Three problems and solutions before travel agencies

First, how to tide over the immediate difficulties, what necessary measures are taken to reduce losses, and how to survive?

① Save costs and reduce expenses

"Save costs and reduce expenses" is a basic strategy adopted by most travel agencies, and it is also the simplest, direct and effective measure. By means of salary reduction, rotation, rest and layoffs, costs are saved, and water, electricity, telephone, office supplies and staff salaries are reduced. Some travel agencies simply close down.

② Take advantage of business, carry out individual services and outdoor sports, and increase income

While controlling costs, we should also find ways to increase income. For a long time, the business scope of our travel agencies has been relatively simple and narrow. Some businesses that belong to the business scope of travel agencies, such as booking, renting cars, booking tickets, and meeting meetings, have been occupied by some network companies and information companies. Some travel agencies have used this time to carry out some piecemeal businesses, such as booking, booking tickets, renting cars, etc., in order to supplement their income. Some travel agencies in Nanning launched the "outdoor sports" during the SARS period: water skiing, crossing, orienteering, hiking, diving, grass skiing, going upstream, expanding, flying zip lines, camping, orienteering, rock climbing, descending, going upstream, exploring holes and so on. Tourism activities do not appear in the form of groups, but provide advice and guidance to some outdoor-loving guests through the professional services of travel agencies.

③ Increase employees' income by exporting human resources

There are many industries hit by SARS, and some enterprises are faced with the difficulty of lacking labor force because they don't recruit foreign workers for the time being. Some pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturers related to "anti-Africa" are understaffed at the peak of production, and some travel agencies take the initiative to contact these enterprises to provide them with labor resources. For example, Changzhou International Travel Service contacted a local aerosol company that produced disinfectant and organized employees to go to the company in batches to fill disinfectant.

④ Use their own market information and other resources to tide over the difficulties through cooperation with other industries

Travel agencies make profits through services and information. Some travel agencies have established a relatively complete marketing network in their long-term operation, mastered a lot of customer information, and have a deep understanding of various market segments such as the elderly market, the student market and the white-collar market. Travel agencies can use this information to cooperate with the corresponding businesses that have just entered the local market, such as developing the elderly market with health care products companies, developing the youth market with book culture companies, developing friendship, making friends and wedding services with online matchmaking etiquette companies, helping investigation companies to do research, and even acting as the general agent of some products in the region, so as to maximize the role of the sales network they have mastered. A travel agency in Suzhou cooperates with high-tech agricultural enterprises to sell vegetables online.

⑤ Adjust the work arrangement in the off-peak season and redistribute the time

As everyone in the industry knows, there is a relative off-season every year from October to March of the next year. Except for a small number of teams on New Year's Day and Spring Festival, other daily friends mainly rely on the peak season income of spring, summer, autumn and two golden weeks. The off-season every year mainly does some training, annual holidays and line stepping, and travel agencies can use this time to carry out systematic work.

⑥ policy support, government departments' actions to rescue the market, and * * * difficulties

Tourism is of great significance to stimulate consumption, stimulate domestic demand, expand employment and improve people's living standards. However, tourism is also a very fragile industry, especially China's travel agency industry, which is facing extremely heavy losses from SARS. If the government does not support the travel agency industry, it will be necessary for China's travel agencies to return to the pre-epidemic level in a short time. Fortunately, on May 7th, the executive meeting in the State Council has indicated that it will give policy support to industries with great influence, such as civil aviation, tourism, catering and commerce. In some areas, it will reduce or exempt government fees, delay the collection of local taxes, short-term discount loans and temporary subsidies to travel agencies.

second, how to take measures to prepare for the recovery of tourism after the epidemic?

① Consolidate the original market: SARS has forced us to stop our normal business, but our contact with customers cannot be interrupted. Although it is not convenient to visit our customers at home now, we can communicate with our customers by telephone, letter and email, and regularly and irregularly inform the guests of the SARS epidemic in our region and even the whole country, care about their physical condition, understand their work and life, and timely inform them of SARS. Because "old customers" are one of our most precious resources.

② developing tourism products: some travel agencies take the initiative to contact scenic spots and restaurants to find out the reception situation, develop some new routes, projects and products, plan some new activities, and actively coordinate with relevant departments to analyze which scenic spots and areas are still difficult to restore people's tourism confidence after the SARS epidemic. Beijing, Guangdong, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, which are greatly affected by the epidemic, are not suitable for launching as key products. Some scenic spots dominated by natural landscapes are more attractive than urban destinations, and long-distance routes are not as popular as short-term outings. Travel agencies must pay attention to the rules when planning routes.

③ Grasp the publicity opportunity: When will the epidemic be fully controlled? When does the travel agency choose to attack? So that travel agencies can start the tourism market in the shortest time after the SARS epidemic, and the tourism in the second half of the year will not be wiped out. According to the current situation, "SARS" will inevitably affect this year's summer vacation. Even if it is controlled before July, it is difficult to restore the tourism between teachers and students as the highlight of the summer vacation. The author thinks that travel agencies should launch a publicity campaign after the epidemic situation is completely controlled, and this time should be based on the date when the national health and tourism authorities cancel the travel alert.

④ Rebuilding tourism confidence: It is by no means an easy task to restore the vitality of travel agencies and revitalize the tourism industry. Now the whole tourism industry is facing a problem of arousing people's tourism confidence. Tourism authorities, industry associations, tourist attractions, travel agencies, hotels, transportation and other tourism enterprises should unite, jointly promote sales, plan some large-scale special events, and create an atmosphere of "being healthy and traveling". We should use the limited publicity funds on the cutting edge, give full play to people's awareness of tourism, arouse people's taste of tourism, and achieve the effect of "holding your breath and holding money" through advertising bombing.

⑤ Adjusting corporate strategy: SARS has disrupted our normal work deployment, so it is necessary for all travel agencies to immediately adjust their business strategies in the second half and re-formulate their original plans. The marketing focus should be on "safety", and travel agencies will face a reality. If they still rely on "price war" to compete after the epidemic, the business situation of travel agencies will be worse, and no one will take advantage of it. At present, there is an urgent need for relevant parties to establish a price coordination mechanism, and travel agencies can't stand the low price toss, otherwise, domestic tourism will really be completely finished this year.

third, how to deal with risks in business in the future?

In the face of SARS, our travel agency industry seems to be at a loss, because the travel agencies in China have never encountered such losses. The rapid development of China's travel agency industry in the past 21 years has given tourism professionals too much prosperity, covered up the great risks in the operation of the travel agency industry, and covered up the problems in the system and mechanism behind the great development of tourism. Therefore, we must legally regulate and establish an emergency mechanism for tourism enterprises to deal with disasters, disasters, accidents and other major emergencies. It mainly includes the following aspects:

First, the tourism authorities should strengthen legislation to regulate and guide tourism enterprises;

Secondly, academic circles should speed up the research on disasters, disasters, accidents and other major emergencies in tourism, and provide advice and help for government departments and tourism enterprises;

Third, tourism enterprises should actively cooperate with insurance companies to develop related tourism insurance;

fourthly, travel agencies should establish corresponding emergency mechanisms, including:

a) travel agencies should formulate handling procedures for various emergencies according to relevant laws and regulations and the actual situation in enterprise operation;

b) Establish training for tour guides, planners, supervisors and relevant personnel to deal with emergencies;

c) Cooperate with insurance companies to insure against major emergencies and transfer risks;

d) establish the enterprise emergency reserve fund;

e) Actively carry out diversified operations: large-scale and powerful cooperatives can set foot in other tourism industries, such as catering, hotels, scenic spot development, transportation and even other industries; Small-scale travel agencies should, at the same time as organizing groups and connecting places, make reservations, car rentals, ticketing and meetings, carry out individual business and develop it into an independent business department;

f) Establish a customer information management system for travel agencies, and establish a "one-to-one" online marketing platform through brand-new network technology, which is the most valuable resource for travel agencies;

"How can I see a rainbow without experiencing wind and rain?" We believe that after experiencing the test of SARS, the travel agency industry in China will definitely think more rationally about the problems existing in diligent management, find a solution that conforms to China's national conditions and industry characteristics, and establish and improve the tourism emergency guarantee mechanism; We are convinced that China travel agencies, which have experienced market tempering, will certainly seek development in setbacks, seriously reflect on our institutional defects and train a group of mature professional tourism managers; We firmly believe that the future of China tourism will be even better.