The changeability of airfares, volume based pricing, market segmentation and rising costs of marketing and selling tour products, and the volatility of key suppliers like airlines are all forcing radical changes among tour operators. One aspect of this is a shift away from small, entrepreneurial, family owned companies to Big Businesses with specialized functions. Furthermore, a communications revolution is changing the makeup of the professionals inside the industry.
This Electronics Age," declared Robert Whitley, president of the U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA), a membership association of about 40 of the largest tour companies. The industry is hiring more and more technical people computer specialists, telephone salespeople, marketers."
"We used to create a tour and then worry about operating it," reflected Cortell. "It was magical, creative then. Now we first have to consider whether the tour is operable from the computer end, or whether the cost of writing the software would exceed the profit potential.
The criteria are changing for everything. Years ago, we would put out a 'dream' tour. Now it is all boiled down to airfares and body counts. We're not selling dreams anymore. We create a product we can operate the best one where we can handle a booking in four minutes or less."
In Cortell's view, the focus has shifted from operating the tour to distribution and delivery that is, marketing and sales: The challenge today is the cost of getting the message out to the people, and still makes a profit."
One trip recreates the voyages of Jules Verne; another explores Antarctica; yet another involves sailing up the Grand Canal through China.
Risky Business
Tour operations are one of the riskiest businesses in the travel industry. Operators deal with the most perishable commodity possible. Their product is space in time, like a seat on an airline flight or a room in a hotel on a particular night. Storing the product on the shelf for a markdown sale after the departure is not possible. They deal with foreign currencies that are subject to wide fluctuations. They are vulnerable to strikes, political upheavals, natural disasters, economic downturns, and simple changes in the tastes of the traveling public.
"The business is more nerve racking than people realize," Whitley said. "It is a constant condition of management by crisis. You have to make quick decisions. It is difficult to plan ahead, yet you have to plan ahead. You need to be able to change plans at a moment's notice.
"You could be a Hawaii operator, for example," said Whitley. 'Things are going great and you staff up and advertise. Then United Airlines [the biggest carrier to Hawaii] goes on strike for three months. Or you specialize in Russia and plan for the 1980 Olympics. You go through the negotiations, print the brochures, and advertise. Then the U.S. government boycotts. You put together your program to Europe or to the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf War erupts and no one is traveling abroad at all. You have to cope with the economy of this country and the rest of the world. You have to anticipate what will happen to currency.
'You have to have patience and be able to handle details."
Getting In
On one hand, tour operations are one of the most creative areas in the travel industry and afford some of the best opportunities to fulfill dreams of traveling to exotic locales. On the other, however, job opportunities are limited and mobility is much more restricted than in other areas largely because most of the companies tend to be small, entrepreneurial, or family run.
Tauck Tours, a leading domestic tour company based in Westport, CT, for example, "is geared for us to take over," said Peter Tauck, the third generation in the company. "We have five kids in the family, and all of us believe in nepotism." Still, Tauck employs about 45 people at headquarters plus another 55 to 100 tour escorts.
A company that sends some 20,000 people abroad may have only six to ten people in any position of real power. The vast majority of jobs are in reservations.
Nonetheless, a tour operation is one field that utilizes virtually every type of professional. Doctors are involved in coordinating professional tours or assisting with programs for the handicapped; former journalists handle public relations and marketing functions; artists and musicians create and lead tours to the major art and music events of the world; former educators organize trips for teachers and students.
Salaries tend to be low (decent at top management positions). A low salary is somewhat compensated for, however, by the opportunity to take the trips a company offers.
'This business is designed for someone who starts very young, even part time, when at school," said Jeffrey Joseph, an industry veteran who started in travel more than 20 years ago at the age of 18 working as a ticket agent for an Israeli domestic airline, ultimately wound up in New York where he heard of a new tour company opening, and landed the top spot despite the fact that, as he admitted* "I had no credentials at all."
He related, "We don't look for degrees, we look for personality, good communications skills, friendliness, helpfulness, and a desire to please. The whole industry is highly mobile. It's a matter of being in the right place at the right time, being motivated, intelligent, and capable. You have to be flexible and willing to move. Success doesn't depend so much on your education as your perseverance and ability to capitalize on opportunities. Anyone that shows promise always finds positions at mid level."
