Tour operators continually face changes that affect the way they do business. The Internet has overtaken the travel agent industry and tour operators and travel wholesalers must make the necessary adjustments to remain competitive and to stay afloat. Keep up with wholesaler tour operator advancements in technology that allow you to tap into the Internet market and find groups through innovative online travel wholesaler marketing tools that you’ll read about in the latest trend pieces published by travel news sources.

Follow trends affecting wholesale tour operators in a variety of ways. Many publications that cover luxury travel wholesalers will give you ideas of new trips that you may previously have overlooked for your clients. You can subscribe to email alerts and news feeds from luxury travel wholesalers that give you insight into foreign markets that are opening up to travelers. Look for tour operators and travel wholesalers news and trends in a variety of places.

1. Register for email alerts and tour operators and wholesalers news feeds.

2. Encourage your staff to read publications for tour operator companies.

3. Join other professionals in trade groups for travel tour operators.

Action Steps
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Get RSS feeds and travel wholesaler newsletters

Set up a separate email account to receive important adventure tour operators' newsletters so that they won't get lost with your other correspondence. Check this each day for airline and cruise ship regulatory changes, news about your competition and other important information that could affect your business.

I recommend: Register with TravelMole to get the inside scoop on travel operators issues. Travel Daily News offers an exhaustive collection of news articles and trend pieces that you need to know about to keep your business competitive.

Make information gathering an important piece of your business for tour operator companies

Encourage managers and all your staff to keep up with tour operators and travel wholesalers news and trends so that you can cover all the sources. Make sure you gather information while taking tour trips yourself, as you can learn about the changing world conditions most effectively through first-hand travel experience.

I recommend: Keep up with news that affects the travel industry by reading Professional Travel Guide. ACRO Global Tourism Marketer gathers news from a multitude of sources and puts them together so that you can catch the main headlines in one place.

Participate in associations for international tour operators

Show up at wholesaler tour operator association meetings and conferences so that you can build important relationships with other professionals who can share important news and trends with you. Consider alternative ways of providing services by partnering with other tour operators and wholesalers to offer packages that include more services than you may have been able to provide in the past.

I recommend: Join the National Tour Association for a variety of benefits including insight into the news that’s affecting the industry. Keep up with travel news and other important developing concerns through the American Society of Travel Agents.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  In addition to the more quickly updated online resources, continue your existing subscriptions to print copies of vacation wholesalers publications. That way, you can also make the best use of travel and waiting times with pertinent reading material and not suffer from downtime when you're without a way to read your online news.

Vacation wholesalers and wholesale tour operators can provide exciting, memorable venues for exceptional team building activities. If you're looking to treat your team to a generous vacation while also bringing them together for the ultimate benefit of the company, using adventure tour operators to guide them through a series of challenges or activities is a great option.

Travel wholesaler companies can send your team to locations across the globe. Many can even provide the leadership training and team building experiences you're looking for. Consider the following activities when planning a team building vacation.

1. Travel wholesalers can provide meeting venues in tropical locations.

2. Adventure travel wholesalers can lead your team on scavenger hunts and exciting challenges designed to bring them together.

3. Tour wholesalers can guide your team through historical sites for a taste of team and culture.

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Find meeting venues with a travel wholesaler

Luxury travel wholesalers can send your team to the world's most beautiful locations at affordable rates. All-inclusive packages make cost-tracking easy and efficient, and most tropical venues can provide ample and ideal meeting space for you to begin your team building activities. No matter what message you want to get across, it'll come across more effectively on a remote tropical island.

I recommend: General Wholesaler offers a wide range of packages perfect for your corporate team to traverse the globe. South Seas Adventures also features a number of tropical destinations.

Use tour operators for outdoor corporate team building

Adventure tour operators offer up memorable experiences designed to advance a team building message to your business employees or management crew. If you think about it, what venue will create a more impactful message: a drab hotel ballroom or canoeing down a raging river? What activity would foster greater teamwork: role-playing in a conference room or a scavenger hunt off the coast of New England? The answer is obvious.

I recommend: Of the tour operator companies that offer Team Building experiences, none are more unique than Flagship Adventures and their fleet of RIBcraft vessels. For a wide variety of outdoor team building exercises, Wanderlust Tours is an excellent choice.

Follow international tour operators across the globe

Nothing says team building like hiking the Swiss Alps, or traversing the Holy Land, or even touring the ancient castle ruins of England, France and Germany. Tour operators and wholesalers can guide your team across virtually any worldwide landscape. Vacation wholesalers can provide not only transportation, lodging and activities, but they can help form a memorable bond amongst the members of your appreciative team.

I recommend: If history and culture is your goal, Bell Wholesale Travel can conduct your team on tours through Israel, Jerusalem and many other locations throughout the Middle East and Europe. The Albatross Travel Group works specifically with travel industry groups to supply wholesale tour operators for locations throughout Europe.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider booking a team building cruise through a luxury travel wholesaler. Not only are cruise ships designed to offer multiple amenities, but your team can visit many different areas and cultures in a short period of time. No need to restrict yourself to one country.

Travel wholesalers and wholesale tour operators do the same thing: they combine several travel components (for example, airfare and hotels) into a travel package that they can then resell at a lower price than if travelers booked their own accommodations and plane tickets. If your business involves a lot of travel, or if your company wants to branch into the travel industry, then it makes sense that you find out about tour operators and travel wholesalers education and training.

By operating your own travel wholesaler's business, either for your company's business travel or as part of your business offerings, you'll need to understand what you need to do to get established as a travel wholesaler. You (or your company's designee) should find out more about the training necessary to operate as travel wholesalers. There are three basic types of training:

1. Virtual (correspondence) courses for a wholesaler tour operator,

2. Courses and degree programs located on-site at colleges and universities, and

3. Ongoing tour operator and travel wholesaler education and training

Action Steps
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Investigate correspondence courses and virtual seminars that offer travel wholesaler training

Virtual seminars and correspondence courses that offer tour operators and travel wholesalers education and training can help new vacation wholesalers. Learn about some of the programs available and decide which programs offer your business the best wholesale tour operator's training.

I recommend: The American Society of Travel Agents offers virtual seminars as well as a database of travel schools that may offer correspondence courses. The Penn Foster Career School also offers a "Travel and Tourism Specialist" correspondence program.

Consider taking one or two university courses designed for tour wholesalers

While you may not need a four-year college degree to hang out your shingle as a wholesale tour operator, taking a few courses about the travel industry can only help you and your business.

I recommend: Temple University offers tourism training in the form of courses for non-degree seeking students. Florida International University offers a Travel and Tourism Management certificate. If these locations don't fit your company's geography, then study their course offerings and check out the local colleges in your area for comparable programs and classes.

Look to tour operator's associations for continuing education

While no one agency regulates or oversees vacation wholesalers, consider joining a tour operator association. Travel tour operators have many organizations to choose from depending on the type of travel on which they focus. For example, luxury travel wholesalers might join a luxury-specific group while adventure travel wholesalers may look for a different organization.

I recommend: Two organizations exist that offer continuing education and training: the National Tour Association and the United States Tour Operators Association. Membership in these organizations isn't automatic, but if accepted then tour operators and wholesalers can take advantage of ongoing education and annual training.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Talk to the gamut of tour operators, from international tour operators to adventure tour operators, and ask them where they got their initial training as well as what they do for ongoing training.

Tour operators and travel wholesalers perform similar functions: essentially they both offer travel at lower rates than a person or business could get by booking their travel on their own. However, these two types of travel-industry specific professions have some differences. Knowing the terminology specific to the travel industry, as well as to travel wholesalers and tour operators, will help your business better understand which services to choose.

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Tour operator

Tour operators offer tours that buy services from different lodging, attractions and transportation companies. They don't work for any of these companies but book large blocks of their inventories and can combine these services into different tours.

I recommend: The United States Tour Operators Association represents tour operators and its website explains how tour operators work for customers and what services they provide.

Travel wholesaler

Many people think that travel wholesalers offer the same services as tour operators, and while the two professions have many similarities, they also have differences. Travel wholesalers create tour packages but never sell them at retail prices. In many cases, they don't create the tour.

I recommend: Miami Beach 411 has a more in-depth definition of travel wholesalers. This website's travel glossary also explains the differences between tour operators and travel wholesalers.

Certified Tour Professional

A Certified Tour Professional, or CTP, has completed classes and demonstrated experience and knowledge of the tourism industry.

I recommend: The National Tourism Association explains the CTP designation on its website. Its definition goes into greater depth explaining some of the requirements needed to be a CTP.

Inbound tour operator and receptive operators

Inbound tour operators and receptive operators don't travel with tours. Instead, they stay at one location and greet different tours as they come into the area.

I recommend: To learn more about being an inbound tour operator, visit the Convention Industry Council, which defines receptive operators and inbound tour operators on its website.

Inclusive tour

An inclusive tour includes airfare, transportation and attractions or some combination of the three. It may include more; it may include less. The services depend on the setup of the travel company.

I recommend: Home Travel Agency has a to-the-point definition of an inclusive tour. D & D Travel Services also explains inclusive tours.

Step-on guide

A step-on guide is a local guide who boards a tour bus to narrate the tour for a certain locale. A step-on guide doesn't work in multiple cities.

I recommend: AlaskaTIA explains how a step-on guide works.