What are the risks and opportunities of tourism business in the coming years?

The answer to this question was the subject of a presentation by Angel Garcia Butragueno, vice president of American Express Business Travel, spoke during the “Second Meeting with Industry Leaders” organized by Antonio Lopez de Avila, Director of Executive Master in Business Tourist Enterprise Institute, whom I thank for your invitation to participate in it.

Some of the ideas that Angel Garcia and the number of participants presented during this meeting proved to be particularly interesting.

The business travel market: current situation

The Spanish Corporate Travel market (which includes groups and incentive) reached a transaction volume exceeding 3,200 million dollars and is the 5th in size in Europe after Germany, Britain, France and Russia. It is expected that this market will continue to grow thanks to good economic conditions that are experiencing this country.

The tourism business has become a technology business in which we must be able to handle information quickly increasingly abundant and complex.

In general travel expenditures of enterprises engaged in 75% to the purchase of air tickets, 10% hotels, 10% for groups and incentives and 5% for cars.

The corporate tourists stays generally range between 1 and 2 days, which is a hotel for overnight stays between zero and half a night.

In the last 5 years for the sale of airline tickets commission received by travel agents has dropped 6.95 points. It is expected that soon the commission will zero for this type of sale.

Spending on business travel are rising primarily due to rising fuel prices and high hotel occupancy rates being experienced. For this reason, companies tend to focus their recruitment to increase their bargaining power and lower their costs.

For many travel companies represent the largest cost item after salaries and technologies.

The crisis of the traditional business model of travel agents

Contrary to expectations, the Internet has not yet produced the expected disintermediation in tourism. In Spain the number of travel agencies continues to grow.

According to Ángel García Butragueño this phenomenon can persist only temporarily, as the crisis for independent travel agents is inevitable. So what is the force that will cause this crisis? The answer: technology.

Clearly, online booking service available to Internet users are becoming more comprehensive, varied and easy to use. This makes the traditional services of travel agent bookings lose value.

Trying to compete on price has no future. The travel agent has to stop acting like a “teleoperator” and fully transformed into a travel consultant. The role has to shift from commission agent commission agent supplier’s customer is a sales agent of the supplier to customer purchasing agent.

In this sense, information technologies play a fundamental role: to produce a consultancy service with high added value the agent will need increasingly sophisticated technologies, whose costs will be unsustainable for many.

The agencies also have to specialize because companies prefer those agencies that can provide sufficient strength and reliability. No longer goes “do everything”.

American Express’s strategy here is to help businesses maximize the return on investment in the trip. Do not want to be the cheapest, but those that provide the best value for money in terms of services.

This approach is consistent with the change of mentality of the companies now consider travel as a profitable investment rather than a mere game to manage and minimize costs (as happened in the past).

The new business model

According to Garcia, soon we will see the implementation of zero commission for selling airline tickets. The agents have to go to charge a transaction fee directly to customers.

In the future we will commission / transaction fee to the commission / fee for consulting. But will customers be willing to pay?

If businesses are willing to pay, the agents must be able to:

* To help enterprises optimize management and travel costs.
* Provide an adequate level of supply of service providers.
* Provide an efficient service through the appropriate use of technology.
* Provide quality service at the right price.

Change adaptation and innovation, together with the training of human resources in this context will be critical to success.

Since its launch in April 2007 Expedia.es is offering its customers the service to purchase airline tickets free of charge. Travelprice.com, the white mark of Lastminute.com, in some periods also apply this policy of no fees and always try to charge less transaction fees than other online travel agencies. Priceline.com and AvionExpress.com (belonging to Viajar.com) are other examples of companies that use this type of timely promotion.

It seems clear that the charges for transactions with low value added, as is the case of airline tickets between major cities in the world, is something that tends to disappear in the future. The income of travel agents in the future will depend mainly on the services “as”.

Travel agents need to realize the low value they bring to their customers for certain transactions.

According to Angel, another possible scenario is the variable commission payments by airlines to the agencies. A few days ago I read that Aireuropa, in order to encourage ticket sales of higher value, is considering paying a commission to agencies dynamics, instead of 1% fixed for 2008.

The hotel industry, tourists and business travel agents.

The hotel industry, unlike the airline industry is very fragmented. It is likely therefore that the current commission levels experienced by hotels continue unchanged for the coming years.

For the agents maintain the information and services necessary to provide a valuable service to businesses, hotels information (availability, price, service, etc..) Must be integrated into the systems of the same agents.

In Spain 60% of the corporate market is in the hands of the 4 main groups: Amex, Carlson, and Marsans English Court. It is likely that in coming years to grow its market share further.

This implies that those individual hotels can not afford to be part of computer systems and commercial of these groups are very likely to fall outside of this market.

While the goal of agent-consultant will be to offer your client the best solution in terms of money, the running time of this operation must be minimized so that this service can be profitable.

To be effective agents will then see the options of their own system. The hotels that appear on the screen, depending on your criteria, are those which propose to their customers. The agent will then offer the best under a bond of time / productivity, always more important to the profitability of your business.

The hotels belonging to major chains in this context will be advantaged. By contrast, independent hotels have to develop other marketing strategies to attract those tourists who are organizing business trips independently.

The search service hotels that provide travel agents will also depend on the agreements that companies have with the hotel chains.

In the case of contracted rates between companies and hotels, travel agents from American Express process the transaction as quickly as possible because, in this case, everything will be fixed and linked. This operation will then be a transaction with little added value.

Sevices low-cost business and tourism

The entry of low-cost airlines in the business market has covered a market gap that traditional companies were not attending.

According to Garcia ’s low-cost airlines are serving well to companies who want to travel to destinations that their side but market penetration is likely to grow slightly in coming years due mainly to limited and sometimes nonexistent, differences in prices with the companies traditional, such as Iberia, if purchase in advance.

Significantly, according to a study by Accenture, the tourist business in the U.S. after having set a trend towards services for hotels and low-cost in recent years, are now returning to traditional companies in search of better services and guarantees ( such as punctuality in the case of flights). It is possible that this phenomenon is present also in Europe.

Travel agents must take into account the 2 types of carriers when advising their clients, still the best solution for companies to find the optimal combination of use of the 2 services.

Similarly, the new travel agents also have to offer its customers an optimal combination of using low-cost hotels and traditional hotels.

Future scenarios and service autoreserva

Travel agents will stop using their traditional inplants, which will replace the outsourcing of their service to call centers and online services on their websites.

The strategy for success begins with customer knowledge and technologies today allow us to know all data, customer preferences and needs without requiring a dedicated Implants to a number of accounts.

In addition, the website of the agencies that will enable business customers to directly manage those services with low added value “transactions commodity.

Then be developed autoreserva services for travel agents can devote their time to value transactions, and limit your involvement in the most basic and common transactions.

Customers will then be able to develop standard transactions for its own account in the Web environment from the agency or through automated telephone services.

Therefore, although the technologies play a fundamental role for travel agents tourism oriented business, savings and management control are the other pillars are essential for success.

Let the OHFA help with down payment and closing costs through the profit tax credit or interest-free loan payments until August 2010. Eligible borrowers who participate in the program for their first home buyers or the Ohio Heroes program can use the loan to reduce the costs that a buyer must pay from his pocket when buying a home.

If you qualify for one of the programs for housing loans of OHFA, may decide to take advantage of the benefit program tax credit.

* The OHFA will issue a loan in the form of second mortgage for up to 3% of the purchase price of the house.
* You can use the loan for the down payment for closing costs or other expenses to be paid in advance prior to closing. Note that although the loan will considerably reduce their expenses, you may still need to pay some costs of its pocket if they are not covered by the loan.
* If you take advantage of the loan, the interest rate on the second mortgage is set at 1% higher than the current mortgage rates of OHFA and you begin to pay the August 1, 2010.
* You may be eligible for a new federal tax credit for buyers of their first home of up to $ 8,000. You can claim the credit on your federal tax return for 2008 to be submitted no later than April 15, 2009, or the tax return for 2009 to present in 2010. You can find more information about the tax credit for buyers of their first home on the website of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
* There are incentives available if you decide to prepay the loan for the benefit of tax credit for purchasers of homes before June 30, 2010. Otherwise, your mortgage payments will increase slightly due to the additional payment of the second mortgage.

Do I qualify?

To qualify for the benefit of tax credit, you must meet the program requirements of OHFA loans for buyers of homes and closing the transaction of his house before November 30, 2009. You can also claim a federal tax credit of up to $ 8,000 in their federal tax return, 2008 to be submitted before April 15, 2009, or the tax return for 2009 to be presented in 2010. Check the requirements for the program to buyers of their first home and the heroes of Ohio.

In addition, you must:

* Take an educational course for purchasers of housing provided by a housing counseling agency approved by HUD, or
* Use the instructional program for buyers of homes in the OHFA online.

Learn more about the educational options for buyers of homes.
Download Information

You can download information about our loan programs from our download center.

In the coming years, providing excellent customer service will determine the success of any enterprise. Some time in the organizational environment that can be heard this phrase, however, when acting as clients often do not receive a service is consistent with it. It would be useful to recall that when the customer is well served, in addition to comment back.

But if we pause to reflect what is causing this widespread lack of awareness about the service, we can begin with the following: each person who attends our staff belongs to the front line, ie those Employees who have direct contact with the client, since it is difficult to do an executive. This is important, because part of the image that takes the customer of the company, is the treatment given.

The idea is so simple, how to create loyal customers in time, one of the best investments you can make, therefore, is to raise the professional quality of staff. Think of ourselves: we take care to select and train our staff to provide good service?
A good goal is to make regular and casual customers, this is achieved by the service. In this sense, although it is vital to use good technology is not enough to possess the most modern machinery and the best system, all involved must take the most that can be derived from these resources in relation to the unmet needs of market.

At the same time, we must move decisively in the development of the concept of Quality Management. Of course, more than one local entrepreneur might ask: why spend money on quality control if we do not come here?

In the case of products, it is very common to confuse quality control with a gentleman sitting at the end of the line and dedicated to separate the bad from the good that came out. Not so. Quality management aims, simply, that there are no defects. So this is a topic that does not support middle: either you are a fan of the quality of service or is not.

There are several reasons to invest in a program of quality improvement, which vary by market and wanted the technology to process, but always see three reasons that are applicable to any activity and any market:

1. Trade borders, throughout the world, are becoming more permeable, so that new competitors will have at home that have worked for decades in this direction.

2. If you want to place our products or services abroad, we must-at least able to achieve international quality standards, but not only that: we will also have to be competitive in price, delivery conditions, design, etc. ..

3. Consumers today demand higher quality in their purchases and their loyalty to a brand is weakened by adopting an attitude of permanent. If you still have doubts about the benefits of operating quality, I will name – as shown – the following:

*

Increased profitability.
*

Enhancing the quality of loyal customers.
*

Reduced cost of waste.
*

Increased staff satisfaction, reducing turnover.
*

Increased market share by developing the ability to attract new customers.

Is it so important to quality as a substitute for good management?
No. Personally, I am clear that the final quality of service will never exceed the quality of managerial management. This arises from the following: not enough on training and customer service, it must be a cascade effect, starting with the directors and reaching all staff, maintaining inward (internal customers) the same treatment as out (external client).

Finally, a good way to see what kind of services we are taking is to conduct a brief survey among customers and then take the views of senior management, which generally do not know what happens below.

It is clear that the answers obtained will be the starting point to improve things in business, because ultimately what we’re trying to improve the quality of life.

What is a Business Plan?

Concept and Definition

Also known as the Business Plan or Business Plan. We can define it as a map that describes the trajectory of the company or business, three times, past, by way of introduction; Present: the specification of the situation at the time; Future: The projections of goals and objectives.

We can define it as a document in an orderly and systematically details the operational and financial aspects of a company. Then, like a map that guides the traveler, the business plan in advance to determine where the company where they’re coming and how much we need to reach the target.

Who needs a Business Plan?

It is generally customary to think that only large companies need a business plan. However, this document is essential for small and medium enterprises (SME’s). Many entrepreneurs consider the business plan as “the most powerful tool” that can be used to operate in the evolving market economy. Therefore this instrument in the hands of a micro and medium business could be a key to open a number of business opportunities.

What I need?

When we think of a business plan usually believe that this only helps us to search for funding. The first objective should be to define a precise and objective manner the feasibility of the project or company.

It can also be used for:

1. Redefine the direction of action;

2. Supporting an application for credit;

3. Search for new investors or partners, including the type of Joint Ventures

4. Make an offer of sale;

5. Obtain a license or a franchise from a
local or foreign company, among other options.

Each stream has its own scheme of how to develop a business plan. If you just starting this and want to organize your steps you can use the following guide, bearing in mind that each company will have its specificities.

Schematic model for the development of a Business Plan

I. Introduction to the Company or Business:

1.1 Origins of the company.

1.2 Objectives and philosophy of the company. Defining the mission, vision and values (what, how and for whom)

1.3 Characteristics of the company.

1.4 Composition and Organization.

1.5 Human Resources. Management team. Operational team.

1.6 Physical resources.

1.7 Expectations of partners and customers

II. Nature of Project

2.1 The product or service

2.1.1 Current and Features

2.1.2 Operational Strategy (products or services)

2.1.3 Prices, sales and costs

2.2 Overall assessment of the project and consistency

III. Marketing and Strategy

3.1 Identification of the target (segment) of the target market

3.2 Competitive Analysis

3.3 Price Strategy

3.4 Promotion and advertising

3.5 Distribution

3.6 Forecasts

3.7 Marketing Plan

IV. Product or Service

4.1 Specifications of the product or service

4.2 Area of production

4.3 Equipment and Infrastructure

V. Organization and Work Plan Development Project

5.1 General aspects of the organization

5.2 Legal framework of the organization

5.3 Work plan for project development

VI. Economic Issues – Financial

6.1 Determination of the initial investment required

6.2 Study of available funding sources

6.3 Projected performance

6.4 Plan and Cash Projections

6.5 Balance Sheet

VII. Conclusions

A couple of months we have changed the software to manage our insurance broker. It is a task that had fallen behind in most of the time because it seemed that it was never the right time. In practice this is so, it seeks by all means that this process is completely transparent to companies, and most importantly support for customers. But it is very difficult to make the decision to halt the administrative process even for a few days, the duration of the migration of data and their corresponding settings.

The main reason we made the decision to take this important change came when we realized that we had with the software were not able to effectively harness the information of our portfolio with the aim of increasing the number of customers integrals.

Much has been said, even in this blog, the importance of cross-selling and the potential of CRM programs. For all its virtues we add a filter that under our opinion should be taken into account before launching any campaign and is not one that we mark the famous phrase that I read somewhere some time on advertising:

Targeted advertising becomes information

It’s easy to understand what we want, do not suffocate with bulk mailings to customers who have given us their confidence to manage their insurance, it seems unproductive and can have the opposite effect to that is to be able, with the information We provide our clients, meet the needs of them and offer insurance solutions.

As a last point we want to remember something as important as self-evident, but nevertheless often the main reason for the poor design of a campaign.

The databases were not filled or updated own

Gástese you a huge amount of money on the best management software ever developed which will not yield any benefit if you do not have efficient staff that is responsible for keeping the data current.

I sincerely believe that these issues have always be able to provide better service to our customers.

With the approval last Friday of the new regulation of compulsory motor insurance publication BDS makes a great repository with the major developments that regulation provides:

- Improvement in the definition of motor vehicles required to sign the insurance and liability movement: they are considered to be those that require an authorization to operate. It also improves the determination of the accidents that are covered by this insurance and the exclusions related to agricultural, industrial or service in enclosed own activities and those whose claims would be covered by liability policies of the holding that sign.

- Increased coverage. The new regulation provides that, when damage to people (with a limit on compensation of 70 million euros) and damages to the property (with a limit of 15 million) and compensation for damage exceeding the limit of compensation may used the balance that could result from damage to the people to the limit to cover the total damage. In doing this, that the compulsory insurance of motor vehicles in Spain is a virtually unlimited insurance coverage is exceeded and the practice of double insurance: compulsory and voluntary supplementary insurance.

- Streamlining the processing of claims and certain aspects relating to the payment of compensation. The insurance company, when you can not make a concrete offer of compensation to the victim because they are unable to quantify the damage due to causes not attributable to him shall be obliged to indicate the progress payments to be making their commitment to make an offer based compensation as soon as the necessary information is available and must inform the injured every two months on the status of the processing of compensation until it is quantified.

- Updating and simplifying the query in the File Information insured vehicle. This file is intended to further control the fulfillment of the obligation to ensure, to facilitate the injured in a traffic accident with the necessary information on the insurance covering the liability of each of the vehicles involved in an accident. It simplifies the query to the file, eliminating the provision that until now were required, a copy of National Identity Card or other proof of identity of the citizen to see the file.

- Finally, the new regulation provides that to verify the existence and effect of compulsory insurance, the agents should refer to the Traffic Information File insured vehicle. Only if not possible, ask the public presentation of the receipt of insurance.

Time to take stock of this year ending. A difficult year for the mediation that like so many other sectors of our society is not free of the crisis effect, an effect that neither the experts know to gauge fairly far from putting an expiration date.

From the standpoint of our insurance broker should be happy, we make a really good balance but we know that next year will be a tough year if we take as basis the fourth quarter of this year, a final period where we really noticed abrupt adjustments in the insurance market.

The rules have changed, our relationship with the companies, the aggressiveness of the market and the perception of clients over the contracted services are factors that will determine the future of this new year started.

If a particular segment of the things have not changed too much over other exercises can not say the same thing with regard to business.

It is a known fact that the customer no longer assumes, without discussion of the premiums for insurance renewal, they know that there are many companies whose main objective is to capture customers from the competition which results in a price war (this is debatable).

Crisis assessment of a service ceases to be as important as the economic cost of this from our point of view is wrong, but we should understand the approach to the situation where there are many families. In any case, as insurance brokers and due to the fluctuating prices of different companies have tools to care for both our customers and to attract new balancing the demand and price our services.

Another issue is quite different from those risks associated with the Companies (multirisk, RC, Bus, …), here the thing, and varies greatly. It is true that the construction sector is clearly in recession, which directly affects the insurance products but is also linked to the channel companies that there is no war premium, there is no reference to premiums and many times as we say in our discussions with the companies “Sirs unfortunately we do not make the prices so do not blame us for the infidelity of their customers.”

On the positive side we have that in the same way that you must defend your client is a high possibility of a new collection. Companies account for 625 of insurance premiums is a review like that of other suppliers, is to look over an account in its policy of cost savings that may not be looked at very closely in the past, but again to insist that we are at another juncture (either real or anime). That we therefore predicts that the year will be a great year with a trade component for professionals in the mediation.

Finally we do not want to end this review without referring to our beloved channel banking insurance. These take the palm on the aggressive in attracting customers, this issue discussed at length in this blog. We know first hand that has not been a good year for the direct sale of their products (personal loans, mortgages, ….) And that the objectives are focused on selling branches, sell and sell all kinds of insurance. But this should not contracting, we understand that the market is large and that the figure of the professional mediator wins prestige over time.

In short we face a year with many curves that we hope to overcome them effectively, but as we started and the experts are saying in this matter and clarify the rules may change again at any time.

One of the causes of the crisis affecting several sectors is that while poor results are given in one of them will end up affecting the other end of the network fabric. This is an engine for the economy when things are working well and a drag when things start to fail.

The automotive industry is one of the hardest hit by the current economic situation and this is beginning to be felt in all its ramifications. In a recent conversation with a head of a workshop I commented that mark important data on which it had not fallen and that the current problems of these companies is not limited solely to a drop in sales of vehicles, repair of small minor damage type minor scrapes and bruises (one of the most profitable) are starting to fall and the reason is the linkage of such repairs with insurance against all risks.

The relationship is pure logic, by reducing the sale of cars is reduced recruitment of insurance, since this is a strong links to vehicles with no more than 3 years old. This makes minor repairs to be out of the consumer’s pocket instead of insurance companies and not be a priority for the operation of the vehicle to stop with the consequent reduction in workload for the workshops.

Collateral damage that directly affect our industry and a branch as important as the automobile.