For travel agents and tour operators, managing or arranging travel is a complex process as it involves various tangible and intangible services and the travel agent has to ensure that all are in synchrony so that the client has a perfect experience when traveling.

This means either the travel agent has enough resources in house to be able to manage operations, reservations, quality control, financial aspect and customer support or he involves 3rd party to take care of part of the process. Doing it in-house has its pros and cons and the biggest concern would be payroll costs as this industry has thin margins, and the agency wants to save on its operating costs.

Ever since covid 19, the cost of running a travel agency has increased drastically. The travel agency is highly dependent upon skilled manpower required to manage operations and customer support and it costs a lot more as compared to other expenses of the travel agency and impacts the bottom line. An easy way to deal with this problem is to outsource business processes from countries like India that are strongly entrenched in BPO and outsourcing business. 

 At some point in time, you would have surely wondered if your company should also go for outsourcing travel processes?

A common scenario in companies that require Outsourcing

You run a successful travel company that is into managing travel for businesses/corporate travel and/or making holiday packages for people traveling on leisure.

Pre-Covid, you had a stable business with your clients traveling on business for meetings and sales/marketing when is the best time to visit Iceland, post Covid they are comfortable doing travel arrangements

Online and shopping around for better prices. While the role of a travel agency in managing business travel cannot be applauded enough, however the shrinking

Margins and competition from bigger players and OTAs have reduced the earning margins for a full-service travel agency anywhere in the world.

Now your clients expect 24hrs support on itinerary making, answering email queries after office hours, take calls at odd hours and a lot more goes into the process of finalizing

the travel plans for a travel agency and the traveler. If you were to add people on your payroll to take care of these eventualities and support the client – you will need a lot of incremental business to justify the spend vs earnings ratio.

So the best solution would be to explore outsourcing your After Office support to say an agency in India that specializes in travel industry outsourcing. This will not only bring in savings on costs,but the time difference will help you to offer 24hrs support to your clientele. Eprimetravels has been helping travel industry companies reduce their operating costs and has a team of qualified travel counselors who understand the business.

What can be done to increase profitability of your travel business?

Covid has not only had an adverse effect on travel industry, but with large scale layoffs by businesses in travel industry – it has made it difficult to find qualified and experienced people

Come back to the same industry as the economy recovers. So, people are now asking for a jump in their salaries, more perks, better working conditions that all come at a cost to a travel agency owner.

It makes business sense to have your key Sales and Client facing processes and people do the front-end work locally from your office environment and have all your ticketing,

Reservations, accounting and financial services outsourced to reduce the cost impact on your business.

Outsourcing your travel agency operational processes not only helps you to focus on your core activity of business growth. As a business owner you need to ensure that there is:

Enough incremental business coming in from your Sales and Marketing activities and the operations team is able to manage the volumes, client servicing is able to retain the existing

clientele by efficient handling of queries and support, and accounts team is able to ensure that it is able to recover all its commissions due from various vendors or from services that were booked by your office on direct payment.

Why Should You Choose ePrime Travels?

There are a lot of companies that provide you with business travel outsourcing services. You might think why should I choose ePrime Travels? Here is why? ePrime Travels has been in

the travel industry for over 30 years and has the track record of managing business process for travel agency outside India and can provide you with

• Emergency Travel Desk Customer Support Outsourcing.

• 24/7 After Hours Support for travel companies from India.

• TMC Operations outsourcing from India.

• Travel Agents for reservations and Operations.

• Financial accounting services, to keep track of every commission earned/recoverable.

• Quality controls on the PNR reservations

About ePrime Travels

ePrime Travels was started in the year 2000. Since then it has invested in travel technology and qualified human resources for the smooth running of the contact center,

which we believe are the most important parts. The management team of EPrime brings over 50 years of travel industry experience between them. Having worked with

a lot of travel agency clientele, we understand what the travel agencies in the Western world need. Get in touch with us today to minimize your operating expenses for your Travel business and maximize your profits.