Chapter 2. Travel Services
Travel Agencies
Travel agencies are the retail side of the industry. Working in cooperation with suppliers throughout the distribution chain, travel agencies provide an important link for the consumer to connect with the best options for a successful trip. Planning vacations or business trips can be complicated matters and qualified agents can help the traveller with professional services.
In Canada, advocacy for travel service organizations and professional certification for individuals is provided by the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA). ACTA is an industry-led, membership-based organization that aims to ensure customers have professional and meaningful counselling. Membership is optional, but it does offer the benefit of ensuring customers receive the required services and that the travel agencies have a membership board for reference and industry resources (ACTA, 2020b).
Spotlight On: Travelcuts Travel Agency
Travelcuts is 100% Canadian owned and operated. As a student, you may have seen its locations on or around campus. With a primary audience of post-secondary students, professors, and alumni, Travel CUTS specializes in backpack-style travel to a variety of destinations. It is a full-service travel agency that can help find flights for travel, book tours with a variety of companies including GAdventures or Intrepid Travel, assist in booking hostels or hotels, and even help with a “Live and Work Abroad” program. For more information, visit Travelcuts website.
Although travel agencies may be located in a specific community, the agencies and their representatives may operate internationally, within Canada, or across regions. Examples of some of the more recognized larger travel agencies and agents operating in Atlantic Canada include the Canadian Automobile Association – Atlantic (CAA Atlantic), Maritime Travel, and Flight Centre.
Tour Operators
Many different types of tour operators work across Canada and the World. Tour operators can specialize in any sector or a combination of sectors. A company may focus on ski experiences, as is the case with Destination Snow, or perhaps wine tours in Napa, CA, which is the specialty of Reserve Wine Tours. These operators specialize in one area but there are others that work with many different service providers.
Spotlight On: Canadian Association of Tour Operators
The Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO) is a membership-based organization that serves as the voice of the tour operator segment and engages in professional development and networking in the sector. For more information, visit the Canadian Association of Tour Operators website.
Tour operators can vary in size, niche market, and operation capacity (time of year). An example of a niche Nova Scotia tour operator is Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises on Brier Island, NS. This operator offers specialty whale-watching tours in a variety of boat styles (zodiac or Cape Islander), working with the local DMO and other local booking agents to sell tours as part of packages or as a stand-alone service to travellers. It also works to sell its product directly to the potential traveller through its website, reservation number, and in-person sales agents (BrierIslandWhaleWatch.com, 2021).
An example of a large RTO representing Canada is Jonview. Operators of all kinds frequently work closely with a number of destination marketing organizations.
On a national scale, Rendez-vous Canada is a tourism marketplace presented by the Destination Canada (formerly the Canadian Tourism Commission) that brings together more than 1,500 tourism professionals from around the world for a series of 12- minute sessions where they can learn more about Canadian tours and related services (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2020).
Let’s now look a little closer at the role of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in providing travel services.
Destination Marketing Organizations
At the national level, Destination Canada is responsible for strategic marketing of the country. It works with industry and government while providing resources for small and medium-sized businesses in the form of toolkits.
Tourism Nova Scotia
Tourism Nova Scotia, is Nova Scotia’s provincial DMO. NovaScotia.com offers information on unique experiences, accommodation options, food and beverage options, and trip ideas.
Tourism NS also oversees a network of 6 Visitor Information Centres, responsible for welcoming and assisting guests as they arrive in Nova Scotia.
Regional Destination Marketing Organizations
Housed within the Discover Halifax online platform, this RDMO has an online presence and travel guide specific to the region as well as a regional social media presence. These guides are important as they allow regional operators to participate in the guide and consumer website in order to encourage visitation to the area and build their tourism operations.
Community Destination Marketing Organizations
Community destination marketing organizations (CDMOs) are responsible for marketing a specific destination or area, such as the South Shore of NS or the Annapolis Valley. Travel services typically offered include hotel search engines, specific destination packages and offers, discounts, events and festival listings, and other information of interest to potential visitors. In the absence of a CDMO, sometimes these services are provided by the local chamber of commerce or economic development office.
Other Systems and Organizations
A number of customized and targeted reservation systems are used by DMOs and other organizations. One example is the NS campground reservation online booking systems. Nova Scotia Provincial Parks, Parks Canada, and private campground operators all use different proprietary reservation systems. Both NS Parks reservations and Parks Canada reservations open on a specific date in the spring for bookings later in the year. These systems let visitors review what a site looks like through photos or video and pick which site they would like to book in the campground. Many campgrounds also offer a first-come-first-served system, as well as overflow sites, to accommodate visitors who may not have reserved a site.
In the business market, there are several companies in Canada that facilitate planning and booking. SAP Concur is an example of a expense management company widely used in Canada by organizations including CIBC, Kellogg’s, and Pentax. It provides services including efficiency software for use by employees, expense and invoicing software for use by managers, and a mobile application that ensures clients can take the technology on the go. Its services have contributed to client savings, such as reducing the travel expenses (Concur, 2020).
So far we’ve looked at travel services as defined by go2HR and NAICS. Next let’s have a closer look at additional services generally considered to be part of the tourism economy.
Image Credits
Whale breaching by Shadowfazone on Pixabay is a free image licensed under a Pixabay licence.
Welcome to Nova Scotia [photograph] by Jimmy Emerson on Flickr is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA licence.
A business that provides a physical location for travel planning requirements.
A trade organization established in 1977 to ensure high standards of customer service, engage in advocacy for the trade, conduct research, and facilitate travel agent training.
An operator who packages suppliers together (hotel + activity) or specializes in one type of activity or product.
A membership-based organization that serves as the voice of the tour operator segment and engages in professional development and networking in the sector.
Someone who represents the products of tourism suppliers to tour operators in other markets in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship.
A DMO that represents a city or town.