10 Steps To Start a Travel Agency in India

Introduction

Tourism is growing at a rate of 14% annually. Quite a popular business in India. Do you enjoy helping others have great experiences in traveling? Even if you don’t, consider Travel Business Opportunities. A travel agency is extremely profitable when done right.

Here are 10 Simple Steps to Start your own Travel Agency Business:

What kind of travel service do you plan on starting?

• Define your Target Audience. Eg. Women above 25 years of age, Married couples etc.
• What do you offer them? Eg. 10-Day Singapore Trip, 5 – Day Goa Beach Package.
• Decide pricing & profit.
• Write down your marketing strategy. How do you want to promote? Eg. Newspaper pamphlets, Facebook advertising.
• How do you manage accounts? Choose any good Business Software to manage your cashflow and contacts.

Do some market research to find out what kind of travel agency the market really needs.

• Check in your local community. Maybe there’s an opening in the travel market to provide destination adventure honeymoons for young couples who would rather go backpacking than relax on the beach.
• See if your people are looking for customizable holiday plans.

Offer Experience, not just a service

Create a strong brand image. 

• Define how your customers should feel when they visit your place, website, view your advertising, or use your services? 
• Think about this: What experiences can I provide that others can’t?
• Offer unique services, such as partnerships with the locals of your travel destinations, that customers wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Get all the general licenses that you’ll need before you start any type of Travel Agency.

• Travel Agency License will vary by state and country.
• Choose your business structure and get your GST registration done.
• Name your business and get your GSTIN number

How do you plan to fund your new travel agency?

• Luckily, you won’t have expensive equipment to buy, and you probably won’t need a huge space in the beginning.
• You may need some money to rent an office space, initial branding and promotion.
• Many travel agencies are family funded. See if you can start one from your savings. If not, apply for small business loans.

Determine where to set up your business location.

However, it’s just an option. In fact, if you are able to, you should consider operating from your home. Advantages of starting home-based Travel business are – Fewer expenses & Time flexibility! Mark your presence on the internet. But, it is extremely important to be online.

Hiring good support staff can sometimes mean the difference between success and failure–between obtaining more clients or constantly losing clients.

• By having someone concentrate on the more routine tasks (opening the mail, filing, answering phones, etc.) you can focus all your efforts on new customers.
• You may not need any to start until you decide to expand your operations.

Think about how you want to advertise your Travel Agency.

• Word of mouth, local advertising, Recommendations from others are ways to drive traffic to your Travel Business.  
• Usually, offline Advertising can be very expensive. But don’t miss out on it.

It is important to realize that, consumers of this generation are increasingly relying on the Internet for information.

• Most travel-related bookings are made online. Accept all the ticket booking like Bus booking, Train booking, Flight booking online. You will end up getting a lot more loyal customers by doing so.
• Important Rule: Have a strong ONLINE presence.

Set your fees fair. Not More, Not Less! 

• Before you set your rates, find out what other travel businesses in your community are charging for their packages.
• Find out what the competition’s rates are. A simple telephone call, asking for their brochure and rates, should do the trick. Then set your rates so that you are competitive with everyone else in the community. 
• Before setting your fees, make sure you have listed all of your expenses. There is nothing worse than setting your rates, having your client pay you on time and then finding out you that you’re at loss.

Adopt Technology 

Starting any business is the easiest part. Running it successfully efficient is the big deal.

Managing Travel Agency business in India single-handedly or with a bunch of people without any confusion is today’s biggest challenge. Consider Business software like Vyapar to ease up business accounting stuff.