Service Business

Tourism on the web

There is practically everything on the Internet, and people more and more eagerly and more often shop in e-stores, because these have a wider range than traditional shopping centers. In addition, online shopping saves some time, and time is at a premium in today's rush of life. Consumers are also attracted to online stores by profitable prices, fast flow of information, as well as their general availability.

People, guided by this philosophy of life, convert many types of traditional forms of shopping to online shopping. This is the case, for example, in tourism. Instead of organizing a rally through traditional travel agencies - to compare offers - we can browse them on the Internet, obtaining the information we need much faster. Online, you can also find various types of occasions much faster, e.g. last minute.

Online shopping for tours is no longer a novelty. What's more, almost all travel agencies have their online counterparts. Others, in turn, only work on the Web. In addition, in recent years, a certain novelty has appeared on the online tourism market, namely tourism infobrokering. However, given the rapidly growing competition, some questions arise - is online tourism still profitable, what are its advantages and disadvantages? We will try to answer these questions below.

Forms of network tourism

In general, a virtual travel agency (i.e. operating in the Internet area) is simply an enterprise that deals with the sale of travel services - most often under its own brand, but it also happens that it operates on behalf of a traditional travel agency.

A traditional travel agency with its counterpart, i.e. a travel agency, still has real branches scattered all over Poland, but it also has a website (without which there is no chance of success in business these days). Such a website was created in order to make the offer of the office more attractive, but also to reach customers faster, and thus gain more of them. Such offices are most often offices operating on the tourism market for years, such as Triada, Itaka, Orbis.
Virtual travel agencies existing only on the Internet, i.e. the entire purchase of a trip most often takes place via the Web, and all formalities are completed there (or by mail). They usually have their headquarters, but very often it is the private apartment of the company owner. One Travel is one of the completely virtual travel agencies.
Tourist infobrokering consists in finding and providing the highest quality information signed with your own name or company name for a fee. The most common tool for the work of an infoboker is the Internet, it is there that, taking into account the criteria specified in the order, it searches for the necessary information and provides it to clients, enriched with analysis and elaboration. A professional information broker knows where to look for information and applies certain search strategies that rely on the accuracy of the selection of news sources and the ability to evaluate and compile them.

Infobrokering is still not very popular in Poland, because Poles prefer ready and proven solutions. On the other hand, this type of virtual office is perfect for people who have been dreaming about a specific vacation for years, have a vision in their minds, but the offers of traditional offices do not fit in with it. The info broker "sews" a journey tailored to the client, that is, he searches the Internet for the necessary information, with the help of which he creates an accurate itinerary for the client. Infobrokering is an interesting alternative to the standard offers of travel agencies. Trained infobrokers focus on implementing even the most complex customer vision, adapting to their individual needs and financial constraints. Thus, by buying such a "sewn" online trip, tourists save not only time and money, but also their own nerves, which often accompany us when organizing a trip. Such an infobroker travel agency is, among others Travel Creation.

Advantages of virtual travel agencies

For customers:

quick access to offers;
wider range of offers;
the possibility of comparing the offers of competing offices;
significant time savings in looking for the right trip;
often more lucrative prices;
the opportunity to read the opinions of other tourists who have already used the services of a given office;
more time to think - the opportunity to see the proposed country and learn about its attractions.

For entrepreneurs:

still developing tourism market in Poland;
the possibility of acquiring more customers;
more effective marketing;
access to a global client;
the ability to compare competitors' offers and create a more customer-friendly offer;
good layouts, plus significant discounts, with hotel chains.

Disadvantages of virtual travel agencies

For customers:

we never know who we will end up with, there is a risk that the office is run by fraudsters and after paying for the trip, we may not come to it or we will not return from it;
uncertainty about the quality of the office.

For entrepreneurs:

considerable competition, also from large domestic and foreign intermediaries;
continuous development of the tourism market and therefore a significant influx of competitive offices;
a price comparison site that becomes the undoing of many virtual travel agencies;
customers have considerable bargaining power due to high competition;
success depends entirely on reaching a certain critical mass of customers.

Virtual travel agencies are certainly becoming more and more popular with the development of the tourist market, and thus they are gaining more and more customers. In order to make running such an office profitable, it is necessary to reach a certain level of consumers. Of course, there is always some risk, both on the part of office owners and clients, but "whoever does not take risks does not drink champagne".