by breaking down traditional lines of distribution and reducing the cost drastically. There are now significant opportunities for individuals and home-based businesses to step into the role of traditional travel agents and earn a commission income with little investment. It is important for any home-based business to be part of an overall business or industry that has good growth potential and is yet a palatable choice for many individuals. For instance, pornography and gambling are two of the biggest growth industries on the Internet and yet not many people wanting to establish home-based businesses would look to them for business opportunities.
Travel is expected to gross revenues of $14 billion by the year 2010 so clearly the industry is on a rapid growth trajectory. Many of the leading players in the industry discovered that stay at home individuals who have a passion and a commitment to travel are able to produce significantly high levels of customer service at a most reasonable cost.
When you think of travel, airline and hotel bookings are top of mind but, in reality the opportunities are in leisure travel and recreational holidays. There is excess inventory of space in recreation ranging from cruise ships to golf courses and the major consolidators are willing to offer huge discounts which you can pass on to your prospective customers.
Where and how do I start: there are currently three major consolidators and they are all looking to work with committed and hard-working people who will want to start home-based travel business? If you let them know that you are interested, they would be happy to consider your application and guide you through the process. If all these people offer the same type of packages how you select who to go forward with. You will first need to research what kind of products you can sell effectively and then make the decision. For instance would you like to concentrate on domestic vacation packages or cruises or golfing holidays? You must seek answers to these questions in order to establish a profitable business. For instance if you are a committed and enthusiastic golfer, you may find it easy to build up a clientele of customers for golfing holidays.
What will it cost to set up and run: you will need the normal or business home establishment and with a computer, phones and a high-speed Internet connection. In addition you will need to invest some money both in software packages to handle your office routine such as accounting and in specialist travel packages (for example software to handle SABRE online reservation services). In addition there will be the monthly fixed fees for items such as telephones, Internet and SABRE access. Your variable costs will be low since advertising and marketing collateral support will be provided by the service provider.
Incidentally a small perquisite of being in the travel business is the wonderful perks and concessions that are available to travel agents.
by: Stacy O'Quinn
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