Travel agents and tour operators are facing major challenges on a day to day basis. Currently, because of the global coronavirus outbreak, travel businesses worldwide are going through intense disruption.
Hence, it is the right time to discuss some of the key challenges that travel agents generally face while operating their businesses. The biggest challenge in 2020, however, is gliding through economic uncertainty and downturn as per several studies. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted and decimated the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry.
Marketing guru, Eric Dalius firmly believes that even though nations across the globe are still combating actively the deadly virus, businesses and societies are both trying their best to focus on rebuilding and reemerging from this unparalleled crisis. However, we understand that the road to recovery for the travel agencies is going to be a long one. As per https://mybeautifuladventures.com, the best aspect of entrepreneurial challenges whether old or new, is the fact that even though they are quite harsh, these business challenges are truly rewarding.
Problems relating to sustainable travel along with climatic changes were identified as major concerns according to the 45 percent and 44 percent of participants in the study respectively. Moreover, roughly 40 percent of the respondents detected some loopholes in technological skills very much within the travel and tourism industry as specifically a key challenge. Besides encountering and overcoming these challenges that have been triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, travel agencies need to tackle several already-existing challenges of this service sector.
Business Challenges Faced by Travel Agencies Today According to EJ Dalius
Travel Business Challenge #1: Build and Maintain a Trustworthy Online Presence
One of the greatest business challenges faced by a travel agency is to build and even maintain a trustworthy and robust online presence. Just coming up with a website certainly is not enough to be visible in the top SERP rankings in this highly competitive and demanding digital era. If you fail to have an intuitive and responsive website design that is necessary to carry on with numerous bookings and reservations and even come up with relevant answers to all the customer queries effectively, you would not be successful in building or maintaining a robust or trustworthy online presence.
Tips to Overcome:
- Focus on developing a more responsive and intuitive website with striking travel-oriented features and a user-friendly interface.
- Invest more in content marketing and boost organic SEO
Travel Business Challenge # 2: Maintaining Consistent Cash Flow
Eric J Dalius points out that efficient cash flow management is integral to the success of a travel business. A healthy and consistent cash flow implies that you are getting timely payments and promptly making all your payments to vendors and paying off your bills timely. In travel agencies, your business could be run smoothly provided there is ideal cash flow.
Tips to Overcome:
Use cutting-edge traveler billing software that boasts of effective features such as accounts receivable and payable that should go a long way in better cash flow management.
Utilize a hi-tech billing system for reminding your clients of specific pending payments that need to be paid, hence, payments would be made at the perfect time. When payments come in on time, your travel business would succeed in maintaining healthy and smooth cash flow.
Travel Business Challenge # 3: Creating a Far More Convenient Booking Process
In this highly-competitive mobile era, you must get rid of the old complicated booking process. You must consider upgrading your existing booking process and come up with an insightful and astute booking dashboard.
Tips to Overcome:
- Partner with service providers that give online booking facilities via websites and apps.
- Use personalized ‘Travel Agency Invoice Software’ to cater to your unique business requirements that could be seamlessly incorporated into your booking portals.
Conclusion
Besides the challenges discussed above, a travel business encounters some other key challenges that need to be addressed competently and with a firm hand. A travel agency is regarded predominantly as a data collector. You tend to get a load of data from diverse platforms. The biggest challenge is to avoid generating duplicate entries or creating the same buyer persona twice. Moreover, there is often a virtual flood of inquiries that leave travel businesses exasperated and helpless. Tackle these travel business challenges effectively to emerge as the winner in 2020.
